Act 5: "the rumor: an unreliable chain of exaggerated personal theories and second hand fact

when paul left town that beautiful evening, a small party was planned in preparation of co-worker A's birthday. a modest gathering of fellow employees and neighbors, friends and acquaintances of miss A. paul felt little regret about missing, happy instead, to give the said co-worker his regards. parties were a dime a distinction in this town, no noticeable difference between any given gathering besides maybe a t-shirt color or an outfit accessory. paul's trip, though necessary, was not exactly looked forward too, he would rather have stayed and worked out this impending crisis and maybe fit in a few more hours at work for some holiday money. but, as it were, paul was obligated to leave. 

the party was to held at co-worker B's house not too far from paul's neighborhood, just down the street actually. a decently priced keg was purchased for the occasion and invites were sent via cell phone texting. what was assumed would be a small gathering of friends and co-workers soon turned out to be a massive block party. the apple of paul's eye, along with his two room mates, were one of the many who decided to attend this, soon to be, wild get together. 

the room mates, unaware of the the fiends release, casually went about their merry carousing way, socializing with both friends and complete strangers alike. the apple, realizing she was no longer under the supervision of the two oblivious room mates, also went about her way with devious plans formulating within her sharp mind. what started out as an innocent drink soon became a vindictive binge, full on hammered. she was free, finally, of paul's overly cautious, annoyingly timid character; his non-existant masculinity and borderline feminine manner. paul's  friends, deceived by her innocent exterior and muddled by excessive amounts of alcohol, would never think to suspect that she, the good little girl, would ever go astray. the alcohol, acting like an adhesive, only helped to piece together this mishmash collection of lustful thoughts. in the end she concluded this: she needed to get laid. but her insecurities could not permit her to leave such a constant companion, someone who would always make her feel special. she had to keep this affair clandestine. 

two men seemed to stand out to her when she reached this conclusion, two shady characters that seemed to stand apart from the rest of the mingling party. she wasn't sure why, but their presence seemed to have a magnetic effect on her, she sensed that they hid something. a fanciful birthday gift with a pretty bow addressed to her and only her. not only where they different, she realized, but they were also almost complete strangers. she had never seen paul around them, perhaps they could keep a secret.

upon approaching, the taller man, jimbo, slowly craned his large form downward to light a freshly packed cigarette that dangled from her smug lips. her eyes never left his beaming face even when the lighter flickered eagerly with contact. the second man, lefty, spoke softly from jimbo's side: 

 "what exactly are you looking for, sweet thing?" 

she exhaled a cloud of smoke seductively towards his shadowed form before responding. 

 "something different. something forbidden," she paused again before finishing, "something fun." 

he smiled at this and jimbo straightened himself. 

"fun." jimbo said softly.

 "i know someone you might like to meet," lefty rasped softly "someone foreign to this place. a close friend of mine." a look from jimbo made lefty quickly correct himself, "excuse me, ours."

 "really," she arched an eyebrow at this, "is he attractive?" 

 "very." both replied simultaneously. 

perhaps it was the alcohol that made her feel so daring, perhaps it was the frustration, the point is, though, was that she was sold. the three of them climbed into a nearby blue sedan. the party remained undisturbed as they drove off to some unknown location. 

co-worker C, a friend of hers, noticed an hour or so later that the apple had disappeared. fearing that she had drank herself sick, miss C began searching the surrounding area with the help of co-worker B. miss B, a friend of paul's, asked around the gathering and through her drunken inquiry she came to find out that the apple had, earlier, been speaking in a hushed tone with two friends of miss C's and that they had all climbed into a car without a word to anyone about where they were going or why. 

miss C, in the mean time, had come across a blue sedan in her neighbors yard that was, until she came into view, violently rocking. thinking she had interrupted one of the guests at the party, she turned back. as she came back into her yard, she remembered, with shock, that she had actually recognized that car as jimbo's. hoping to play a friendly prank on a decent friend she snuck back to the now still car to give the two sexually engaged occupants a nasty scare. 

she ripped the door open and screamed triumphantly only to find an empty car with a soiled pair of leopard print, female undergarments. having gone swimming one bright summer afternoon with the apple, she had, like most decently acquainted female friends, had the chance to change from wet clothes to dry ones with her. these panties stirred some familiar memory within her inebriated mind that didn't came to light until much later. 

miss C than returned to the party, slightly confused, and met up with her companion miss B. the two were equally astonished by the apple's mysterious disappearance. they compared notes and, at this point, the familiar feeling struck miss C like lightning. the apple had left with a man, someone other than paul, and, would most likely, not be returning to the gathering that night. 

the apple was found at home by paul's loyal, but drunk friends. they had absolutely no knowledge of the turn of events that had occurred that evening, they even convinced her to drink more with them on the front porch. one more day and paul would return, they happily sang. this would be the last time anyone of them would get along as well as they did. already the two co-workers, B and C, were piecing the nights mysterious event together, the whisper watched with strained interest as the look of shocked horror began to dawn on their now enlightened faces." 

after your two roommates, bedraggled and depressed, finished their second hand tale you flopped limply into a nearby couch. 

"there are two types of shit in this world. floating shit and sinking shit." one of your roommates said.

"there's also shit that won't flush." the other roommate chimed in. 

"right. whether or not they sink or float, or whether or not they flush down the first time, doesn't matter." 

"the point is," the other started to finish,"shit is just shit and you, the shitter, hold the trigger." 

they rose, thinking you needed time to consider their convoluted bit of advice, patted your slumped shoulder and retired for the evening