Linda wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer.

Her and Felix's relationship had started off so wonderfully. They loved each other truly and genuinely. That feeling had only intensified when the two of them had gotten married. It was a nice wedding they'd had and probably the happiest day of her life.

It had been smooth sailing from there forth.

And then, Felix fell in love with alcohol. He'd always liked drinking, ever since college in fact. Back then he was a lightweight like any other bright eyed kid there was. Eventually, though, Felix had gotten good at drinking. The man could barely down two bottles without getting drunk back in his early twenties.

Now though, he could go into the double digits before he really began to feel it.

When he used to get drunk, he got emotional, and somehow more loveable for Linda. She'd always liked to have conversations with his alcohol addled mind because some of the things that used to escape his mouth were just too funny to pass up. Eventually even that changed.

Now, Felix was–and never has been–a violent person. Most swore he couldn't hurt a fly because the fly would scare him away and up a tree. Felix had only been in a handful of physical fights his whole life. He lost most, one or two ended in a draw, and he'd only won one nearly twenty years ago now.

Of course, alcohol changed that like a painter changed a canvas.

It was night and day what he had become recently when under the influence. Linda wasn't sure what had sparked the change, she wasn't even sure if there was a cause besides the alcohol. One day he was his usually drunken self, the next was the same. Eventually after a period of time she found that Felix wasn't what she remembered.

He still loved her though, and she still loved him.

Linda sat on a parkbench absentmindedly, her mind eluding her while she thought of previous years.

Better years.

Years where she didn't have to pretend her black eyes and bruises were from slips, trips, and falls.