Kim was sitting in a booth in a corner of a small cafe. She'd been crying off and on. The waitress had asked many times if there was anything she could do for her. And Kim had said no and she'd be fine. Even she knew that was a huge lie. Nothing was fine. Everything around her was broken or cracked.
Her relationships with friends. Her marriage to Ron. It was nothing she had done except be distant. The people that had once been full of dreams, happiness and more were now sleepy-eyed zombies with no ambition. It was how she felt too. She had retired from saving people.
Many people were angry about this. Some understood, but felt that she was abandoning them. She needed to step back for her own reasons. She had also raised two kids while still saving the world from villians and even worse criminals.
After graduation she'd been on a mission that had lead to violence so terrible that several people had lost their lives. That changed her view on everything around her. It had been so bad that she had to go to therapy for several years.
A new waitress came over to the booth. "Hi, Sheri just left and I'm here for the night. She told me that you've been here for hours. Is there anyone you need to call or come get you?"
Kim looked at the young girl. Blonde hair and dark brown eyes about her height. "I'm okay. A refill on lemonade please. I just wanna be alone with my thoughts." She said, wanting to just stay until closing.
Her phone buzzed and she checked it. It was a foul message from Ron.
"Okay, well, just ask if you need anything else." Meggie said to her. She went to grab another glass of lemonade for Kim.
Ron's message said, 'B!tch where r u? Get your skinny white ass home Now!'
HOME.
Kim laughed to herself and started to cry again. She didn't want to go back to the place where she was verbally abused. This had been going on for years now. He'd taken an interest in gambling and had been hanging out with new co-workers and friends. Some of them liked to drink heavily. Ron had never had a beer in his whole life until that point.
Those friends influenced him to try a drink. One drink turned into two, three and many more. It didn't trouble the marriage until three years ago. He just came home one night super drunk and cursing so much.
Kiley and T.J. their teenagers had witnessed it.
Kim had been mad as F-K. She had to explain all of this to her kids and prayed they would never try a beer or smoke anything. And from that Ron did try to sober up. When he did he was miserable. He went out and bought different ones to try. He hid them in places he knew Kim wouldn't look. Over time his words of random hate and anger targeted her. He even spoke disgusting things to his kids.
They didn't even like coming home. They even told their mother they'd rather be anywhere else.
Kim had tried to talk to Ron about all of this. He tore back at her and scared her to the point of where she sat now. She knew she had to walk away. She knew she had to get out of this. The only person she had told was her mother.
Ann had begged her for the longest time to leave. Kim stayed and tried over and over to get through to Ron. In these last few months of trying and failing she felt done.
She was done with Ron's outbursts of anger. Breaking things, cutting them and bashing her with words and some domestic abuse. He was always sorry for slapping her or grabbing her arm too tighty, but the words were always blasting out of his mouth. A mouth that wanted to kiss hers still.
Kim refused any physical contact. They hadn't touched romantically in years. She began wincing and jerking away the more he drank and verbally abused her.
