The Break Up

GOSSIP

"What I don't get, is why she doesn't leave him," Beanie said.

Mack rolled his eyes. "She'll never leave him."

"She ought to," Beanie stretched out over the sofa until her feet bumped the sofa end, she curled up, flipped onto her back. "She's obviously not happy."

"Well, any fool can see that," Mack glanced upwards, "why else would she be upstairs crying and him out somewhere, yet again?"

"Have you been up to see if she's okay?"

"I tried, she just shut the bathroom door. I could still hear her sobbing, but she shouted at me when I tried again. Told me to go downstairs."

"I'd go up, " Beanie said, "but the last time I did that, she shut me in the bedroom."

"Did she?"

"Two hours I was in there. I wasn't happy, I can tell you."

"I thought I heard you crying the other day," Mack said, he rubbed at his nose, "so you were in the bedroom?"

"Yup. Until she came in and threw herself on the bed. Then he came in and they argued some more and I thought I'd better leave them to it." Beanie paused. "She used to be so much happier, before she started seeing him."

Mack cocked his head, "I wasn't here then."

"No, you moved in a couple of months later. Jenkins was here then." She struggled to remember, it was a few years back. "Did you meet Jenkins?"

Mack had, briefly. "I met him, I don't think he was still actually living here. More just using it as a place to crash every so often. What happened to him?"

"I'm not sure. He was here, then he was here but not here. Still around, but not every day, and he was definitely eating somewhere else. Then he just upped and disappeared. I thought I'd seen him a few weeks later, at the end of the street. It looked like him, but it was dark, it may not have been him."

"I tell you who was here then," Mack suddenly animated, "Lola. She wasn't here long, but oh my, I loved Lola."

"Lola wasn't living here, she was just staying for a few weeks. She went back home." Beanie wrinkled her nose, "I wasn't keen on Lola, she was... antisocial. Untidy. Left her shit everywhere."

"She was young."

"She was a pain in the arse. And so noisy."

"Young," Mack repeated. "And gorgeous."

"If you like that sort of thing," Beanie sniffed. "I'm surprised you haven't seen her since. She's usually out in the park most afternoons."

"Ah," Mack had the good grace to look ashamed, "we don't go to the park anymore."

"Why not?"

"There was that huge bust-up. I got into a fight. Ended up in the duck pond."

"You or him?"

"Both of us." Mack sighed, "but there were threats and a lot of arguing. It's just simpler to avoid some areas."

Beanie listened. From upstairs the sound of sobbing had subsided. Instead there came a different noise. It sounded as though something was being thrown against the wall. "I wonder what she's doing now? Shall I go up and look?"

"You can," Mack went back to watching television, "I'm not."

He watched Beanie walk out of the living room. He didn't know what was going on upstairs but he was damn sure he didn't want to be in the middle of it. Not again. He listened for raised voices but there was only that strange bumping noise. Then the sound of something being scraped across the floor.

Beanie returned. "Well, you were wrong, she's packing."

Mack looked surprised. "Really?"

"Half wrong. It's not her stuff she's packing, but his." Beanie flung herself back on the sofa. "So, it looks like she's kicking him out."

Mack started to look worried. "Can she do that?"

"It's her place."

"So why did you say she should leave him?" Mack demanded, a note of worry entering his voice. "I don't like this."

"Like you have a choice," Beanie regarded her nails, chewed at a ragged bit of skin. "Don't look so worried, I'm sure things will be okay."

"For us or them?" Mack said. He opened his mouth to say something else, but the sound of bin bags tumbling down the stairs startled him. "I mean, you are hers, but I'm his. Will I have to go too?"

Beanie's tail flicked uncertainly. She knew it was different for dogs, if her owner packed up and buggered off, she'd be okay either way, worst came to worst, she could always join the colony of feral cats up the street. Mack on the other hand, his future was looking uncertain.

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Beanie said.