Another Complicated Love Story

Chapter 1

           "Leaving? What do you mean you're leaving?" Luke fumbled over the words, his voice tight with panic.

            "You know exactly what I mean," Sarah said sadly. "I can't be here anymore. I just...can't." She shook her head as the words left her.

            "No. No you can't leave." He tried to sound calm but the break in his voice gave him away. His tanned hands ran through his short blonde hair, a nervous habit he'd always had. Striding to the rapidly filling suitcase, he began frantically taking out the neatly folded shirts and pants and sundresses that he had seen her wear so many times before. Like the navy blue dress with the lavender daisies that she had worn to meet his family. Or the white one she wore on their date to the pier. The one that billowed around her as she walked. The one that made her look even more like the angel that everyone knew she was and that he knew he didn't deserve. The one that was still his favorite, even two years after that perfect day.

            Sarah's hand on his brought him jaggedly out of the wonderful memory and back into the horrifyingly painful reality that she was leaving him. He looked into her eyes and what he saw there cracked his breaking heart even more.

            Her ocean blue eyes were red and tear tracks marred her beautiful face. His throat closed up as words stuck to his tongue and clung to the roof of his mouth. The elegant hand grasped his lightly and gently removed it from the dress he hadn't realized he was holding. The white one. His favorite.

            Sarah was repacking her suit case. "I have to go," she told him slowly, as if he was a child and he wouldn't understand.

            And, to be honest, he didn't. Luke's brain had shut down the moment he had walked in and seen her packing her almost annoyingly adorable sunflower suitcase.

            His lungs refused to work. His stomach was doing back flips. His heart was in overdrive trying to break through his ribs. Sitting on the bed, he put his head in his hands. He felt like he was going to be sick. Or maybe he was going to pass out. This could not be happening.

            He had thought she was happy here. They had given her everything. A huge house to live in. A big room for her to decorate any way she liked (which she had promptly covered in flowers and silver-framed pictures of them together). A nice car-a silver Saleen S7 Mustang-that he knew she adored. They even had several maids and butlers and servers so she could have whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted it. Of course she always insisted on doing everything herself so those maids and butlers and servers wouldn't be 'troubled', as she put it. "I'm a big girl. I can manage a few household chores," she'd always say whenever he asked why she was making her own bed or doing laundry.

            He tried to find words to make her stay. A single, weak question was all he could manage before tears threatened to fall. "Why?"

            "Why? Why?" A bitter laugh escaped her lips. "Because even you treat me like some spoiled brat of a daughter for one. And," she said as the unhappy smirk left her face and her tone became serious, "I'm not stupid." She suddenly seemed to find the wood paneled floor the most interesting thing in the world. She didn't say anything for a long time. Just when he was about to ask her what she meant, she continued. "You don't want me here. You don't love me. Not really, anyway. I've heard all of you talking. I know when relationships have stopped going anywhere. So, I'm leaving." Her voice was so quiet his ears were straining to catch the words.

            Four years. Four years they had been together. And, because of her parents, they had lived together for he the last two of them. Of course he loved her. How could she even think that he didn't?

            I love you, the words floated through Luke's mind. "Of course I do," he said instead. "Why on earth would you think that I didn't?"

            "You aren't ever here, and you've never said it." She still wouldn't look at him.

            "Oh. Well, I..." Luke let his voice fall away when he realized he couldn't finish the sentence. "Stay," he begged her. He reached for her, but she pulled away before he could even get close.

            Tears swam before his deep green eyes when his hand dropped back to his side, empty. Just the thought of life without Sarah sent awful pains, raw and pulsing, tearing through his chest. It made the floor drop out from under him and sent his stomach into nauseating convulsions. How could he make her see that he needed her?

            "Stay," he pleaded again.

            She brushed the bluish-black bangs away from her eyes. "If you can say it. If you can say you love me, I'll stay." The pain in her voice was heart wrenching.

            "I..." he trailed off. The words stuck in his throat. "I..." he tried and failed again.

            "I knew it," Sarah said, voice full of disappointment and a slight twinge of anger. She straightened her posture sharply. "I have to go now. Amy should be downstairs waiting by now." Picking up her suitcase, Sarah stormed towards where her best friend would be, only to stop a half step away from the door. Without looking over her shoulder, Sarah practically whispered, "I just want you to know, I always loved you. Always." She threw one last glance over her shoulder and shut the door behind her.

            Luke heard her walk down the stairs.

            He heard her throw her keys on the counter.

            And then he heard the front door open and close.

            He was frozen. He had to get out of that room. Her room. There were just too many reminders. Too many pictures and posters and things that belonged to her. Worst of all was the smell. The whole room smelled just like her. Like strawberries and rain. Every breath he took bombarded his brain with memories. Beautiful, painful, unforgettable things about her. What he loved. What he hated. He had to get out.

            Luke raced down the stairs and out the door. He made it to the driveway just in time to see Amy's tail lights vanishing around the corner. And then they were gone.

            No, he thought. No. He was too late. For what felt hours he simply stood there in the driveway, staring after the car. He felt numb, like he was freezing from the inside out. This wasn't supposed to happen. They were supposed to have the fairy tale. They were supposed to have the perfect life.

            Finally, his feet moved him back to the house. Looking out across the lawn toward the setting sun, he glanced one last time at the last place he saw her, and whispered softly, "I'm sorry. I love you. Always." Then he shut the door and, finally, one by one, let the tears he'd been holding back fall into the empty house.