26 juin 2006

Break-ups in a row

(Sequel to "From Monday to Friday")

Sarah knocked on Kathleen's door. She had been trying to avoid her for a week or so, as she began considering the situation to be awkward, but if she went on doing so, Kathleen would start to ask for some explanations. Today was Thursday, and the men were away. Kathleen opened the door and let Sarah come in. She shut the door and turned back to greet her with a kiss, but Sarah had already moved towards the middle of the room. Sarah kept turning her back to Kathleen who immediately felt something was wrong.
"Actually, I've come only to tell you something", Sarah said.
"Yes? What's the matter?" Kathleen asked.
"I, err… I think this ain't right, you know."
"What, 'this'?"
"Well, the two of us. We shouldn't do that. I mean, I do love Peter, and whatever the situation is, David's your boyfriend." Sarah turned around to face Kathleen but didn't dare to look straight in her eyes.
"I see", Kathleen said. "Yet you haven't seemed too much upset about it these last few weeks. So what? Tell me what's wrong now."
"It's just that I cant' stand lying like that to Peter anymore. You may not be troubled by that, but I am."
Kathleen felt that wasn't all. That couldn't be, for Sarah never seemed disturbed by her lying to Peter. On the contrary, she had often said this slight hint of secrecy was pretty exciting. She waited a moment for her friend to go on.
"I'd like things to come back to a more normal way, you know", Sarah said. "Don't take it bad, Kathleen, I like you very much and we did have some good time, but it's not fair to Peter. And anyway, I'm not gay, it was just… you know…"
"Oh right, so there it is", Kathleen replied. "It's not really the lies that trouble you, it's that you don't wanna be taken for a gay. But do you really care to be defined one way or another? Don't you say you didn't like to touch me!"
"Come on, Kathleen, don't make it harder than it could be. We'd better not go any further."
Kathleen didn't reply, since she understood Sarah had already made up her mind. Sarah moved towards the door and got out without a word and without looking back. Kathleen didn't feel so upset, because she had never loved Sarah, but with her leaving out, she would have to face the situation with David. Her ambiguous relationship with Sarah had been a way to ignore her own problems and to put their solving off till later kind of like.
Sarah felt both relieved and troubled as she left. Relieved because she had never really accepted that she could enjoy to have sex with a girl, and troubled because she knew she would have to tell Peter if she wanted to put her mind at ease. The following day, Peter came home late in the evening, like every Friday. Sarah had decided to tell him about Kathleen. She first greeted him, asked him how the week had been as she used to, and then started to tell the story. But she didn't dare to tell the whole thing, the lies during several weeks. Cheating on him with a girl was enough, she thought. So she contented herself with letting him know she had had sex once with Kathleen, in a moment of distraction, so to speak. She insisted on the fact that it meant nothing at all, that she had no feelings at all for Kathleen, and she did as much as she could to assure him of her love for him. However, Peter refused all her apologies and explanations, and after a lot of useless arguing and begging from Sarah, he quickly packed the essentials and left the apartment, saying he would come back on the following weekend to take his reminding things away.
As for Kathleen, she didn't say anything to David. She went on as if nothing happened, though she felt like things were getting harder with David. So she began to lose patience more often, and to take less time and care to reassure him on her love. David felt something had changed, but was too afraid to lose her to ask her straight out about it.
A little time went by during which the situation didn't seem to move on. Sarah was still in love with Peter and wished she had never either done anything with Kathleen or said anything to Peter. She couldn't help bearing a grudge against Kathleen and blaming her a little for her breaking up with Peter. Kathleen didn't try to get Sarah back, because she knew that wouldn't help her at all with David all in all, and because she was quite disappointed by Sarah who had finally been more embarrassed by the female side of the affair than by the cheating one. The relations between the two girls were all the more awkward as they had to see each other quite often because of some common work they did for school. Each time they would face one another, Kathleen would boldly gaze at Sarah while the other would usually look away. They would both pay attention to say just what would be needed.
David's begging for endless reassuring got more and more on Kathleen's nerves, all the more so as his traineeship was over and he was back full time at home now. She started to care less and less about his threats concerning what he would do if she left him, step by step considering them to be idle threats. One day, to the very same question as usual "Do you really love me", she simply didn't think and answered with a little annoyance that she didn't know. And from then all was easy. Curiously enough, he didn't do or say anything extreme at first as Kathleen had feared, and he seemed to accept. To get sure he had understood, she told him it was over and he should pack his things as soon as possible. He just said he would. And he did, waiting for Kathleen to be out at school on the following day, taking away with him most of the furniture.
So Kathleen found herself on her own, in a half empty apartment. She moved, happy to be able to do so, and finally moved on.

4 commentaires:

Anonyme a dit…

c'est maintenant très clair, je n'y comprends vraiment rien en anglais. Bon y'a bien une sarah et une kathleen's (ah non kathlenn, le 's c'est un possessif, ah j'ai des restes quand même) dans l'histoire mais bon sinon j'ai pas compris grand chose. Bon sinon je peux résoudre un grand mystère : pourquoi le batiment H pue ? Je pourrais répondre que cela vient de certaines personnes qui s'y baladent mais on pourrait me traiter de mauvaises langues :-) (au fait ce sigle signifie que c'est de l'humour, pour ceux qui n'y comprennent rien bien sur !). Alors voici la version scientifique : il s'agit des odeurs d'égoût qui remontent par le biais des sanitaires et qui empestent le bâtiment. Mais alors qu'y faire ? Ben... rien ! Pas le budget nécessaire pour tout casser et refaire, et en même temps on perdrait notre spécificité :"le bâtiment H, ah celui qui pue". Ben oui, il pue mais si ça pose un problème à quelqu'un qu'il vienne se battre :-)
Et puis j'essaierais de répondre aussi à une autre question : comment peut-on s'interesser au marketing ? Ben en fait, c'est une discipline très interessante parce que si on enlève le côté purement... bon et puis non, je n'expliquerais pas. En fait, j'aime le marketing, un point c'est tout ! C'est comme les framboises j'aime ça mais je serais pas te dire pourquoi :-)
Bon allez miss, bonne continuation dans ton blog.
Bisous

Peewee Peeper a dit…

ah, douce et tendre mag du bat H qui pue, merci pour ta visite et tes éclaircissements. Puisse le dieu du marketing t'inspirer pour l'année à venir...

Anonyme a dit…

Sarah a frappé sur la porte de Kathleen. Elle avait essayé de l'éviter pendant une semaine ou ainsi, car elle a commencé à considérer comme étant la situation maladroite, mais si elle continuait à faire ainsi, Kathleen commencerait à demander quelques explications. Aujourd'hui était jeudi, et les hommes étaient partis.
"droite de l'OH, tellement là il est", Kathleen répondu. "il n'est pas vraiment le mensonge ce des ennuis vous, il est que vous ne voulez pas être pris pour un gay. Mais soin vraiment foutu êtes-vous de l'one-way défini ou un autre ? Pas vous parole que vous n'avez pas aimé me toucher!"

C'est là qu'on se rend compte que les traducteurs automatiques c'est pas encore tout à fait ça...

Peewee Peeper a dit…

c'est décidé, tu es mon traducteur officiel !