why the door didn't get fixed

Elliot had time for nothing, lately. He was spread thin at school. Conferences. Extra curricular activities. Being the head of this, the start of that. It went on and on. Nobody seemed to understand he had no time for himself. Or maybe he just took longer to do things, than anyone else, which meant he had gone back to smoking which lead to something else..he'd rather not talk about. Drinking.

OK, he knew it was not a good combination. It wasn't like he was drunk. Exactly. He just had to kick back. It wasn't like he was going to the bar. Just staying out in the garage. Alone.

Amanda never asked about it. She would let him alone. A lot of times, he said he was just working on something. Like the car. But then came the night he fell through the bedroom door and barely missed Amanda. Well, she knew something was up. And she was none to happy when he left the bathroom faucet on and water got all over the tiles. See, it was kind of funny. He thought now. He'd forgot to pull his jeans up when he went to the toilet. He'd actually tripped when he fell through the door.

Naturally, he told her he'd never do it again. Never drink rum, again. Wasn't like he'd ever been mean or anything. He wasn't a bad guy. So he was sober. A lot of the time. He'd learned his lesson. But then he had to listen to his mother go on and on about Asa and how she felt he was just spending too much time with Amanda. Had he noticed? What was she saying? Was Amanda keeping secrets?

So yes, he'd gone back to having his rum and Pepsi. And then those weekends when it was suppose to be good times for the two of them, turned into yelling matches. He guessed. It was a little murky. But they had to be OK. She still slept with him. They were OK. He guessed. He really wasn't that awful. But he'd get mad at himself about school. About work. And yes, maybe he did blame her for a lot of things. He couldn't help it.

But, he wasn't sure if he trusted her. After all, she'd been unfaithful to somebody before. Well, even to him before they got married. It was all coming back to him. And he just added more fuel to the doubt. What to do with the money? What was she doing with Asa? What bad things had she done now? He could be so haunting when he wanted to, or just give her the silent treatment. Yet, all along he could just be that nice guy he was. Of course, it was all getting so hard to keep up with.

He didn't want to slip up in front of Asa nor Derrick. After all, they did think things were just fine. Was Amanda really going to tell them anything. He didn't think so.

He made himself another drink in the garage then. Just where he wanted to be. Alone with a bottle of rum and a big bottle of Pepsi.