5

________ was supposed to take Andy for the holidays. It was fantastic for Kindra in some ways, because that meant she didn’t have to handle one of the hardest times of the year. She was frustrated though, because that meant she lost quality bonding time with Andy. Without that time, they were probably still going to be on the rocks.

When Andy was younger, before he could talk, they were very close. That was when ___________ and Kindra were still together. Remarkably, though Kindra had plenty of friends then, Andy seemed to understand her troubles with ___________ more than anyone else. If she was upset or frustrated, Andy knew. He would tottle over, pull himself into her lap, and rest his head on her. That kind of affection fixed everything.

When Kindra and _________ broke up, Andy started talking. That was when he changed. Kindra didn’t even notice he changed because she wasn’t upset as much after the break up, so there weren’t any missed instances of affection on his part. Until Kindra got a new boyfriend.

Kindra’s new boyfriend was the opposite of  ________, because everybody who escapes an awful relationship wants to find something wildly different.  He was not successful, meaning he had no reason to act anything but genuine. No front. He happened to not be a fantastic person, either, but at least he didn’t hide it.

He insisted that Kindra was mopey and self-centered, and as somebody who was mopey and self-centered, Kindra enjoyed this accusation. It meant she had something to whine about. When they fought, she somewhat enjoyed it too. And when she cried afterwards and he stood outside the bathroom saying he was sorry, she was so so excited. There was a time when they were fighting and she slapped him, which set her back. That meant she was the bad guy. It erased all her victim points. She had to find ways to make him seem bad.

Kindra really enjoyed this relationship.

But when he shoved her and she fell down the stairs, Kindra snapped out of her state. He ran away at that point, sick of her shit. She couldn't chase after him. She injured her shoulder enough to make it hard to get up. Andy stood at the top, hardly even the height of two stairs, and said "you're going to stay there."