Bad Things Come in Threes

I'm not sure where everything went wrong. One day my life was smooth sailing, the next I was struggling to stay afloat. My job? Gone. My girlfriend? Gone. My car? Gone. But to make things easier, let me start at the beginning...

Eight days ago, I woke up to the ringing of my cellphone. It was my girlfriend; we were in a long-distance relationship so we would call each other every morning to start our days off right and every evening to talk about our lives. And it worked, at least for me: the morning calls always started my days off on the right foot.

That day went pretty smoothly, no drama happened in any aspect of my life. It wasn't until that night that a small hiccup occurred.

You see, my life was going pretty well. I had two jobs that I loved, I had a girlfriend that I would die for, I was leasing a horse from one of my closest friends who I knew always had my back... Nothing was going wrong for me, and I had worked hard to get to a point in my life where I could proudly say that. It just seems as though God had other plans.

That Monday night, I said "Happy eight month anniversary" to my girlfriend, to which she replied she had completely forgotten that it was such an important day until I said something. This might not seem like a big deal, because, well, eight months? Not particularly a huge milestone. And that's how I took it: she forgot because it's not like six months, or one year, or six years. It was just eight months. Nothing special.

Yet in spite of that fact, looking back, her forgetting definitely should have raised a few flags for me. Or at least half-raised them. My girlfriend was big on milestones, no matter how small. She had said happy month-iversary to me for every month until this one, and she had usually said it to me right after telling me good morning. So in hindsight, the fact that she forgot should have been a huge indicator for me of what was to come.

The next day started similarly, and that entire day actually went pretty well. My significant other even mailed out my birthday present, and I could tell when it arrived five days later that she had put a lot of thought into it.

Wednesday went well, too. Nothing to see here.

Thursday was when the real avalanche of disaster happened. You know what they say: when it rains, it pours. This was the day that my SO and I got into an argument and she threatened to break up with me, which wasn't new. She did this almost every time we had a disagreement, as if holding the fate of our relationship over my head would make me instantly cave and say she was right (which it did). The only difference was, she also threatened to cheat on me.

Now, you might be thinking, why didn't you run right then and there? Why didn't you turn the tables on her and initiate the breakup yourself? Answer: I was in too deep. Blinded by the light. Trusting her with no reason to.

In the end, the conflict was resolved and we went to bed, her repeating "I love you so much" as I fell asleep as if trying to erase the threats she had made earlier. Normally, it would have worked, but after our worst fight yet, my uneasiness only let up a tiny bit. It didn't stray too far.

Friday morning a problem arose in a different area of my life: my place of work. That morning I was told the business was losing money and letting people go, and seeing as I had only been working there for about six months, I was one of the employees being laid off. Last to come, first to go. So there went half my income in a matter of minutes.

Now moving on to Saturday... Saturday was probably the worst day yet (I say as I am stranded with no way home at 12:30am on Tuesday). Things started off great. I went to see my horse, went to an antique store with a friend, tried to look at the positive side of everything... but then I got a call. And with this call, the fuckening happened.

"Hey..." she started out, her voice distant. I sat up straighter at this, instantly alert.

"There's someone else... I cheated on you."

I know, I know. She literally told me she was going to cheat, so how did this come as a surprise...? Well, like I said: I blindly trusted her.

After those seven words, my mind went blank. I didn't yell, I didn't cry. I just went numb. But as soon as the dial tone hit my ears, my brain was jolted into action. How could she do this to me? Last night she was telling me how much she only wanted me - always - and now this? Do I even believe her?

Here's the thing: my girlfrie-- ex-girlfriend is very well-rehearsed in fibbing. She would lie to me about everything, big and small, ranging from simply going to watch TV yet telling me she was setting the table for dinner to assuring me she didn't have feelings for a friend that was straight when she did, in fact, have feelings for that friend who she knew was actually very gay (both examples are true stories). It was almost as if she had to lie, almost as if she couldn't stop lying.

Now, I'm not saying that I was completely innocent in the relationship. In the words of Hannah Montana, "Everybody makes mistakes" (although, I never would have even dreamed of cheating). But I would have walked through hell to fix things with the girl I loved, and now? Now we were over in the blink of an eye.

By the time Sunday rolled around, I desperately needed a pick-me-up. At this point, life was kicking me while I was down. I was convinced that my life was God's favorite sitcom, or that I had done something unforgivable in a past life to get this type of karma. And luckily, my prayers were (somewhat) answered for those brief 24 hours. The only negative thing that happened on Sunday? Getting the package my ex had sent, heart stickers and all. I immediately hid it away without even considering opening it.

God decided to flip the channel back to my show on Monday, though, because by the time that night rolled around, I had lost yet another thing. But as the saying goes, bad things come in threes. I should have kept that in mind during my relief Sunday night. And what was it this time? My car wouldn't start. Of course.

So there I was, sitting alone in a Cookout parking lot at nearly midnight with a sputtering engine. And now here I am, sitting alone outside the automotive repair shop past midnight with a dead phone and no way home.

And I wish I could end this story on a positive note. I wish I could say that I was suddenly picked up by my favorite celebrity who just happened to be visiting a middle-of-nowhere-town; or that Oprah heard of my situation and decided to give me a new car despite my not being in her live audience; or even that my ex swooped in and saved the day, our love rekindling after she realized her mistake(s).

But, no. Sometimes there are no immediate happy endings. Sometimes you just have to push through the hard times only to find a very brief silver lining a few months down the road. But the funny thing about hitting rock bottom? There's nowhere to go but up.