That Bitch Chloe

Chapter One: The Beginning

    Money makes everything better. If I had money I could have taken Derek, my boyfriend at the time to the local summer music festival. I could have spent a week lying under the sun bathing in my thoughts and running my hands through his dark beautiful  hair as lay blissfully high and under the influence of love and drugs. If I had money maybe he wouldn't have broken up with me because he would have felt obligated to stay and change his mind about me. His irrational thoughts and need to compare me to other girls were overwhelming. So Instead of a summer in paradise Derek abandoned ship leaving me to drown in my own tears.

    It was only mere days after Derek left me that his friend Chloe finance's went AWOL and she had an extra ticket. A ticket worth over $500 CAD in value that she happily gave to him in exchange for him to drive her down, and bring camping equipment. They drove down to the festival and did a shit ton of drugs, leaving Derek to forget all about me. I believe Derek thought he could love Chloe, in his drug induced coma. Maybe because she was a messed up as he was, or buying her way into his life. Although despite everything karma was a bitch. It only took Derek a couple days in to walk in on Chloe fucking another dude in their tent. Derek avoided Chloe for the rest of the festival crashing on the floor of his buddies tent without a blanket. He then drove home without her. Which should have been the end of things altogether but somehow though they still kept in contact, and Derek found his way back to me.

     It was easy to pretend like I  was okay with it, but I wasn't. Derek was back but he wasn't my boyfriend, even though I was giving him free shelter. He was fucking other girls, and still talking to Chloe. It all was merely a bad case of jealousy on my part in the beginning, but things weren't adding up. Derek had left me for a number of exaggerated reasons. One as he didn't believe I could take proper care of myself, because living in a shared home of like 15 people, I barely used the kitchen. Yet he expected home cooked meals given to him upon his arrival without requesting. I'll still do about anything for a boy. Get down on all fours for one if he asks nicely. Yet after working nine hour shifts, while entitled Derek stayed home unemployed, having not requested of a meal. I wasn't about to make one when fast food was just easier some nights. The list could go on but that's a mere example.

     You see little Chloe, who did so many drugs regardless of festivals or not, who could barely stand on her own two feet some nights staying up the wee hours of the night without a care in the world. Who was also in a fact a mom who had lost custody of her daughter to the man who supposedly raped her because she was that much of an absent parent. Must have some how seemed in a deranged way like a better candidate than me. 

    I guess before learning more details on all the shit Derek had been saying about me to Chloe from behind my back, I was naïve. Still I was finally in my own apartment for the first time ever. My every own, expensive place. I had issues and was too easy to forgive the doe eyed boy when he showed up at my door one August night. It was easy to swallow like a placebo pill, and even easier for every ounce of our bodies to reconnect on the new mattress. Sex blurred my mind and for a while erased the parts of him I didn't like. He was perfect, well maybe just for a second. As the weeks passed I noticed the new magic was starting to fade like worn out clothes, and he was finding all the same faults in me again. He was swiping on girls on tinder as he walked back from the washroom and crawled back into my bed. How fucking disrespectful could he be. Derek hadn't noticed I had noticed, but I had a habit of remembering everything. 

     In the fall the same old predictable bullshit occurred. Derek left once again. I had assumed it was for good this time. It was always ever that dramatic. I was attempting to move on with my life and  got a whiskered friend. As my eyes filled up with tears the black furred cat looked up at me wailing along to my misery, but it was more than just my tears. It was my fucking allergies that made my eyes as red as they were. I sent her off to my parents for  a better life as looking after a cat felt impossible when I couldn't take care of myself. When the crying had stopped I was still sad though, and not really over Derek in the least. He was probably chasing whoever who he could get his dick into. Some blonde bimbo who had her legs wide open and moaned into his ear. Oh god why did my mind go to things like that. His friends who were also low key my friends too, invited me out one night for drinks. I hesitated with freshly red dye in my hair but finally caved  and brought an umbrella along with. They assured me Derek wasn't present and since the location was only five minutes away I headed off into the night. 

    The bar was busy and chirping for 9pm. My unemployment and job searching had thrown my schedule off, but it was probably the weekend by the looks of things. Chad waved me over from across the bar and I gravitated towards him. I sat in the middle between them. Chad to my right and Jake to my left.

"Mary great to see ya. How are you?" Chad said

"I'm still sad about Derek ya know, but still alive." I replied looking over the drink menu. 

"Forget about him. I assure you he's not worth the trouble." Jake chimed in. 

After a couple drinks, and I noticed Chad staring off into space drunk as ever. Jake leaned in whispering to me as to keep it a secret. 

"I think the guy on the right is checking you out." 

I looked far past Chad seeing no one but then for Chad to turn and smile at me. His eyes widened like he was hunting prey. Did this make me prey? I didn't know what to think if Jake was hinting that Chad was into me. Chad was this notorious fuck boy who had  already slept with a couple of my friends for the matter, the idea seemed insane. Just then Chad chirped up.

"I want to take you out sometime for dinner."

"Wait what?" I stammered, sipping more of my cider down. 

"Just think about it." He said rubbing  my shoulder. 

It was catching me off guard, and I could feel a rush from the alcohol going to my head. More of an excuse to make bad decisions. By the time the bills were paid, and Chad had covered mine we stood in hesitation by the door. I didn't feel obligated but this was odd. I had known Chad for such a long time and he had never acted like this. I suppose it was merely cuz I was Derek's girl or conquest at the time. Wasn't this against bro code though? If I did this then it wasn't in spite of Derek, but the idea of Derek fucking multiple girls made me want to retaliate by having sex. It wasn't about who it was with, just that I could have it and feel good about myself again. I just hadn't had sex in a while. The last time I had it with Derek, he got moody because I couldn't do a weird ass position and then stormed off to go jack off in the shower. So it made it that much easier for Chad to seduce me. He was nice, respectful, attractive. When he went down on me he said I tasted good. After it was over I didn't let him sleep in the bed though, because I didn't want to catch anymore feelings than I had for him as just a friend, and he left no problem deciding he could get better sleep at home than on my couch. We promised to keep it a secret because I was starting to have a hunch that Derek would be returning and my hunch was right. Through a series of weird texts over a week Derek eventually returned.

    When Derek returned things still felt uneasy. I think he came back just for sex in the beginning, and besides my need to want to wanted by him sexually, I kind of still hated him for everything. Chad had gotten him into this dope new job that paid a lot and he could work side his friends, and I had started a new job of my own. So we led our busy lives meeting up a few times a week. I was starting to stress around Halloween time because rent was getting too expensive on my own. The one thing in life of that was finally my own was about to fall through my finger tips. So Derek agreed to move in with me to help with the costs soon after lifting one burden but adding another. I was trying to get us on a better track, as now we were living together. I tried to plan a fun date night but Derek stayed back late at work to drink and smoke disregarding and disrespecting me yet again. Me confronting him one night about it led to an awful fight of him shifting any sort of blame on me and telling me he wasn't my boyfriend so he shouldn't have to put up with my feelings. After a few rough days it had felt like things had resolved and we were talking again. I had always assumed that since we were living together,  and we slept in the same god damn bed every night that we were exclusive. I hadn't seen anyone besides the Chad incident anyways. This was a new chapter, which should have meant for the better but it was going to be for the worse.