Coming Out

"Phil." Janine said, looking over at Punk who was standing at the door, "I can explain." She gulped, trying hard to think in her head what she could say to help this situation, to make it better.

"You're not pregnant?" Punk questioned, "There's no baby?" He asked. He couldn't quite comprehend it. He was just trying to get used to the idea that he was going to be a father. That there was going to be a baby. His baby. And now he was learning it didn't even exist.

"I'm gonna go." Dean nodded. He knew there was no reason for him to stay. Clearly the rest of this conversation was only for his brother and his wife.

"How dare you." Janine spat as Dean paused before leaving the living room, "How dare you come in here like this-"

"Excuse me?" Dean looked at her angrily, "How dare I? How dare you!" Dean yelled, "That's not something you lie about. That is not something you put in someone's head." He spat whilst Punk stood quietly, trying to absurd the information.

"You had no right to come here. This was a conversation for me and Phil." Janine spat.

"Well go on. Have the conversation then." Dean nodded to her, turning to Punk who was standing still as a statue, "I'm sorry, man." Dean sighed, patting Punk on the back before leaving the house, slightly frightened of what was to follow between the couple.

"Phil, I can explain everything." Janine walked over to him, "This is just… it's a misunderstanding." She gulped.

"Misunderstanding?" Punk shook his head, "Are you really not pregnant?" He asked. He felt like he had to keep hearing it to believe it.

"N-No, but… but I can be." Janine nodded as Punk tilted his head, "I can be. See how good it felt? How we… we weren't fighting and we had something to focus on?" She took his hands in hers, "We can have that. We can start trying for a baby-"

"Don't touch me." Punk ripped his hands from hers, walking past her further into the living room.

"Phil, please-"

"Why'd you do this?" Punk turned to her, "What are you getting out of this?" He questioned.

"I thought it could save our marriage." Janine said, "It will. It already has-"

"Do you honestly believe that?" Punk stared at her angrily.

"You can't tell me it hasn't felt good these past few days. We've been happy. You've been happy." She nodded as Punk laughed to himself, running his hands over his face.

"What the hell were you gonna do when I started to notice you weren't pregnant?" Punk questioned as she looked at him, shrugging, "What the hell is wrong with you?" He spat.

"You started talking about divorce and splitting up. I panicked." Janine snapped, "I wanted to give you something that… that would make you stay-"

"A fake baby?" Punk questioned, "Yeah, that was exactly what I wanted. Thank you so much." Punk nodded.

"I wanted you to see how good it could feel-"

"I have felt anything but good these past few days." Punk said as Janine shook her head, "Didn't you think that when I brought up divorce and splitting up that it was us that was the problem? Nothing to do with a baby. That wasn't the reason I wanted to divorce you-"

"Well then what?!" Janine threw her hands up.

"I love someone else!" Punk yelled back as Janine raised her eyebrows.

"W-What?" Janine shook her head as Punk ran his hand through his hair.

"There's someone else." Punk nodded, "Someone I love and care about." He said as Janine shook her head, laughing a little, assuming it had to have been his weird sense of humour, "I'm not kidding." Punk made clear as Janine looked at him worriedly.

"Someone else?" She gritted her teeth, "What does that even mean?" She spat.

"It means when I brought up divorce and splitting up, it wasn't because we didn't have a baby. It was because I don't love you anymore." Punk said, "And I don't even think you love me." He said as Janine paused, staring across at him.

"Have you… Have you been cheating on me?" Janine questioned with disbelief as Punk looked across at her.

"Yeah." Punk gulped. He wasn't going to lie. Not now.

"What?" Janine shook her head, "I-I don't even understand…"

"Yeah well me neither. I thought I was gonna be a dad five minutes ago and now I know I'm not. My head's a little scrambled right now." He said.

"You've been cheating on me." Janine said almost robotically, in disbelief.

"Our marriage has been a disaster for the past year. We did everything. We did the weekend getaways. Opening up more. Date nights. Changing our routines. We tried." Punk said, "And it just got worse-"

"You cheated on me." Janine repeated, beginning to pace a little as Punk watched her, "How long?"

"Since you went to your mom's." Punk said as Janine shook her head.

"No… no, you wouldn't do that to me." Janine whispered, looking across at him, "You wouldn't."

"All we were doing was fighting. You left and barely even contacted me-"

"So you went and fucked someone else?!" Janine spat as Punk sighed to himself, "W-What about when I came back?" She asked, numb with shock.

"What about it?" Punk said.

"Were you still with her? Are you still-"

"I was with her this morning." Punk nodded as Janine raised her eyebrows.

"This morning?" Janine questioned, "So even when you thought I was pregnant you… you still cheated on me-"

"You literally lied about being pregnant!" Punk yelled, "Who does that? That's sick-"

"Don't you dare. Don't you dare use that to counter against what you've done. You've been cheating on me all this time!" She yelled.

"Yeah and I was gonna tell you everything. I was ready to come clean and… and talk about divorce, so we can get out of this… whatever this relationship has become." He said, "And then you told me you were pregnant-"

"Who is this woman?" Janine questioned.

"Not important and it doesn't matter." Punk made clear.

"Oh, it's important." Janine chuckled, "And I will find out." She warned.

"You'll do nothing." Punk said, "Our marriage was a mess. It wasn't even a marriage anymore-"

"So you just thought that gave you the right to go screw other people? What the hell is wrong with you? I-I didn't marry this man." She shook her head, "I married a good person, who cared about me, who would never, ever hurt me-"

"I never wanted to hurt you. I never wanted it to come to this but you… you faked a pregnancy to keep me here. Who the hell does that?" Punk spat.

"Someone who loves their husband and wanted things to work between them desperately-"

"No, don't… don't make it like you were doing this for me." Punk said, "It's sick and twisted. You don't put that shit in people's heads." He said.

"You don't get to use that to forget what you've done. I could have been pregnant and you were out fucking some other woman. How disgusting do you have to be to do that to your own wife?" She spat as Punk looked down at her, "You should be lucky there is no baby. You're a disgrace." She looked up at him.

"I agree." Punk nodded, "I didn't want it to come to this, and I certainly didn't want to hurt you, but you… you say I'm a different man? You're a different woman."

"I haven't changed since you met me." Janine spat.

"You have. Drastically." Punk nodded, "And I'm not making excuses. I know what I've done was wrong. I'm not saying that because our marriage was terrible that it's ok that I went and… did what I did-"

"Cheated. You cheated on me." Janine said, "You can't even say it." She shook her head.

"I know what I did." Punk assured her, "But when you were coming home, I was ending it with you. I already had lawyers on standby for a divorce. I was ending our marriage officially, but… our marriage ended months ago." He said, "And you know it did."

"And I was trying to save it-"

"With a fake baby!" Punk yelled, "That's… that's so messed up. That's the most messed up thing I've ever heard. I… You told me earlier you thought it'd be a boy." He screwed his face up, "How could you look at me in the eye and know that there was no baby?"

"I don't know, how could you look me in the eye and know that you're screwing someone else?" She batted back as he nodded to himself.

"Is this what we're gonna do now? I've got my ammunition, you've got yours?" Punk questioned.

"I was trying to save our marriage. You were destroying it." Janine spat, "You've… You've been sleeping with someone else for weeks. You do not get to make me the bad guy." She said, "No chance in hell."

"I'm not trying to make you anything." Punk spat, "I'm saying I tried to save this marriage. Maybe I didn't fake a pregnancy. But I did just about everything else to try and save us but… it didn't work. You know it didn't." He said, "We were over a long time ago-"

"Our vows still stand as long as we are married. And we swore to love each other, to be faithful to one another… faithful, Phil. You know what that means?" She spat.

"Yeah, I guess we never swore to not allow fake pregnancies so… you get a pass, right?" He said as she slapped him hard across the face, then slapped him again for a second time.

"Go to hell." Janine spat as Punk nodded to himself, rubbing his cheek, "Just because you fall out of love with me doesn't mean you get to go sleep with someone else."

"Yeah well just because I bring up divorce doesn't mean you tell me you're pregnant when you're really not." Punk said.

"They're two completely different things." Janine spat, "I-I can't believe you've been cheating on me." She shook her head, "This morning." She said, sickened to even say it, "When I was at my mom's house, crying over you, you were here not giving a damn."

"That's not how it was." Punk said, "I called you every day, I went to visit you, nothing was good enough for you. I-I reached breaking point, Janine. I couldn't do it anymore and… and someone else was there for me."

"Who is it? Tell me her name." Janine spat angrily.

"No. No, she's not getting involved in this." Punk made clear.

"Oh, you wanna protect her?" Janine pouted sarcastically, "Or are you ashamed? I mean there's only certain types of girls who'd sleep with married men." She said, "I'm sure she's lovely." She chuckled to herself in a sadistic manner.

"What the hell were you going to do when I figured out there was no baby?" Punk spat.

"I was gonna get myself pregnant by the time you'd start to wonder." Janine said as Punk raised his eyebrows.

"Excuse me?" Punk spat. He had to remember that she'd came up with this pregnancy plan before she knew about his affair, which meant she made up this plan in her own brain, and actually thought it would work.

"Yeah… I figured it wouldn't matter. It was supposed to bring us together and… and it did-"

"If you seriously think this was the solution to all our problems, you're insane." Punk nodded, "Do you have any idea how sick that is? And for you to plan on getting pregnant, bringing a kid into this fucking mess-"

"Well this was before I knew you'd cheated-"

"Exactly! Which is worse, in my opinion. You thought of this on your own, when all you thought was that I wanted a divorce." Punk said, "You don't do that. That's messing with people's emotions-"

"Oh, you're one to talk about messing with people's emotions." Janine laughed, "What do you think you're doing to me right now?" She spat.

"Telling you the truth." Punk nodded, "Which yeah, I should have told you from the beginning, I know that." He said, "Despite what you might think, I never wanted to hurt you. Ever."

"Oh, well it looks like you really tried your hardest not hurt me." Janine nodded sarcastically, looking across at him, "I loved you. I was gonna do anything to save this. Anything." She shook her head.

"We tried." Punk said, "I was miserable, Janine. We both were. We weren't happy together. Half the time I felt like I was just here so you could say you had a husband." He said, "The connection was gone. It has been for the past year."

"Whatever you have to say does not justify you cheating on me with another woman. Multiple times." Janine said, "You are scum and I want you gone." She said as Punk looked across at her.

"Yeah and I'm concerned about the lengths you'd go to just to secure a marriage that had no real chance of surviving anyway." Punk said, "It's sick and no normal person would think about doing that to someone." He said, "I thought I was gonna be a dad. You put that in my head."

"Oh, are you disappointed?" Janine chuckled as Punk watched her.

"No. No, I'm relieved." Punk nodded, "No kid deserves to be brought into a mess like this. To parents who are so far gone from loving one another." He said.

"I love you. You're the one who stopped loving me." Janine warned, "You bailed on us."

"If it makes you feel better." Punk said, "Then yeah. I bailed. But in ten year's time, when we're both happier, you'll thank me."

"I won't thank you for shit." Janine spat, getting closer to him, "Get out of my house." She warned as Punk looked down at her.

"Your house?" Punk questioned.

"My house." Janine nodded.

"Fine." Punk nodded, "I'll go." He put his hands up, walking to the living room door.

"And Phil…" She called him back as he turned around, "I'll find out who the girl is." She assured him as Punk stared across at her before walking out of the house, slamming the door shut behind him.

Janine paced the living room, pulling at her hair to maintain her anger before flipping the coffee table over, tearing the living room apart hysterically.