Cut And Dried

You Idiot

Brent

As I pulled myself up into a sitting position on the sofa that had been my bed for the night, especially after the amount of alcohol I had consumed at the premiere party, groaning and feeling sorry for myself, I literally crawled to the kitchen in search of relief.

I found a glass and filled it with water next find tablets, that proved more difficult, but after a while searching I found a packet lurking at the back of a drawer, I administered the pain relief and headed to my bedroom the soul purpose to make myself presentable to the world.

Removing last night's crumped suit and tie, I staggered into the bathroom and straight into the shower before it had time to heat up, the cold water shocking my system and waking me up at the same time, before the water warmed and relaxed my body.

My anger had dissipated now and I was feeling sad and lonely, I hated to admit it but I missed someone's sarcasm and beautiful smile that lit up her whole face, how could I have been so stupid in letting her get to me, only for her to throw it in my face and go back to her ex.

Why didn't she say something, why didn't she tell me about her ex, I thought she was off men, after...what...her... family...was like, the last bit registered slowly in my mind.

She told me her family wouldn't condone her having a boyfriend, she was scared of them finding out about me, she was a virgin for heavens sake, so if she let me be the first why go back to a boyfriend, you hadn't let touch you, if she was scared about her family finding out about me, then what about her ex, why wasn't she scared about them finding out about him.

My mind was now in a complete fix, I couldn't figure anything out, nothing made any sense, I wandered back into the lounge and dropped on to the sofa, my thoughts whizzing around trying to sort something out I could comprehend.

Suddenly I heard the front door crash open and the unmistakable voice of my sister Claudia, shouting for my attend she stormed towards me seated in the lounge.

Claudia was in one hell of a foul mood and lashed into me straight away, no pleasantries or hello how are you feeling, no straight for the jugular.

"Brother you are a fucking idiot, do you know that"

Wow say it as it is Claudia, but not when I have a hangover

"You and you're big mouth may have ruined any chance of getting Chrissie back now"

"Chrissie left me, paid off the bet, that's a sure sign of her wanting me to ask for her to come back"

"As I said idiot, did you bother to ask her why, she left?"

"I had no way of contacting her, besides what part of she paid off the bet, do you not understand"

"Well bro what part of where the hell did she get two grands worth of dollars from just like that, do you not understand"

"Her ex sent it to her along with a plane ticket"

"And you never bothered to check any of this out"

"I was busy, I had a premiere to attend remember"

The argument was becoming quite heated now, which was not good for my headache.

"Yet you thought that telling the world how shit she treated you was fine, before you checked out the facts, god your impossible" Claudia was full on yelling at me now.

"Look Claudia" I said in a controlled softer voice. "Is there a point to all this?"

Claudia sighed and also allowed herself to calm down and then in a calm composed voice made me feel like the idiot she said I was.

"Brent, we went shopping to buy a dress for the premiere, Chrissie was so happy and really looking forward to it, she was laughing and joking, I saw inside her purse she didn't have any American dollars in her purse, hell she didn't have hardly any money at all, see what I'm saying here, does this sound like a girl wanting to leave you?"

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, I hadn't thought about any of this.

"But her ex. Debbie said he sent the money" I defended.

"An ex boyfriend that she's never mentioned only the ones that tried to take advantage of her and the fact she was inexperienced in the ways of love, her supposed ex suddenly decides he wants her back, sends two thousand pounds worth of dollars in cash and an air ticket and it gets here in a day, or has she been planning this for a while, think bro"

She tapped my forehead with her knuckles, I didn't like where this conversation was heading, if what Claudia was saying is true, I may have lost the woman I love, me and my big mouth, now I knew how Jasper felt when he thought he lost Mandy  and I have done the exact same thing.

"I can tell you're beginning to see the light brother, I spoke to Troy and he said Chrissie had been crying when she left, plus she asked him to give this back to you"

I was in a daze now my heart was in my stomach, the ugly truth was beginning to dawn on me, I took the envelope Claudia held out and pulled out the piece of paper from inside.

A cheque for two million pounds and as I studied it, I saw the answer staring me in the face.

"Shit!" I yelled leaping from my chair, still gripping the cheque tightly in my two hands and staring at it.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! The bastards" I yelled even louder.

"Someone's gonna pay for this, but first I need to speak to Chrissie and apologise"

"No wait!" Exclaimed Claudia. "You're like a bull in a china shop, you need to let her calm down as well as calm down yourself, we need to do this right leave it up to us Brent, it's our turn to make it right for you, as you have for us in the past leave it to us girls"

"Okay, but don't be long, I'll meanwhile deal with the problem this end"

And I threw the cheque onto the empty chair, the cheque with my mothers signature on the bottom of it.

Now it all made sense and this was it, this was all out war, I needed to do something I should have done a long time ago, now I had the incentive to do it.