Song: "Poor Marionette" by Sarah Cothran

**

"Heather, I'm so sorry I didn't get your message. I had my phone turned off the whole time. I just need to know if you're ok, baby. Please pick up."

Heather didn't answer Chandler's call that Monday morning because it hurt too much. The intense loneliness she felt for such a short time was unbelievable. After procrastinating and missing her first classes, she listened to his voicemail. She then showed up to school and threw her arms around him in a tight embrace. He immediately hugged her back.

"Baby, are you ok?" Chandler stroked her hair.

"I'm fine now. Now that I'm with you."

"What happened?"

"My mom. As usual."

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry!" Chandler didn't really have his phone turned off. He saw Heather's message but decided not to rush to her aid because he felt she needed to learn a lesson. "I'll never leave you again. I'll make it up to you. We can go out tonight. How does that sound?"

"That sounds wonderful." Heather nuzzled her nose against his cheek.

"I missed you. I wish you could've come with us, but I know you're not a fan of golf."

"I can try and come with you guys next time. It doesn't matter what we're doing as long as we're together."

"Mmm, you're so right. All I need is you, and all you need is me." He kissed her forehead. "Think you can handle being separated for another hour?"

"Yeah, that's ok." She laughed.

"I've gotta get to my history class. See you later, baby." Chandler pecked her cheek.

"You too." Heather, now feeling completely relieved, went to Spanish class. Her relief immediately went away when she remembered she had two assignments due. Fuck, I had all weekend to do this! Now my mom has another reason to hate me! She sat at her desk and kept her head down.

"Buenos días, class!" The professor greeted as she walked in with Alejandro. "You guys can pass up the homework you did this weekend, and Alejandro will grade them!" Everyone in the room stood up and turned them in while Heather stayed put, focusing hard on her notebook paper. Alejandro noticed and looked at her. She could feel him staring at her. She bit the inside of her cheek. Fuck, this is so awkward! I never forget to turn in my assignments!

Heather suffered through the entire hour, thinking about how easily she could've finished the homework. She had been too upset about her mother and Chandler to even think about doing homework. She waited until everyone was out of the room to walk up to Alejandro. "Ok, I know I didn't finish my work, but it won't happen again. Can you just put an A in for those assignments?"

Alejandro chuckled. "You're hilarious, chica. I can give you until tomorrow to finish the homework, but it'll be a lower grade because it's late. Otherwise, I get in trouble."

"Ugh," Heather groaned.

"Mind telling me why you had trouble?" He stacked the papers.

"I just—I didn't get it." she lied.

"You didn't understand the homework?" She shook her head no. He smiled a little. "I can help you right now. We'll use my copy of the homework." He got it out. "What did you not get?"

"Um—pretty much the whole thing."

Alejandro placed the paper between them. "A lot of us college students struggle with ser and estar. Ser is used when dealing with a permanent trait, like someone's eye color. Los Ojos de Heather son de un Hermoso gris. I said Heather's eyes are a beautiful grey. The son is ser in the right form."

Heather lightly blushed. "And, of course, you had to find a way to fit your daily pickup lines in there."

"It is only the truth. I've never met a woman with grey eyes before. And they truly complement your features."

"Whatever. Let's just get to the next question." She scooted up in her chair. Her entire face felt hot. She rarely got compliments about her eyes. Sometimes she wished she could wake up and have brown or blue eyes, something more common. But Alejandro seemed to like them—no, he's flirting as he does with every other girl. I've seen him flirt in the halls before. Why am I even thinking about this?!

"Now for estar, it's more temporary. Estoy Feliz Cuando hablo con Heather. I am happy when I talk to Heather. Something else that is true."

Heather crossed her arms. How do you say, "I am annoyed when I talk to Alejandro"?"

"Me molesta Cuando hablo con Alejandro," he answered casually. "But it has no estar verb. So you'd change it to estoy molesto con Alejandro. I am annoyed at Alejandro."

"Perfect. Now it's starting to make sense." Heather filled in the next question for practice.

Alejandro smirked. "Whatever helps you, Preciosa."

She pressed down hard on her pencil. I need to start doing my homework and making good grades again. I don't know how much longer I can take this! Everything about him is so frustratingly perfect! And the worst part—he knows he's attractive, so he uses it to his stupid advantage! Jerk!

He looked at her work. "Muy Bien! It seems like you got it already! Do you know what I think would work for you? Let's meet once a week to make sure you have all these things down, so when you have homework or an exam, you'll know for sure that you understand."

Heather didn't want any tutoring lessons, but she weighed the options. I'm obviously having trouble for some reason. If I keep getting bad grades and missing homework, my mom will freak even more. "Ok, sure."

"How does every Friday sound?" Alejandro asked.

"That's fine. I only have one class that day anyways."

"Perfect!" He beamed. "I'll see you tomorrow, Heather."

Yep, I still like when that stupid jerk says my name. "Bye, you too." Heather realized her shoulders had been tense the entire time she was with him. She let out a breath, relaxing her body and cooling off. Get it together! You have a fiancé! This can't happen every fucking time you're alone with him! She headed outside.

Chandler was waiting for her while texting on a bench. Heather sat next to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, diverting his attention away from the phone. He planted a sloppy kiss on her lips. "Longest hour of my life. Well, more like an hour and ten minutes. Did you stay after class?"

"Yeah. I'm having trouble with my grade. I have to meet for tutoring lessons every week now." She rolled her eyes. "But it's better than my mom yelling at me."

"Aw, that sucks. I hate tutoring." He grabbed her hand. "Are you doing these sessions with your professor? And your teacher's a woman, right?"

Heather slowly nodded. "Yeah, I'm doing it with her." He shouldn't know about Alejandro.

Chandler kissed her forehead. "I'm proud of you, babe. I know you can pass that class since you're so smart."

She laid her head on his shoulder. "I love you. You're such great support."

"I love you more."

"Impossible."

"I'll show you how much I love you if you come home with me."

"You know I always love going home with you," Heather said, giggling.

He ran his hands up and down her thighs. "And I love taking you home, beautiful. Let's go. We can have a popcorn and movie night."

"I'm so ready! We haven't done that in months!"

They walked to his car. "I know!" Chandler smiled. "I miss the feeling of you wrapped up in my arms and falling asleep halfway through."

"Hey, I do not fall asleep during movies!" Heather playfully pouted.

"Remember when we watched the Avengers?"

"—Ok, but just that one time. And that was only because I've already seen it so many times."

"It never gets old."

"That's what you think." She laughed.

Chandler opened the passenger side door for her, and she got in. He got in his seat and buckled up. "What movie are you in the mood for this evening?"

"Hmm," Heather thought. "It doesn't matter. I only want to be with you for the night if your mom would let me stay the night?"

"Absolutely." He started driving. "I want you to stay the night too."

Heather played with the diamond on her finger, thinking of what Courtney told her at the party. "Just talk to him about it. I'm sure he'll understand." She was too nervous to say anything. She figured it was ok because they were having a movie night. We'll be talking a lot tonight, just like old times. I'm sure it'll start back up after this. "How's work going for you?"

"It's not bad. Retail's so much better than fast food."

"Oh yeah, I bet it is." The next couple of minutes were spent in silence. This is so bad! We've been together for two years now, and we can't even talk normally anymore! Heather thought. All we talk about is sex or how much we love each other. I could always talk to him about his classes, but then he'd get mad cause it reminds him of when he  moves away in four years. And I can't speak to him about my classes because he finds that boring. Maybe I should do what Courtney said. "—Chandler?"

"Mhm?"

"I was thinking." she began, biting her lip. "I think we should start talking more, like how we used to."

"What do you mean by that? We talk to each other now."

"I know, but I meant like—when we used to talk for hours about anything."

Chandler furrowed his eyebrows. "Heather, I don't know what you're talking about. Are your friends giving you stupid relationship advice or something?"

Heather frowned. He doesn't get it, and it doesn't seem like he wants to get it. "Never mind, it's nothing."

"Alright. See? This is why I wanted you to stop hanging out with Courtney and Gwen, and Bridgette. They're telling you stupid shit when they can't even be bothered to look at their own fucked up love lives. I mean, look at Courtney and Duncan. They can't agree on anything. All Bridgette and Geoff do is make out, and Gwen couldn't keep Trent for over a year. I think they're all jealous of what we have." He held her hand. "We're so much better than them, Heather. I wish you could see that you don't need them in your life."

"You hang out with Geoff all the time."

"And I don't need him in my life." Chandler shrugged. "My friends are replaceable, but you're not. Do you understand that?"

Heather nodded, then smiled. "I do. You know you're my number one person, though." He nodded without a response.

They arrived at his house. "Hey, babe," Chandler began.

"Yeah?"

"I kinda feel bad for not letting you go to that party last weekend. That wasn't cool of me. I should've let you have fun."

She blinked in surprise. "Really?"

"Yes, really." He looked her in the eyes. "I love you, and I can't imagine how lonely you were while I was gone."

"It's ok. It's fine." Heather now felt guilty for going behind his back. He's apologizing. Maybe he realizes how unfair that was. This is good. He's making progress.

"You could've had a fun weekend with your friends, and I just took it away. God, I'm such a screwup!" He rubbed his forehead.

"No, Chandler, no, you're not!" She placed a loving hand on his shoulder. "Don't say that. Everyone messes up."

"You really can forgive me for that? After all that you went through?"

"It was only two days." She downplayed the pain she had felt over the weekend to make him feel better.

"Thanks for cheering me up, baby. You didn't deserve any of that."

"It's ok." She kissed his hand. "I'll be ok." He beamed at her. "Ready to go?" Heather unbuckled her seatbelt.

"Wait," Chandler told her. "I need to show you something."

"—Ok," Heather smiled lightheartedly, thinking it was a present.

He reached into his backpack and pulled out a couple of pieces of paper. He turned them around. "Recognize these pictures?"

Heather gasped when she saw a printed picture of her and Courtney at the party and a photo of her by herself posing in her bikini. "Chandler, I—where did you get those?"

"Geoff's Instagram account. You should've known. He posts about everything. And the only reason I told you I felt bad for not letting you go was to see if you'd come clean, but you didn't. You chose to continue lying."

"Chandler, look, I wasn't planning on going to the party until I got mad at you about the text thing."

"What text thing?!"

"You freaked out over me saying, "sure, sounds good" about going out to dinner with you!"

"It looked like you didn't want to!"

"Ok, who cares?! It's just a fucking party!"

"I care, and you KNOW why I care!"

"Well, too bad because I don't agree with you!"

Chandler shoved her hard. The side of her head hit the window. "Shut up!" He hissed.

Heather felt anger rise within her. "Quit telling me to shut up!!" She hit him back in the arm, but not nearly as rough as he hit her.

He punched her right below the eye. "You wanna play that way, huh?!" He yelled at her. Heather held the area around her eye with a shaking hand. With her other hand, she tried to open the door. "It's locked. Don't even try to get out." Tears came rushing past her eyes. She looked away from him, sobbing in fear.

"Let me see it." Chandler's voice suddenly turned soft. Heather slowly revealed her reddening face to him. "That's nothing a little ice won't fix. You may have some swelling for a couple of days, but it's not too bad." He pulled her into a hug, stroking her back. "You know you did this, right? You know I'd never do that to you for no reason. It scared me to death when I found out you went to that party without me. Especially in that bikini. In front of all those people. Someone could've easily taken you away from me. And you lied to me. It's gonna take a while for me to trust you again, Heather. I hope you understand that."

"I-I wanna go home." She sniffled.

"Do you really want to see your mom after this? All she'll do is find some way to insult you about your eye. And then she'll insult you about other things. I just hate the way she brings you down." Heather thought about it. He's right. She won't make this better. "And we can watch whatever movie you want, and I'll cuddle you to make up for this." He kissed the top of her head. "I just think you deserve some love. Your parents haven't given you any. And I'll even let you have the last ice cream sandwich I was saving for myself. You deserve everything good, lovely."

Heather nodded. "Ok. Yeah, never mind. I don't wanna go home."

"I'm sorry," Chandler said. "You have the most beautiful face. I'm so sorry." He repeatedly kissed her cheeks. "And I forgive you. I'll always forgive you."

She nodded, feeling empty. "Can you just—can you hold me?"

"Of course," he whispered. He held her tightly. Heather allowed herself to shut her eyes and forget what he did to her. Thinking about her life at home always made her forget about the bad parts of her and Chandler's relationship.