Their Perfect Match

6 years ago… I sit in a booth and think back to last night, the way he treated me scared the s**t out of me. I had to get out of there. Sure there had been nights he scared me and roughed me up a bit, but nothing like this. By the time I came home from work it was already late and he was waiting for me,  “Where have you been?” He asked with a sour expression, “I’ve been waiting for over an hour for dinner. You couldn’t have called to say you were going to be late?”  “Sorry, I had to finish a project and time got away from me. I’ll start it now… is there anything you want in particular?” I set my bag down and headed to the kitchen, looking in the fridge. Dean always wanted his dinner at a certain time and if it was late he would get upset so I shouldn’t be surprised, but honestly, he could have just gone out to get something.  “I wanted something over an hour ago, when it was supposed to be on the table. Can’t you do anything right? It’s simple. Dinner is supposed to be on the table at 6:15. Not 6:45 not 7:30. You might as well not bother if it’s going to be late”  “Fine, then I won’t” I snap as I slam the fridge door shut and storm out of the kitchen. He grabs me by the arm and yanks me back slamming me into the wall.  “What the f**k did just just say?”  “I said ‘Fine. I won’t bother’. In fact, I don’t think I’m going to bother making your f*****g dinner anymore. Make it yourself you ungrateful asshole! You are so entitled and I’m getting really sick and tired of it. Nothing I do is ever good enough for you, I’m tired of living like this. You treat me like a slave and I’m over it. ” I spit at him. He grips me against the wall, his hand on my neck, putting pressure on my windpipe, crushing it.  “You’re sick of it? How do you think I feel? Putting up with a useless woman like you. Looking at you day after day, you make me sick. I hate that I am stuck here with you. I never wanted this, my father forced me into this relationship. It was never my idea. I could have had any woman I wanted, and I got stuck with you. A weak, useless, stupid, ugly woman. Look at you, your pathetic.” He spits his words at me.  “Then let me go. If I’m so horrible then let me go!” I scream “Don’t say such stupid things, you know that’s not possible. We are stuck with each other”  A fact he never let me forget, for some reason his father made it very clear to him that if he wanted to see his inheritance he would have to marry me. The poor orphan girl their family took in when I was seven, I was the charity case that he got stuck with. He always hated me, from the moment I was brought into their home he treated me like dirt on the bottom of his shoe. Once I turned eighteen, I moved in with him. He was forced to stop sleeping around publicly and we got married and he has resented me ever since. He has always treated me like a bug under his foot, a parasite that needed to be wiped out. I always knew he had been cheating on me, he was never exactly stealthy or even tried to hide it from me.  His father would have had a field day if he had known. Whenever we had to go for our monthly family dinners, Dean would threaten me to keep my mouth shut and play the good little housewife role or he would make my life living hell. I felt like a prisoner my entire life, unable to escape. Nowhere to go, unable to hide.  One day he got drunk and broke my nose, making me see exactly how bad things had gotten. I started to make my plan. I would set aside very small amounts of my pay cheque, just enough that he wouldn’t see anything missing. I packed a bag and hid it in the back of the closet, under an old suitcase we never used.  “I’d rather die than be stuck with you for another minute you f*****g asshole.” I spit in his face.  He rears his hand and slaps me across the face, making me cry out in surprise. I knee him hard in the groin making him let me go and double over in pain. As I go to leave the room he grabs me from behind, dragging me across the floor, his heavy body pinning me under him. I squirm, trying to get away. He grabs my arms, slamming them into the floorboards so hard I feel my bones crack. His other hand comes down to slap me hard across the face,  “How do you like it?” He spits back at me  “Is that all you’ve got?” I laugh  He huffs as he gets to his feet he places his left foot on my shoulder and presses down hard making me whimper in pain.  “Don’t forget your place. I expect dinner on the table by the time I’m out of the shower” He turns and heads into the bathroom, slamming the door. I listen for the water to start running before I slowly get up off the floor, pain searing through my shoulder. I limp through the house, digging through the closet and rushing out the front door with the duffle bag. Tears roll down my cheeks as I toss my bag into the truck and I hold my arm close to my body as I climb into the truck. The truck turns over twice before finally starting, the stupid engine never starts on the first try. I see him come storming out of the house in a fit of rage and I panic to pull out of the driveway as he comes running up to the door. He grabs onto the handle and yanks it half way open as I swerve into the road,  “Where do you think you’re going?!” He yells at me as the door swings open.  I stomp on the gas and the truck takes off down the dark street, dragging him with me, he yells and grasps at me, I slap at his sweaty hand on my hoodie. He has a good grip on it so I quickly unzip it and pull my arms out and let him pull it from my body and I watch him fall to the ground as the truck continues down the road at a dangerous speed. I pull the door closed and take a deep breath before I allow myself to release my foot from the gas pedal slightly.  It takes a while for my body to stop shaking, I drive for a few hours, until the sun rises before pulling into a diner.   I keep my hurt arm close to my chest, cradling it to me.  “What can I get ya sweetheart?’ an older waitress comes to my small dingy booth holding a pot of steaming coffee.  I nod towards the cup in front of me and she tips it over, pouring me a fresh cup. She eyes me up before speaking, “You alright dear?”  I nod silently and pull the cup of hot coffee towards me. She doesn’t say anything but watches me for a moment before she walks away leaving me to my thoughts.  A few minutes later the waitress comes back with a very mouth-watering looking cinnamon bun and sets it on the table in front of me, “On the house hun.. If you need your arm looked at, Sookie can do it, she used to be a medic.. from the looks of it, it might need to be set back into place.”   I glance up at her, she seems genuine enough and it does hurt like hell. I feel like she might be right, and it is dislocated or possibly broken. “That’d be great.. Thank you”  “Come on to the back with me and we will get you all fixed up dear”   I’m led to the backroom and introduced to Sookie who takes one look at my arm before nodding and telling me that is in fact a broken collar bone and will need to be set. She disappears for a minute before coming back with an arm splint.  “This should do ya until you go see a dr and get a cast” She helps me put it on and adjusts the height until my arm sits in the right spot.  “Thank you” I whisper  “Us girls gotta stick together, just tell me you gave that bastard what he deserved” She c****d her eyebrows at me. I nod in response, “Can you tell me where the closest bus station is?”  “Where are you headed?” She asks  “Vancouver”  “Bus station is across town, I’ll give you a lift. My shift is over in twenty minutes”  Forty minutes later, I’m on a bus out of town, Cindy, the waitress gave me her phone number and told me to call her when I got to wherever it was I was going to make sure I got there safe. She was the first person in a long time to be decent to me. A friend.