Now, after that fluff, there's got to be something else. Thanks for reviewing, corderbollie, 1st cavusarmy and Beth. For those of you that did not work out where I got the idea of watching someone sleep, it was the Twilight Saga. Why does no one remember that the male lead likes to sneak into his girlfriend's room to watch her sleep? After all, Curly has the same obsessiveness and creepiness to his character.
It was now two months since that fateful prom night, and life seemed more perfect than ever. Rhonda was especially happy. When she was on Facebook and video chatting, she always seemed to be happy. What she didn't know was that whenever someone talked to her, they'd report back to the other students.
This had been Phoebe's idea. "We don't really want to lose Rhonda. Besides, I'm not convinced that she's completely safe. I know Curly wouldn't want to hurt her, but we all know that he can snap."
Everyone knew that when Curly snapped, he wasn't safe to be around. There were minor incidents when he did something, like when he framed Eugene for pulling the fire alarm in fourth grade, but those incidents weren't dangerous. But when Curly actually snapped, he completely lost control. Just about anything could set him off, and it didn't happen in cycles. The first time he snapped that they could remember was in fourth grade. The second time – and the third, come to that – happened in sixth grade, but then it didn't happen again until eleventh grade.
"We'd thought he'd grown out of it." Sheena had mused. "But then..."
"If something sets him off while Rhonda's there, we need to know." Phoebe concluded. "Even in her state of mind, she'll probably think it's okay to tell us. Unless Curly has specifically told her not to, but this is the best we can do, except for visiting her."
"But I thought we agreed that he wouldn't hurt Rhonda." Nadine said hesitantly. "I mean, even if he does snap, that's the last thing he'd do."
"I don't necessarily think that he would," Phoebe admitted, "But she might just end up in the way. Once Curly snaps, he really snaps. Every time he's lost it before, he hasn't cared who he hurts. Granted, he didn't run into Rhonda specifically those times, but she's just as vulnerable as any one of us was. Even more so, given her current fragility. No matter what he does to her, she'll continue to defend his actions to others. She could very easily end up dead."
There was a silence after this. Curly hadn't actually killed, or seriously hurt, anyone during the times when he lost it, but that didn't mean he hadn't tried. In fourth grade, when he first snapped and locked himself in the principal's office with 500 kickballs, he'd lobbed the balls at anyone and everyone, then when Arnold had brought him his demands – two sodas and a sub – he'd locked both of them in there. It was only lucky that Arnold had been able to get him to calm down.
Later times were more serious. Curly could and would wield almost anything as a weapon. In sixth grade, he attacked with wooden blocks, and in eleventh grade, he'd smashed several glass objects, cutting his hands up in the process.
"Shouldn't we get her out of there?" Lila said finally. "I hadn't considered that. It's dangerous for them to be there on their own."
Meanwhile, the period of bliss that seemed to have come was diminishing, both for Rhonda, and for Curly. Rhonda was finally starting to think about how things really happened, although her subconscious still romanticized it a little. She didn't lose the way she felt, but she had more inhibitions about physical affection, and felt a little more shy. There had been an initial time of pure heaven in her view, but it was over now, and try as she might, her mindset was a little more disillusioned, and her actions reflected that. Her mind kept reminding her that she hadn't wanted this before. "I want it now," she argued in her head, "So what's wrong with me changing my mind about him?" But no matter how she justified it, she kept remembering the first week after graduation, staring out the window miserably and trying to think of a way to escape.
Curly had noticed the change in Rhonda's willingness to submit to the make-out sessions they had been enjoying recently, and it annoyed him. He'd thought that he had Rhonda completely, and realizing that she was still unsure felt like he'd lost her again. It hurt, and in Curly's admittedly twisted mind, it felt like rejection. He knew it wasn't, but he was afraid to ask Rhonda directly, in case she actually did want to tell him she wanted to leave. They couldn't go back home – he'd be locked up for sure. And he didn't want to go back to square one, and have Rhonda locked in the apartment like she was at the start. But there had to be something, something he could do to get his beautiful girlfriend to go back to her adoring passionate willing self.
He tried spending less time with her, moderating it, but she still seemed to be holding back the smallest bit. He still couldn't even contemplate simply asking Rhonda what was going on. Even if he had, she wouldn't have been able to answer, since she herself wasn't sure why she was so tense.
Anyone that was experienced in relationship could have told them what was going on. At the start of their relationship, they had gone through what was known as a "honeymoon" period, when they could just look into each other's eyes and see everything they wanted in the world. Now, Rhonda was waking up from that part and remembering why it hadn't happened before this time. It didn't mean she stopped feeling that way about Curly. It simply meant that she was no longer blind to everything going on.
But long before that time, she had been everything Curly wanted, and that wasn't changing. But because Rhonda didn't still have the dizzy bliss that came with their initial relationship, he had to move on to an in-between stage, a stage when he was desperate to get Rhonda back to their initial state, and feared that he would lose her forever if he didn't do something. It was getting frustrating. And when things got frustrating enough for Curly, that was when he would snap. So far, he'd handled things well, but it was getting harder and harder for him to hang on.
Rhonda didn't recognize any of the signs. The signs for when Curly would snap were simple. He'd initally go a little bit vocal when the final incident set him off. Then he'd go really quiet for a while, not responding to anything around him. Finally, something would happen, and people would get hurt.
And although neither of them knew it yet, something like that was going to happen sooner than they thought.
So...what do you think Curly will do?
The next chapter will probably take a long time to be put up, as I've hit a bit of a snag with this story, but I promise I'll finish it. In the meantime, please review and pm me if you have any ideas.
