Shawn

I must've have rewatched the footage from the night of the fire alarm a million times. Because of the water damage in some of the units, management decided to release it to the tenants to see if they could find any leads. I had been one of the lucky ones. Just a few water spots in my ceiling but no losses.

"Just give me something." I said to myself aloud. "I know it's you." The person in the video wore a hoodie and never faced the camera once. I was convinced Amelia had done it.

"Babe?" Janet said as she approached me from behind. "I called your name three times. What are you doing?" She looked at the computer screen. "Shawn not this again. There is nothing more to see on that tape baby. They sent out a notice saying it was just some teenager pulling a prank."

"Baby look at the person in this video, that is clearly a woman."

"Okay, then a teenage girl. You have to let this go. Nothing has happened for weeks. The locks have been changed... she's gone baby."

I rubbed my temple and shook my head.

The truth is, I had tried to forget it but I couldn't shake the eerie feeling she gave me that night. I'd had dreams about it. I wasn't convinced she was done with us yet but I glanced at Janet feeing a bit embarrassed. "You must think I'm nuts too." I asked.

She spun me around in my chair and sat down on my lap. Janet stroked my cheek with her thumb and smiled, forcing me to smile too. "You are so beautiful. Do you know that?"

I leaned in to kissed her. "How did I get so lucky?"

"You are pretty lucky huh." She said, crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at me. I laughed, picked her up and laid her down on the couch. We fell into a kiss and she spread her legs allowing me to lay on top of her. We moaned together at the sudden contact and friction. She felt so good.

Janet's warm hands found their way under my shirt and her nails made contact with my skin. I pushed my hips forward, thrusting slowly against her as I kissed and sucked at her neck. Her perfume was intoxicating and the tiny sighs and moans coming from her lips was making me wet.

She opened her eyes for a moment and looked at me. She lifted her head slightly and traced my lips with her tongue before softly saying, "Fuck me Shawn." I sat up quickly, took off my shirt and unbutton my jeans.

There was someone at the door. We both glanced in the direction of the constant knocking and then at each other.

"It's me bitch, open the door!" Gil called out from the other side. I got up and ran over to let him in. "Where is Janet!" He asked.

She stood up. The look on Gil's face let us know that he wasn't coming to bare good news. "Dunk where is your phone? And yours Shawn? You guys know better than this!" He sat down at the computer and opened up the web browser.

"What is going on?" Janet asked walking up behind him. His fingers were typing away, he hit enter and turned the computer towards us.

"This!" He said and we both got closer, we both gasped.

Janet took a few steps backwards as she blinked a few time while shaking her head in disbelief. "That's from my new house. I need to call my lawyer." She said and ran into the bedroom to grab her phone.

Gil and I sat quietly on my bed as she went back and forth with the people on the other end of the phone.

"I don't want it just taken down. I want to know who did this to me... I don't care! Just figure it out please." She said and hung up the phone. She took a seat between us and rested her head against my shoulder. Gil rested his on hers.

"What did they say?" He asked.

Janet leaned forward resting her elbows on her legs as she tossed her hair back from her face. "They're saying it's going to be almost impossible to find out where it came from. The video was submitted anonymously." She stood up and turn to face us with tears in her eyes. "This wasn't don't for the money. They wanted to hurt me." She said.

I could feel my blood began to boil.

Janet

Shawn's facial expression changed from worry to anger right in front of my eyes. She stood up and headed for the closet where she rushed to get dressed.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"To take care of this." She said, slipped into her shoes and headed for the door. I followed behind her, pleading with her.

"Shawn please don't do this. I need you here with me." I said and touched her face. "Please stay."

I can't lie and say that something in me thought that Amelia had something to with all of this. I just didn't want to believe it and I sure as hell want Shawn getting herself into any trouble because of it.

She covered my hands with her own and shook her head slowly. "I know she did this to you J. She can fuck with me all she wants, but I won't have her doing this to you. I won't allow it." She said. "I gotta go baby." She said and walked out of the door.

"Gil!" I yelled. "Grab your keys, we gotta go."

We followed her for a few blocks. I never realized how close Amelia lived to Shawn until we pulled up to a small condo. We parked directly behind her and hurried out of the car.

"Take Janet home Gil!" She snapped not even looking back at us at we followed her to the door. Loud music could be heard coming from inside.

Shawn began banging on the door, yelling her name. After doing it for a while, Gil and I began to get really nervous.

"Shawn you're going to get us all arrested." He said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her keys. She slid one into the lock and opened the door. I narrowed my eyebrows and her and glanced at Gil. "This is not a good idea either." Gil whispered loudly. She opened the door and started to go inside. I grabbed her by the arm.

"Shawn no." I said. She looked back at me and pulled her away slowly.

"Go home." She said and closed the door leaving Gil and I standing on the other side.

Shawn

The music was so loud I couldn't hear myself think as I walked around looking for her.

There she was, standing in a small room, one side she'd turned into a tiny gym and the other side, had photographs hanging from tiny colorful clothes pins. I walked over to the stereo and pulled the plugs out of the wall, shutting it off.

Amelia stopped mid punch and turned to look at me. She smiled. "You came back!" She walked over to me and tried to wrap her arms around my neck. I grabbed her and push her back.

"You a photographer now huh?" I asked.

She glanced back at her wall of pictures and smiled. "Yeah, just a new hobby of mine. Seen any of my work?" She asked.

I stepped into her face, grabbed her arms and pushed her into the wall behind her. "You think this shit is fucking funny?"

"You're hurting me." She said pushing out of my grip. "I thought you came here to apologize and to work things out with me." She said.

"Fuck you, I'll never be with you Amelia." I snapped.

"I love you Shawn and I know that you're just blinded. Under all that polish, she is just as messed up as you an I."

"You don't know her and you don't know me. Stay away from us." I said I headed for the door." She was close behind me.

"Shawnette will you please just stay so we can talk about this."

"Are you insane!" I snapped. "No! I don't want to be with you!"

She glanced back at me with tears in her eyes. "I thought you loved me!" She yelled.

I didn't respond. I removed her key from mine, tossed it onto her couch and walked out of the door. I could hear her yell my name from inside but ignored it and kept walking.

Gil and Janet were already at my place by the time I'd made it home. When I opened the door, they were sitting on the couch waiting for me. I could barely look at her. I'd really made a mess of things. Amelia was losing it and I didn't have any idea what she would do next.

Gil just glanced at us back and forth.
He stood up. "I should go." He said made a break for the door.

"No Gil, I need you to stay." She said. As he reclaimed his seat, she stood up and walked slowly over to me. "You know, I noticed something today. It was very strange to me and I'm not sure that I fully understand it." She said, dancing around the question she wanted to ask.

"Just ask me J." I said feeling my cheeks burning as I fought back tears.

"Amelia moved... When did this happen?" Was her first question.

I bit my lip and glanced at Gil, he couldn't look at us. I looked back at Janet. "A short time after we returned home from the tour." I said.

She turned her head sideways and narrowed her eyes, nodding her head. She glanced down at the keys in my hand. "And you have a key to her place?"

"Janet, baby I know this looks bad but it is not what you think."

"Really? Because what I think is that my girlfriend has been sneaking around behind my back and not being honest with me." She said tears falling from her eyes. "You made me a promise. How could you lie to me Shawn?" I didn't know what to say. She threw her hands up and shook her head. "I gotta get out of here." She sniffled and wiped her eyes and started looking around for her things.

"Janet please just let me explain." She immediately cut me off.

"I don't want to hear it! I can never trust you again."

"So you're just gonna run like you always do. You won't even let me tell you what happened. You've probably been looking for a reason dip out on me anyway." I heard myself say in frustration. She turned and glared at me and turned to walk away.

I reached out to grab her hand and she pulled away from me. "Janet I swear to you, I have not touched her. But I did see her once."

She'd grabbed an empty duffle bag and started throwing her things into. I followedbehind her, pleading, trying to explain. She didn't want to hear anything I had to say and kept yelling for me to leave her alone.

Gil must have seen my desperation and he walked into the room. I glanced back at him. He looked like he was going to be sick.

"Janet," He said, and right away I shook my head and walked towards him, pushing him back into the living room.

"Gil don't, she is mad right now, she will just get angry with you." I whispered.

"But this is my fault." He said, tears filling his eyes. "You wouldn't have never gone over there that night if it wasn't for me." He was getting himself worked up. "I don't want to be the reason you guys break up again. Things were so  perfect." He said starting to cry. I glanced back towards the room. I could hear Janet cursing me from the closet.

"Babe this is not your fault okay. I should've told her and that's on me. Just go home and no matter what happens, keep this to yourself, I don't want her mad at you too."

"But Shawn If I tell her the truth she'll understand."

"She would know the truth if she would just listen to me, but she so damn stubborn and I'm not catering to it this time. I'm tired of fighting, it's her turn to fight for me." I said. "Gil promise me."

He nodded and went to sit back down on the couch. Janet stormed out of the room with all of her things in her hand.

"Gil will you take me home please."

"Home?" I asked. "After the pictures and videos? Maybe going home isn't the best idea." I said. "Janet I'm begging you, please stay and talk about this with me. I was wrong for lying, now give me the opportunity to tell you the truth."

"You probably led her right to me." She said suddenly. I could tell she instantly regretted her words, but it was too late. Her words made me feel like I could breath.

"Janet surely you don't mean that." Gil said. He was back to his feet now.

"It's cool Gil." I said and looked at her. "You really think I'd do something like that to you?"

"I just need some space so I can think." She said. Gil took her bags. I just stood there watching her slip right though my fingers all over again. Gil looked at me over his shoulder and mouthed I'm sorry before closing the door.

I stood there for a moment, taking it all in. There was a pain my gut and I thought I might scream. I went and sat down on the edge of my bed and began to cry as a million thoughts ran through my head.

Every time things started to go good, life would throw bullshit at me all over again. It was starting to feel like something was always trying to rip us apart. Was this a sign? Maybe Janet was right, maybe we did need some space.