Scream

~ "Oh, what a tangled web we weave
when, first, we practice to deceive..." ~ Sir Walter Scott


Nine months of craftsmanship, gone... Blown away by the winds of reality. The truth had to come out, at some point. She
knew it was true... BUT...

It was relatively harmless and innocent ~ at its' inception. Go online ~ Fake a smile; A profile. Simple "NO HARM/NO FOUL" fun ~ Well, it's all fun and games until... Someone gets hurt.

She didn't intend to lure him in. Not initially. It could have been anyone. Any man who figured that, just because genetics
hadn't been a total crapshoot; Just because Adonis graced him with looks that appealed to more than a few lusting
eyes ~ Any man who figured he was better than anyone else ~ better than anyone who'd want to be with her. But she
found him... And it only made it better (or worse, depending on perspective) when she had found someone she'd already
known...and been rejected by.

Keystroke...Keystroke... Click "SEND" ~ and Wait...

Would he take the bait? Would he even hesitate? Nope! Before the day's end, they were exchanging personal messages
at breakneck speed! Yes, she had him at a disadvantage {she knew his darkest secret desires, courtesy of his loose lips
years earlier} -- That was her advantage... BUT... She never calculated into the equation, the fact that he could,
potentially, have an advantageous skillset of his own. And the dance between them had begun.

With her first message, she'd gotten a response... and the ball, so to speak, started to roll. She was talking to him on the
phone by late evening ~ discussing everything under the sun ~ Phone fun came later, no pun intended. "Easy-Peasy" she
thought. "I mean, he and I, we're like Bonnie and Clyde ~ We feed on mutual desires and ~ hell, who's it gonna hurt?" -- In
her mind, it was justified. "Play him like I've been played ~ Mess with his head a bit and walk away... Leave him mystified
as to why he just wasn't 'Good Enough!' "

... She knew it was wrong. But... with every lie she told, she made sure to weave some truth. The name she gave wasn't
hers, but, then again, in her defense, the name she'd been given at birth didn't seem to fit to her, either. The photos
she displayed were merely a tool with which to feed his egocentric sense of "She has to be hot!" ~ EYE CANDY. {Boys
are such simple creatures!} Some of the aspects of her life { what she did to pay the bills, where she lived, etc} were
fictitious, but... the deceptive train derailed right around there... until much further down the proverbial line. Until that
point, it was ALL her.

Within hours, they began to feel a connection. And it grew... to proportions neither one of them could have ever imagined. Not even a month after they began speaking, a relationship (albeit one built and maintained on the phone and via email and text messages) had blossomed. It was all a lie ~ and she knew she had to end it... WITHDRAW... "Get out while you still can!" BUT... the pull to him was ultra-magnetic. She loved talking to him. She craved the words that she'd always longed to hear; Wanted him, as crazy as it seemed. And while she knew she was caught up in the dangerous charade, the reality of it really never left her, and so she tried... She tried to walk away... Changed her number even... but, unfortunately, she tied the noose around her neck and roped herself back into ... the Addiction to Him.

He had a way... From the very first time, he always had a way of Making her Stay. And it wasn't like her to complain,
so... She worked the story like a Masterpiece; Nurtured it like her children... She made love through her words; She
danced him around the proverbial floor, always in the lead and yet, letting him believe he'd had all the control in the
world. She was the PuppetMaster, and she definitely had his strings... What she couldn't seem to find (and after 6
grueling months of living the lie, was starting to become desperate for) were the scissors with which to cut them.

Six months of "See you soon, then" and "I love you ~ I'm in love WITH you's" can take its toll on a person. Usually in beneficial ways, BUT... this was a hoax, from the very beginning, and lies, (even those hand-crafted with half-truths)
have an interesting way of wrestling themselves out of even the most masterfully woven webs. Six months can wear
anything, even the most impenetrable heart in all existence, down to a speck of small matter... and THIS was NO small
matter.

And so, the truth came out. After all the "I Love You's" and the "no matter what's"... He'd been loyal, far beyond a
fault. She'd made up lie after lie ~ He'd bought them until they were a completely depleted stock. She'd offered up
excuse after excuse ~ He'd graciously accepted them with a smile on his face - (even though she could feel the
ache within his soul). ~ She'd told him she was dying... She BEGGED him to leave... She refused to see him... and
Still... He kept Making her Stay...

Much like "Bonnie & Clyde", their love - (built on lies and half-truths) - went down in a hail of gunfire and smoke. She
choked on her last words, and he got the last laugh... But, she didn't feel guilty. No... she felt... Justified. This was HER
story, not his... In her OWN words... and finally, she got to tell it. She told it... She YELLED it...

In her words...

"You looked me over, simply because you didn't like the fabric-skin my genetics dressed me in. You wanted
everything I have ALWAYS been, but because I don't look like the "Perfect 10" to you, I was a negative 22!
Guess I showed you! Yeah? I maybe made an ass of myself, but you will NEVER forget the reality of it. You got
played! But I think, for me, it goes MUCH deeper... For me, playing You, - A man who thinks he's ENTITLED to
"Perfection", when he is SO FAR FROM PERFECT, himself, was the ultimate #EpicWin in the area of
#TeachingLessons.
Maybe you will finally see that other people have feelings, too... Other people (Not just YOUR circle) matter, too.
We are NOT expendable, and you aren't either! But now you know how it feels to be treated as such; As though
you were simply something to occupy the spaces in between... something Irrelevant.

~ "So this is my apology - for saying all those shitty things
I didn't really mean...
I'm Sorry I'm not Sorry" ~ K.Clarkson