#and I secretly hoped that the longform would end with mark realising how clarissa has been mistreating him

[youling-the-ghost]

No but imagine you're Mark for a minute. You live with your alcoholic father, your father who blames you for your mother's death, your mother who died because your father was drunk driving. And yet you're the one who shouldered the burden.

You grow up like this. That's fine, you tell yourself, because what else can you say?

You meet this wonderful woman. Her name is Suzanne (or is it Clarissa?) and she makes you feel whole again, like your guilt and trauma are nothing more than the past. After everything, you see a ray of light shining through.

And so you propose, wanting to spend the rest of your life with this wonderful woman. But just as you're on one knee with the ring in your hand, your girlfriend casts you aside and answers a phone call. This isn't the first time she's done this.

You call the engagement off, but you still want things to heal (how could you not?) and so you try. You try again to heal your relationship, because you love her and you want to make things right. But she does it again. She brushes off your feelings and makes you feel like you're no more than a sewer rat, scurrying from bin to bin and hiding in the walls. And to rub salt on the wound, when you try to express yourself, she calls you hotheaded and dismisses your feelings.

Like damn, Mark was just going through it the entire longform.