No Strings

Chapter 28--Speaking Skills

I cowered. Ted threw my books against the wall. I ducked a few as they rebounded off of the walls. I tried to grab him, but his face was red. He shouted curses.

"It's not my fault that they are all a bunch of idiots--why does he have to do that to me?"

"What happened?" I asked to console him rather than to get an answer out of him.

"My boss yelled at me today."

He was now pounding the walls of my apartment making me think of my next door neighbors. I flinched. I didn't want to get in trouble with my neighbors.

"Please calm down..."

But he wasn't listening. He pounded the wall harder and harder. I thought I would have to pay damage for the apartment. I looked at my poor books. I was hoping that the bindings weren't ruined. It wasn't that I wasn't concerned for Ted. I loved him. But I was used to these kind of outbursts. He didn't mean to do this. I knew he didn't mean to do get angry.

"I can't, you know what kind of ass he was? He yelled at me over nothing. I was one minute late from lunch and he decide it was 'beat on Ted' day. Why am I number one?"

"Maybe he misunderstood something in the past?" I asked.

"Why don't you believe me?" Ted asked kicking the same wall.

"I do believe you."

"He's an ass, plain and simple."

"Have you tried talking to him?" I asked.

"Yes and I got nothing out of it."

"Could you please--"

He turned towards me making me want to jump back, but I didn't.

"Bets, he's not fair! How can I work with a lunatic like that? He goes off like a fire and ice situation. No one in the office likes him. He goes on and on."

Some small voice in the back of my head thought that Ted did this too, but I didn't want to make it worse. I wanted him to defuse. Even if I wasn't the subject of his anger, I thought that it might help him to try to get him to think through the situation.

"I don't want that right now. Don't put me down."

"I'm not... and I do believe you, but something must have triggered him to be like that. Have you been to work on time?"

"Yes," he said in a bored voice.

"Have you been leaving early?"

"No," he said in the same voice as before.

"Do you have any idea why he's doing this?"

"Because he's a nut job. He has a few screws loose."

"What happened?"

He yelled about his work day for an hour and a half. But then I said, "But you could have talked to him about it--pulled him aside."

"Why can't you believe me? He's beyond that."

"Did you try?" I asked.

"Why won't you believe me?" he asked again.

I loved him. I couldn't do better. As I tried to talk him down I couldn't help, but realize the times he was getting angry were increasing.