[ WP ] `` I do n't sleep . '' He/She said .

-120 
 
 *RING. RING. * 
 
 Tom picked up half way through the second ring. 
 
 *'' Hey, Tom, you're up. `` * Cecil said, in that grating joy-filled voice of his. Every word the man said was filled with laughter. 
 
 `` Yeah. I'm up. I do n't sleep.'' He told the man. 
 
 *'' Do n't sleep? `` * Cecil repeated it as if it were a peculiar thing to be questioned. 
 
 `` Yeah, Cecil. I do n't freaking sleep. You wanted something?'' He said with a touch of scorn. He did n't mean to be short with the man, but he was in no mood for the man's effervescent nature. 
 
 *'' Sorry, Tom. I just wanted to know if you wanted to go out and do something. It's just me tonight. Janine went to her mothers for the weekend. I'm having a little bit of the cabin fever, as it were. `` * The laughter was still in his voice and Tom wanted so much to push his fist through the phone and punch that voice. 
 
 `` Sure.'' Tom told him, kicking his coffee table over the moment the words left his mouth. Papers went flying along with two remotes and a terrified cat. `` Where we going?'' 
 
 *'' Hurricanes? `` * Cecil suggested. 
 
 `` Yeah. Fine.'' Tom started to hang up, but stopped. 
 
 *'' In an hour? `` * Cecil hurriedly asked. 
 
 `` Yeah. Fine.'' Tom said in a dying voice. Tom climbed to his feet slowly, groaning and moaning the entire way. He waited for the throbbing in his head to ease. He'd been sitting a long time. Last time he'd stood up after sitting that long, he'd gotten light-headed and passed out. The cat hissed at him from under the chair across the room. `` Sorry, Pussy.'' Tom said with a twinge of guilt. The cat hissed again. 
 
 The drive to Hurricanes was n't long; it was twenty-minutes this time of night. He parked and did n't have to look for Cecil. The mousy man was waving from the bar's entrance, bobbing up and down as if that extra three inches he gained would make him more visible. 
 
 `` Put your hand down. You look like an idiot.'' Tom told him. Cecil opened the door for him. Tom sighed and went through, feeling like a schmuck. Cecil hurried in after -- scurried would be a better description. The man's nose and moustache made him look like a ferret, and like a ferret, he scurried every where he went, moving with short hurried steps. He did n't so much select a table as usher Tom to one. He took the seat opposite. 
 
 A waitress appeared at Tom's elbow like the prestige of a magician's magic act and took their orders. Tom grunted sourly, but could n't find fault with Cecil's drink. He expected him to order some fruity drink with an umbrella in it. The whiskey he ordered was a genuine surprise. 
 
 `` So, how was your day?'' Cecil inquired. 
 
 `` Dull. Boring. Like every day really.'' Tom told him. `` I do n't sleep much.'' Tom's eyes were dead and never moved from Cecil's face. Cecil averted his eyes and swallowed hard. 
 
 `` Janine left me.'' Cecil confessed. `` She's been gone for almost a day.'' Tom did n't smile, but for the first time in months, he felt like it. 
 
 `` That's a shame.'' He lied. `` Your fault or hers.'' He was pretty sure what the answer was. 
 
 `` Ours. I think I'm a little insecure and kept smothering her. I was always buying her gifts and saying I love you. I think it got on her nerves. I do n't think she ever got over...'' He looked at Tom knowingly. Tom, to his credit, did n't smile, did n't grin, did n't rejoice in anyway. 
 
 `` Then be a man.'' Tom told him. `` If you ca n't live without her, then you're never going to live with her.'' Tom's chest felt tight. The exhaustion always made his chest feel tight like he was trying to breath with a rag over his mouth. 
 
 `` How did you keep her?'' Cecil asked. Tom gave the man opposite him a dark look. 
 
 `` I did n't keep her.'' Tom told him. `` My boss stole her. Remember?'' Tom hid his hands beneath the table so Cecil could n't see just how close Tom was to throttling him. 
 
 `` I did n't steal her. She came to me.'' Cecil chirped. `` I did n't go after her. She met me. I did n't know she was your wife.'' Cecil raged, though the heat of his words vanished quickly. `` She came for me.'' 
 
 `` I know.'' Tom told him. `` It's the only reason I never killed you.'' Cecil looked at the man opposite him and for the first time, realized just how massive Tom was and how easily the man, if he chose, could snap his neck. `` Is this the only reason you wanted to go out?'' He demanded. 
 
 `` I... I miss her.'' Cecil told him in a defeated voice. Tom forced himself to relax the fists he'd made under the table, then reached out and laid a comforting hand on his boss's shoulder. 
 
 `` Me too. It is n't you -- well, it is, but not just you.'' Tom told him. `` The truth is, I stole her from another man. He stole her from yet another. She's always looking for a different dick to roost on. It's her nature. She can be... the most wonderful creature you've ever known, then become someone else without warning. My advice is... just let her go. Do n't become me.'' Tom grabbed the whiskey the waitress brought him and downed his glass, then downed Cecil's. `` You should n't be drinking tonight. You'll enjoy it, and you wo n't stop.'' He tossed a few dollars on the table to cover the drinks and left. He gave Cecil one last look before leaving. The man had his face buried in his hands and was sobbing uncontrollably. `` Poor bastard.'' 
 
 Tom hurried home. The sagging corners of his mouth lifted as he found his driveway. He hurried up the drive and saw the door was ajar. He smiled for the first time in months, hurried up the steps with Janine's name on his lips, but it died stillborn upon his lips. The television was gone, pieces of his furniture were gone. He looked around the house, realizing that even the cat was gone. 
 
 He dug out his phone and dialed Cecil. 
 
 *'' Do n't be pissed. `` * Cecil said upon answering. *'' It was her idea. `` * 
 
 `` I've never wanted to hurt you.'' Tom lied. `` Tell her no hard feelings.'' He punched the wall several times, driving his fist through the sheet rock with each strike. Cecil started to respond, but the phone was snatched away and a woman's voice answered. 
 
 *'' Did you rush home thinking I was coming back? `` * Janine asked with sadistic glee. *'' Did you think I was waiting in your bed, the sheets carressing my naked breast? Is that what you thought? I would have loved to have seen your face when you walked in and realized you'd been duped. How'd that make you feel? `` * She just kept twisting the knife she buried in his gut, taking great satisfaction in his torment. *'' How'd that make you feel? `` * He could hear Cecil in the back ground urging her to stop. Tom marched into the bedroom and pulled the shoe box down from the top shelf of the closet. *'' HOW'D THAT MAKE YOU FEEL? `` * She shouted. 
 
 He held the revolver close to the phone and cocked it next to the receiver. `` It made me want to kill a bitch.'' He told her. 
 
 She was quiet for several long moments, but he heard her whispering to Cecil. *'' I went to far. I went to fucking far. `` * She hung up the phone after another long silence. 
 
 Tom smiled and put the gun back in the box and the box back in the closet. He fell back across his bed and laughed and at some point, he was n't sure when, he managed to fall asleep, and unlike most nights, he slept the whole night through.
