Step by Step

Prologue

i. Vince

Vince was drunk, and everybody knew it. More often than not, he drank and he drank, and his actions afterward showed it.

Perhaps Cassandra had been wrong to think that she could help Vince through this. There was a reason she had always been slightly wary of Rapunzel's actions and motives, her wish to trust and to help just about everyone that they ever came across. It was simply too dangerous to open your heart and mind to someone that was a virtual stranger.

Cass had been such a hypocrite.

When she had first met him, Vince had been relatively clean, only getting terribly wasted every so often. She had taken it as a challenge: get him to go sober for more than an entire month.

He had been a decent man, fairly tolerable, very handsome. His dark eyes were always in the moment, alert and emotional. His lips had always been genuine, speaking only the truth and giving some of the kindest smiles that Cassandra had ever borne witness to. There were times where his line of thought would be interrupted by another idea or story, but nobody seemed to mind. Other people were far more scatterbrained than Vince ever was; they weren't going to judge.

He seemed to genuinely like Cassandra. In just about any setting, he purposefully sought her out and joined her, offering her a kind smile. He tried (multiple times) to get her to go out with him, but her answer was always the same: "I'll do it once you've been sober for at least a month."

It wasn't easy-- too many times, the beckoning of drink was too much for Vince to handle-- but he finally did it. He went for two months, in fact, going for the "better safe than sorry" route. And finally, Cass agreed to go out with him. Looking back, Cass would say that she had just made one of the worst decisions of her life. Because once she agreed to that, everything began to spiral out of control. And that crazy spiral took years and years to finally come to an end.

"I can't say that I like this, Cass," Rapunzel said softly, "you and I both know that he only went sober for two months because he wanted you. And probably not in a decent way, either."

Cassandra snorted. "Listen, Raps. I can handle myself."

"Maybe," Rapunzel responded, sounding hesitant, "but I'm worried for you. Cass, he's not a good guy, and he's even less of a good guy when he's been to the pub."

"He knows the rules. If he wants to stay with me, he has to stay sober."

Rapunzel frowned. "Cassandra, I know that you think you're almighty or something. But... This definitely isn't your best idea."

Cass sighed. "I know it's not, Raps. But still... I believe it's worth a shot."

"If... If you're certain," Rapunzel complied after a moment or two, "just... Be careful. Okay?"

"Of course I will, Raps."

Cassandra had made that promise... But it was fairly difficult to keep such a promise when the other party was completely wasted. Like, completely wasted.

"Lookee 'ere!" Vince said, sounding overly enthusiastic about something or other, "it's 'Sandra. Beautiful, beautiful 'Sandra!"

Cass sighed deeply. "Vince, I've been standing here for five minutes straight. You were literally just talking to me."

"Oh."

He had clearly been to the pub recently.

Cassandra frowned. Maybe Rapunzel was onto something; perhaps Cass couldn't "fix" Vince as she had intended to do earlier. It was high time to give him up; he was no longer the kind, sweet man that he had once been. Instead, he spent every waking hour either wasted or working his way up to it.