Choked Unconscious

The Rock and I had fun together. He continued to drink with his friends after work. We would go bowling together. He began borrowing money from his friends and each pay period he would borrow more. We were falling further and further behind. I was in the Florida National Guard but only received a small paycheck for one weekend of training each month. I went to work at a convenience store to supplement his income. He didn’t like it but didn’t complain too much as long as I was bringing money in. His mother was “borrowing” money from us which I didn’t appreciate since I’d been to her home and knew she had a lot more than we did.

My cooking got better, and we had everyone over for Thanksgiving dinner (Shake ‘N Bake). He started going out more and more often without me. I could tell something was wrong, but I didn’t know what. I was doing the laundry when I pulled a photo of a pretty blonde in a bikini out of his shirt pocket. I didn’t say a word when I handed it to him. He immediately stated, “It’s not what you think.”

We went to a birthday party in a dormitory for a friend of my husband. There were tons of people there. I was on the balcony smoking a cigarette and admiring the night sky when another female guest joined me, and we started chatting. Eventually she hit on me. I giggled and told her I was married, not interested. Every so often, some new person in my life will get it in their head that I’m gay and it always strikes me as funny. I don’t think I’m butch. I’m heterosexual. Anyway, on the way home, The Rock and I were laughing and talking about the conversations we had separately during the evening. When I told him about this exchange, he became enraged and accused me of WANTING TO SLEEP with her. What? I didn’t want to and how in the world can you accuse someone of WANTING to do something! Absurd. We parked in front of our quarters, walked across the grassy lawn, he opened the front door (we’re loudly arguing all the way in) and let me enter first. He put his hands around my throat from behind and I began gasping for air. He made accusations in my ear as he was choking me. I woke up the next morning in a heap, on the floor, in front of the front door.