The Neighbor

Heartbreak

You let yourself be led to the bathroom mindlessly. Your thoughts were somewhere else; you didn't know how to confront this situation. Why was Diane keeping secrets from you? You prayed it wasn't what it looked like. Because to you it looked like Diane... the same Diane that promised to love you forever... was cheating on you or at the very least doing some shady shit with whoever this Mildred was. 

You knew you had to say something you just didn't know what to say or how to say it. You needed to know what was going on. You needed Diane to fix it... she was always the one to rescue you, and you needed her right now. What could you even say? How would she react if you demanded to see her phone? Would she lock you away in the room again? Poison you?... would she kill you to be with this other woman?

That thought made you freeze in front of her on your way to the bathroom. She wouldn't? She would never... she'd never hurt you. You were being crazy for thinking she would. All of this probably had a very reasonable explanation. You were just overreacting from seeing one part of a conversation. Would Diane be hurt that you didn't trust her?

"Come on baby." Diane laughed tapping your butt playfully, oblivious to your inner turmoil. 

You barley registered the touch though. All you could focus on was what you'd just seen. You pictured the message in your mind, hoping that the more you thought of those few words the more you'd understand what they meant. You wish you could be stronger, to hold it in like you'd seen other women do when faced with similar stations. You wanted to have a rational conversation like an adult.... you wanted to talk to her calmly and have everything make sense. 

"Are you okay" You knew she was speaking but it was a distant sound, her voice fading in and out, sharing the spotlight with your ringing ears. 

"Honey?" You felt her hands on you, fingers gripping your chin, running over your arms, and squeezing your hands. 

In a second you felt your legs giveaway underneath you but before you could hit the floor, she pulled you into her holding you tightly. 

"Y/N! Breath, baby breath!" 

Finally, you were able to focus on her. You ended up on the hardwood floor of the hallway wrapped up in her arms. Her deep brown eyes bore into yours. You saw her lips moving but couldn't hear her words. You felt tears running down your cheeks as you looked at her. Everything came to a screeching halt as your ears decided to finally function again. 

"Thats right baby just breath for me." She whispered into the crown of your head. 

"W-who's Mildred?" you managed to croak. 

"What." She said calmly, but you could hear the slight edge to her voice. 

"Who's Mildred?!" You raised your voice at her, annoyed that she would just answer you. That she wouldn't provide the simple explanation you were hoping for. 

"How do you know about Mildred?" Her voice was calm, monotone... too calm. She rubbed your back as you shifted to be able to comfortably look at her. 

Your eyes pleaded with her to tell you something. Anything! You needed her to fix this, to tell you were insane and that she loved you.. that she'd never leave you. 

"That doesn't matter! I just want to know who she is! Is she your friend? Boss? Why have I never heard of her before?" 

You held each other's gaze, but you felt like she was looking right through you. After a minute of silence, she looked down to her lap, biting her lip the way she always did when she was nervous. She looked up at you and you could practically see the war behind her eyes. 

"We shouldn't talk about this now y/n, let go take a nice bath." She said pushing herself up from the floor. She clearly expected you to agree but you were so fucking done. Maybe you were overreacting, but you didn't care. She couldn't just do that. She couldn't turn your life upside down and make you feel like you were her world and then drop you on your head and just expect you to take it in stride. 

You hopped up and were in front of her blocking her way to the bathroom in under a second. There was no way you were letting this go. 

"What aren't you telling me?" You snapped, crossing your arms in front of yourself. 

"Oh don't be that way, stop pouting. Now let's go, before I change my mind." She said attempting to move past you, but you side stepped and blocked her again. 

"Change your mind and what? Decide to just fuck off on your computer all night like you have for the last month!?" You scoffed. You'd never spoken to her like this, and you knew you should be afraid to do so, but you weren't. You didn't know where this side of you came from but you felt powerful and fucking pissed. You wanted answers and you were going to get them. 

"Little girl, you better rethink your tone unless you'd like me to spank your ass raw. I know you haven't had a reminder recently, but you do NOT speak to me that way!" She spat at you, but it didn't hold the same edge it once did. She seemed hesitant, unsure of how to handle this new side of you. You loved it, finally she could get a taste of how you'd been feeling this past month. 

"I haven't had a reminder? I haven't had fucking anything! You've been absorbed in a stupid screen." You huffed. 

"Enough! Go sit on the bed, NOW!" She was seething as she steeped closer to you looking down on you like you were nothing. 

"NO! WHO THE FUCK IS MILDRED!" 

"I TOLD YOU I'M NOT DOING THIS RIGHT NOW Y/N!" She screamed back at you turning to walk back into the living room. NO! she couldn't just walk away like that after ignoring you for months! Why was she keeping Mildred a secret, who the fuck was she? 

You grabbed her arm using all of your strength to spin her back around to you. Diane was strong, you knew you couldn't overpower her, not by a long shot but you hoped to at least catch her by surprise. You pulled her into you and felt a little jolt of satisfaction when her jaw dropped. 

That satisfaction was gone as quickly as it came though when she back handed you so hard you stumbled to the side. You clutched the side of your face that was now throbbing, it wasn't even a conscious choice... before you knew what you were doing your palm collided with her cheek. 

It was a good hit; your hand was stinging, and blood trickled from the side of her mouth. You could see the outline of your handprint forming on her face already. Her eyes widened but as she opened her mouth to say something you screamed "WHO THE FUCK IS MILDRED?" 

She wiped the blood that trickled down the side of her lip with her thumb and fixed her gaze on the wall behind you. 

"She's my wife."