"I can't do this anymore!"
Kelly yells from outside the front doorway at Haran. Kelly is moving her last few bags into her mother's '95 Cutlass Supreme. Kelly is finally fed up with Haran's shenanigans. For the past three years, Haran has not been able to keep a stable job and always makes excuses why he is not "the greatest fiancé in the world." Kelly and Haran have been "getting married" for thirteen years. Haran had not even started thinking about the wedding, while Kelly wanted to move forward for the five years. Today she finally breaks from his spell. Haran just refuses to talk about their life after marriage. Every time the marriage conversations start, he says
"How can we afford a whole wedding? If I start saving for a wedding, how will I pay the gas bill?" Sometimes he even mentions the rent for the house, sometimes, he mentions the water and gas bills. Kelly is sic. k of the rubbish that Haran has been feeding her.
Her stomach cannot take any more of Haran's indigestible egotistical ways of life, and she's fed up.
"You are so selfish and you want to marry me with nothing to show for yourself? I knew this was too good to be true," Kelly's mouth says in regurgitation. Kelly stumps back into the house and gives Haran a confused look. She lifts her hands in frustration.
"How did you expect to support the family that you said you wanted with me?" Said Kelly. Haran sits hunched over on the broken couch that they picked up from the junkyard a few months ago. Today, Haran got fired from his job because he was late for the third time this week. He woke up late and blames him for missing the alarm because Kelly was snoring too loudly. He omits that he forgot to set his alarm the night before. Haran calls his brother to pick him up after 20 minutes of pleading with his boss.
On the way home, his younger brother, Royce, buys him a wine cooler for his troubles. He typically gets a ride to work from his brother. Haran came home and delivered the news to his fiancé, and she was devastated. Haran, without a care in the world, reaches into his pocket and starts digging for something frantically.
"I lost my job today, alright? I can always get another crappy job so that I can pay the bills," Haran yells back to the doorway where Kelly is now standing.
Haran took a bag out of his pocket to help him roll his cigarette. Kelly stares in disbelief and shakes her head.
"You could barely pay for the bills with the last job! You have no degree, you have no skills, and you're wasting my life!" Kelly's mother blows her horn frantically to tell Kelly that she is ready to go back home to watch her television show. Kelly is not done expressing her thoughts to her soon-to-be ex-fiancé.
"I should have been married by now to someone who can buy me diamond rings and all the fancy things, but instead, I got stuck with you.." Kelly finishes.
Haran interrupts. "Yup, and you almost said I do." He grins as he lights his cigarette and takes a pull.
Kelly knows that she cannot get Haran to change his ways. She looks down at her left hand, massages the ring off her finger, and throws it on the floor near Haran.
"Haran, you disgust me! I regret ever meeting you." Kelly walks out with tears in her eyes and slams the door behind her. Haran takes another drag of his cigarette while Kelly's mother's Cutlass Supreme speeds out of the cul-de-sac.
As the car's sound disappears in the distance, warm tears begin to roll down Haran's cheeks. He knows that this will be the last time he will see his fiancé. In the past, Kelly and Haran have encountered countless fights, ranging from drunken nights to who left the toilet seat up. It was almost always Haran's fault, but Haran, in his egotism, always needs to win every argument and be right. Haran consistently refuses to take responsibility for his actions, and Kelly knew Haran would never change. Kelly tried her best but always knew the two were never meant to be together. She was faithful and thought he would see that she wanted unity with him over time. However, Haran would never step into that role as a man. When Haran came home early from losing his job, she knew it was time to go. Kelly had real goals and knew something had to be done. Kelly knew that she could no longer be a part of Haran's childish life. She called her mother to pick her up.
When Kelly's mother, Lucy, received the call, she was in the middle of watching her favorite soap opera Nuevo Mundo de Queens, and nobody interrupts Lucy when she's watching her favorite soap opera. So when Kelly called Lucy, it had to be serious. Kelly knows what time Lucy watches her soups.
Lucy answered the phone:
Lucy: Why?
Kelly: It's time. It's the last straw.
Lucy: cars are already warming up.
Lucy pauses her show since she can pause live television, and goes after Kelly.
The two had such a strange relationship, The two barely spoke to each other. So Haran found out that Kelly called Lucy, he knew that Kelly was serious.
"She'll come crawling back to me" Haran thought. But in his heart, Haran knew she was gone for good. Kelly never took off her ring during a fight. Hiding behind his ego, Haran tries not to think of Kelly's fingers naked without the ring. The freshly open wound of Kelly leaving feels like there are teeth, gnashing, and gnawing on his skin.
He takes another sip of his wine cooler, and he starts to ponder on his past.
In the last three months, Haran has lost his mother, lost his job, lost his fiancé, and was about to lose his house because he could not afford his mortgage. Haran gets up from his chair, puts out the rest of his cigarette, and walks over to the window and sighs to himself.
Haran screams, "Can I ever catch a break? The neighbor's children are startled by his yelling then start to point their little fingers in his direction, and laugh.
Haran moves away from the window angrily. He moves back to his junkyard-brought couch, and as soon as he sits back, the couch collapses in half which spills his wine cooler all over his shirt. And Haran puts his head in his hands, knowing that he has finally hit rock bottom.
Haran looks down and tries to wipe his shirt with his hands, and eventually, his hands just get sticky from the drink's residue. He goes to the bathroom to clean off his hands. Haran looks at himself in the bathroom mirror; he places antibacterial soap on his hands, rubs them together underneath the water then dries his hands on his jeans. He opens the medicine cabinet. Haran sees some vitamin Cs and some painkillers that were prescribed by his doctor. He contemplates whether his life is even worth living anymore. He thinks about taking them together but he figures pills won't be strong enough. He closes the cabinet and walks into the kitchen angrily. He goes through his cabinet drawer and sees only plastic ware. He realizes that the knives won't be strong enough to accomplish his premeditated goal. He slams the cabinet dresser closed and decides to go for a walk to clear his head. As he's walking up the street, he has a car down the road blaring belligerent music and clearly going above the speed limit.
"If I jump out at the right time, I know that person won't be able to stop in time, " he thought to himself. Haran had made up his mind, and it was finally all of his life that brought him to this one moment, and now he was finally going to make his last decision. As the car gets closer, he makes his first step towards the middle of the street. Before the car intersects with Huran, he hears a loud cry, "STOP!" Haran pauses in his tracks, the car speeds by and misses him completely. He has missed his opportunity. But little did he know that this was the best thing that ever could've happened to him.