text: [Themes: modern, horror]
  
  Just as you are polishing off your beer, Nadine walks in the door. You know this without even turning around because you hear half the people in the place whoop at her. Apparently she is quite popular around here.
  
  You swivel on the seat and face the door. You feel a wash of relief and make a huge wave to call her over. She crosses the place swiftly and hops up on the seat next to you.
  
  "Wow, you don't waste any time. Please tell me that was your first one."
  
  You give her a courtesy laugh, "Maybe it was, or maybe it wasn't." You decide to play along.
  
  "Sorry it took so long to get here, I had to stop at the house and check on things."
  
  "I thought you might have ditched me. I probably would have left after one beer."
  
  "Ha! I knew that was your first. I don't feel so bad now. It couldn't have been that long."
  
  The bartender comes over and hands her a cold Malibu without her even having to say anything. You don't say anything about that, but you can tell you are a little out of your league when it comes to 'loosening up'. While the bartender is there you order another Coors and start to relax. You must be feeling the effects of either the alcohol or the feeling is from being with someone so visible and connected with the room that you get an instant sense of camaraderie.
  
  Nadine takes a huge swig off the Malibu and then turns her attention to you. She doesn't waste any time getting to the nitty gritty. "So what's your story? What's going on that you asked to come out tonight? Not really like you from what I could piece together about you."
  
  You look up at her face and before you say anything you take a large draw off the beer that has just been placed in front of you.
  
  > make up a story that doesn't involve the embarassing truth...
  You chicken out. You tell Nadine that you just can't stand sitting in front of Facebook anymore watching everyone else have a life and that you decided to get out and start living a little.
  
  Nadine takes it as an opportunity to order a couple of shots of tequila for the both of you and tells you that you and she are gonna really live it up.
  
  2 shots of tequila later, you and she are laughing and you have forgotten about why you don't want to leave.
  
  Bartender cuts you both off in a friendly way and lets you know he'll be closing soon.
  
  You and Nadine walk out the parking lot to say goodnight and promise to do it again next weekend.
  
  You drive home. Probably not the safest decision you should have made. You don't weigh much and you aren't making good choices at the moment after so much alcohol.
  
  You pull up to the house at 2:30a.m. You decide to call Mr. Lipinski to see if it's safe...
  
  > call Mr. Lipinski
  The phone rings for what seems like a long time. But finally Mrs. Lipinski picks up. You apologize for calling at that early hour...
  
  "Hello? Oh, hello... everything seems fine here. Don't worry, Bob has been over there within the last hour or so..."
  
  "Great, I really appreciate the help. You guys have been great."
  
  You hang up the phone and stare again at the vacant dark windows and try to reassure yourself that you are fine. But in the back of your mind, you still know how dangerous he can be and in your imagination, you can't imagine what you'd do if he was here right now.
  
  This and a hundred other thoughts are racing in your head and you feel like your anxiety is getting the better of you.
  
  You put your phone in sleep mode, shut off the car, turn out the lights and stare at the house for a minute before you open the car door.
  
  > get out and enter the house...
  You crack the front door and reach in to switch on the light to the front room. Moving forward, you resolve to leave all the lights on in the whole house when you leave in the afternoon to go to work. Coming home to a dark empty house is too freaky.
  
  You now can see the room and everything seems fine and the way you left it.
  
  You head to go to the bedroom and make a stop in the bathroom to freshen up a little. You splash some refreshing cold water on your face and towel off. You are thinking about what you might wear tonight to sleep in. You head to the bedroom across the hall and as you reach for the light switch, you feel a strong hand grip your wrist and pull you into the dark room!!!!
  
  YOU SCREAM! But another strong hand cups your mouth quickly.
  
  You are thrown to the bed and in an instant his dark silhouette is framed in the lit doorway from the hall.
  
  He is instantly on top of you holding you down! You try to scream again, but he has taken the sheet and balled it into your open mouth. You can barely breathe! He wastes no time in lashing you to the bed while you kick and fight. You wish that you could die. You can't move your arms or legs. You try to scream, but it only reverberates in your own ears. It isn't travelling very far.
  
  "Relax! I'm not going to hurt you. I just need you to listen."
  
  > quiet down and listen to what he has to say...
  He repeats again,"Hey! just relax, I just want to talk.
  
  He flips on the light switch and you see he looks like he's been drinking hard!
  
  You stop struggling and mumble something through the balled up sheet. He reaches out and pulls the sheet from your rmouth. "If you make more noise, this goes back in."
  
  "Just don't hurt me." you sob with tears streaming down your cheek. You realize how hard you are shivering.
  
  "I would never hurt you!" He snaps.
  
  "I don't get you. We got something great and now you've got the cops thinking I'm some kind of drunk bastard that likes to hit women. You said I hit you! You know it was just a push! With the shit you were spouting, I shoulda hit you!"
  
  He presses in really close with alcohol-laden breath and says in a low threatening tone."How do you thinks it makes me feel to think that you think that of me? I love you and you fucking do that to me?"
  
  > say "You are right, I'm sorry, can you forgive me?"
  "You are right, I'm sorry, can you forgive me?" You make your voice as sweet and sincere as possible. He wasn't expecting that. He pauses for a second. You continue."You're right, I just over-reacted. I can straighten this out with the cops. I know it was probably an accident."
  
  "Yeah, it was an accident, you sure fucked me over bad."
  
  "I know that now, I'm sorry. Please untie me. my arms hurt."
  
  "Listen, I didn't mean for this to go like this. I wanted to talk to you, but you pushed me away. I wanted to make it up to you, but I felt like that couldn't happen if we couldn't see each other face to face, ya know." The alcohol on his breath almost makes you want to vomit.
  
  "Please untie me and we can talk about this like adults. I'll make some coffee and we can sit in the kitchen."
  
  "Ok, sorry I did this to you, I just needed to talk."
  
  "Well, then let's do it the right way in the kitchen."
  
  He smiles and grabs at the bindings. He loosens them enough for you to slip out. after rubbing your wrists and standing up, you gesture to him to lead to the kitchen with a sweeping arm motion. He turns and heads out the door and as he does so, you knock him over the head with the heavy bedside lamp.
  
  He lies unconscious and bleeding on the floor. You may have killed him. You really couldn't care. You dial 9-1-1. This ends now!