Rabbit Blood

Chapter 41 - Leslie Fucking Explodes

As Vaggie guarded the studio door with her spear drawn, Decider pulled Leslie into a full-body embrace with much rubbing of the back, and blurted out how glad he was to see her. It was one of his hugs and no mistake, but his scent was different. Leslie could only stare at their reflection in horror.

"I didn't think you'd be here," he said. "God, you're not supposed to be in Hell! What the fuck? You're a good girl."

She broke away. "Well, what are you doing here?" Leslie asked. She'd begun to tremble. "You overdosed?"

"Uh, yeah. It happened pretty quick. Look, don't worry, it's in the past. I'm going clean for good." Decider peered at her. "I can't believe how different you look. It's really you, babe."

"Yeah, thanks, I know."

He smiled, but it was forced, nervous. "We've got catching up to do. You are not going to believe what's going on up there. There's this virus-"

"Karl, stop. Please."

He got it. "You're not happy to see me."

"Damn right I'm not happy! You're dead. You've been using again... and who the fuck was this other person? You miss 'both' your girls?"

Decider sagged. "Look," he began, and Leslie pulled her ears over her face, trying not to hyperventilate. "Lellybean, lemme explain. OK, the OD thing. Look at me! You died, out of fucking nowhere. I had all these feelings and no-one to talk it out with, no fucking support system. I needed you. I love you. Getting fucked up was the closest I could get to feeling right."

"No support system. What, your girlfriend didn't let you grieve?" Leslie snapped, dropping her ears to look at him. "How long, you and her?"

"A while."

"A while?" She was going to strangle him.

"It wasn't about us, I... I'm trying to tell you, Les!"

She barely heard. "After everything I did for you! Wasn't I enough? I tried so hard to be enough!" Leslie felt the lump in her throat as she blazed on, "You know, I'm not even surprised. Maybe I knew, deep down. You were gone all the fucking time, I thought it must've been either drugs or some side bitch, but fuck you for making it both!"

"Hey, I didn't make it anything. I just made damn sure you two never knew the shitty thing I was doing. You were never humiliated."

"Why not just dump one of them?" said Vaggie in exasperation from the door.

"'Cause getting rid of Jordy wasn't that cut and dry," Decider said, then returned to Leslie. "Maybe there's no way to break this gentle." He sighed, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I don't like labels, but if someone saw this from outside, they'd say... Jordan was not the other girl."

Leslie was nauseous, barely processing the conversation, but she threw his hands away. "Yes she was! Yes she was! You were married to me, dipshit!"

He shifted uncomfortably. "Jordy kinda... beat you to it," he said, "back in 2015. What I did for us was like... a band-aid situation. I was trying to split from Jordy on the DL, I swear to God! The timing was just shit. I swear to fucking God, Lellybean."

"Don't call her that," Vaggie warned, harpoon raised.

Leslie staggered back, falling into a crouch. She felt physically winded. It was too much. No, no... This wasn't happening.

"Les."

"Leave me alone."

But he wouldn't. Oh no, he just had to explain himself. "You know what? I didn't love her anymore. She wasn't you. You actually helped me, the way she couldn't, nor my shitty-ass family. But we couldn't just do what you wanted and get hitched. How do you keep that secret? And I didn't get why you needed it, like it'd change how we loved each other. So yeah, we had our thing in the park, just to fucking... postpone. It was going to work out! I was going to get rid of Jordy, and then do the paperwork for us, whatever. You'd never have known! Don't you get it?"