Dana & Mark
During this time, we had a lot of parties. If parents went away, we went to that house. If it seemed like we hadn’t had a party in a while, we had a party at Paul’s house. His parent’s didn’t care. At one point, Jennifer was living in his basement when she was having difficulties at home. We were a pretty large group by this time and growing all the time.
This became a troubling issue with Dena as she had a tendency to be anti-social. When a party was announced shed seem really excited about it. Then, the night of the party would come. I’d pick her up and halfway there she’d announce that she didn’t feel like going. That put me in a precarious position as I promised people I would go and/or give rides to people. If I took her home and went without her, what would she do to herself? I always ended up driving to the party. We’d sit in the car for 45 min. I would tell her I’m going in to make an appearance and then come back out to take her home, but when I went in, Jean would ask where Dena was. I’d say she’s not coming out of the car. Jean would run out and talk to her and she’d come in and have a better time then me. This happened over and over.
It finally became an issue for Stacey’s graduation party. I was not going to miss my “little sister’s” graduation. She still lived 40 minutes away so if Dena got into her mood. I couldn’t quickly drop her off and go back. Of course, almost on cue, I picked her up, started driving there and she announced she didn’t feel like going. This after we spent all afternoon shopping for a gift and talking about the party that she was “excited to go to”.
I wasn’t going to play this game for an important event and told her as much. So I dropped her off at home and went to the party without her. Naturally, I being me felt horrible and worried the whole night.
I’d like to say that was the worst part of the evening, but it wasn’t. I wasn’t the only person having relationship woes…
TANGENT: Mark had been dating Dana now for well over a year, maybe even two (ed. note: see 09/25/11). By now his alleged cheating on her had been confirmed. He met her through her mom in which he worked with in the suit department at Penney’s. Now that I worked there and more recently, George, (he ended up working in the same department as me after the Pet Food store finally closed down for good) it had come to our knowledge that he was trying to get in good with the security guards. Those guys were just guys too dumb to pass the police test and turned girls into a “point system”. Apparently, Mark was really racking up the points by cheating on Dana with the Hair Accessory girl right under Dana’s mom’s nose.
That may have flown when he hung out with the security guards but none of us thought it was cool and we all told him as much. Mark pretty much blew everyone of with a “What are you going to do about it?” He pretty much told everyone that she wouldn’t believe them because he would just tell her they are saying it only to “get down her pants.” The only one who would come of as sincere would be me, who by now, came off (as Matt called me) “a self-righteous son of a bitch” and would never betray a friend.
It had gotten so bad that when we would all hang out at night, he’d drive Dana home at 11 and come back with the other girl. Even with my preoccupation with my own situation confronted Mark about this being a problem. Mark claimed that he made the mistake of spoiling her in the beginning and that he said he was going to break up with her in his own time, just not while she was going through finals and blah blah blah… typical male bull.
RETURN TO MAIN STORY: Seeing how dejected I was feeling at the party, Dana asked me if I wanted to talk about it. For the first time, Dana was at a social event without Mark. He opted to work Saturday night to get great commissions at work. I agreed to. I really wanted to talk about it and by now, George pretty much knew the extent of my problems as we talked a lot at work to pass time. The three of us went to the back of the yard where there was a bench. We must have talked about my relationship for all about 3 minutes before Dana interrupted with “What am I going to do about Mark?”
I was taken aback. Why, was beyond me. I guess I should have seen it coming. Maybe just not while I was in mid sentence. “Are you serious?” was all I could mutter.
She said “Yeah, at first Mark was so sweet and got me flowers and everything. Now he hardly does anything romantic.”
I could have been coy and say “that happens in all relationships” and deflected the conversation, but the truth was the situation bothered me. I don’t betray friends, and after knowing Dana for so long, she was my friend too. And what Mark was doing was not only selfish, it was cruel. She was a joke to the security guys and the fact it was going on for so long was just insulting to me. “Do you want to know the truth?” I asked. She did and I told her to get away, get far away.
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt”> Straight faced, she said “Tell me everything.” She knew. She wasn’t dumb. She wasn’t blind to Mark’s actions. That much was obvious.
I turned to George and told him he didn’t have to stay. I already accepted the fact that I was going down. If I was going down I would go down alone and there was no need for him to go down with me. He stayed. I told her everything, even the meek attempt to justify my own silence by telling her that he told me they were supposed to have been broken up.by now. She handled it well.
All of a sudden my problems with Dena didn’t seem all that pressing compared to the idea that George, Mark and I all had work together the next morning.