Love You Forever (2013 Wattys Finalist)

Chapter 14 - Collapsed

Robert sat on his bed with his head in his hands, feeling like he had a ticking bomb in the room. It was in his laptop, the e-mail Georgie had sent him. The last one had been depressing as hell to read. It wasn't hard to see how small her life had become. It was possible she'd actually gotten worse since she'd left him. Did he really want to read another e-mail that reminded him how damaged she was?

---Then---

Robert was up in their bedroom sitting on the bed working on his laptop. He looked up and saw Georgie standing in the doorway waiting for him to notice her.

"Your mom needs a few things to make dinner tonight and I wondered if you wanted to go with me," she said.

"Can't, sorry," he said, looking back at his laptop. "I'm in the middle of something right now."

"It's really nice outside, Robert."

"I'm writing an essay for a university application right now and I'm under a deadline. You'll have to go on without me," he said, and then looked back at the screen, trying to remember the last sentence he was about to write.

"It won't take that long," she said a little louder, interrupting his thoughts and he felt a prickling of irritation. He made an effort to push the feeling down.

"Georgie, I said I can't, and meant it," he said gently but firmly. "I only have until midnight to finish this and get it right. This is a really good university. If I get accepted, my chances of getting a job when I graduate are a lot better, yeah? It's important I write a good essay. I'm doing this for our future, yeah? You'll have to go alone this time."

He put his attention back on his essay, trying to pick up his train of thought but after a minute, he realized she was still there and looked up. She was in the doorway but standing sideways, scraping at the wood of the door frame with her fingernail.

"Why aren't you going?" he asked.

"Because I want you to go with me," she said quietly, concentrating on what her finger was doing. He sighed deeply and saw her shoulders droop a little.

He knew when she got like this she wasn't going to let it go. He was going to have to deal with whatever it was now or he wouldn't be able to work on his essay. He sighed again, feeling the prickling of irritation rising up while he closed his laptop and put it on his bedside table. He made the effort to push it back down again.

"Georgie, come here," he said quietly. She slowly walked over and slumped on the bed, hunching her shoulders and looking at her hands in her lap.

"What's this about? Why won't you go to the shop by yourself?" She took a deep breath that lifted her body, and then slumped again when she let it out.

"I – can't," she said dejectedly to her hands.

"Why can't you?"

"It's just – too hard. I tried but –." He waited but she didn't say anything more.

"But what?"

"I got too scared. I just – couldn't," she said, hunching over more when she finished.

Robert suddenly realized she hadn't been to the shops by herself since her disastrous shopping trip a week ago. She'd asked him to accompany her but she'd been subtle about it, always making it sound like she wanted to go for a walk with him, or saying he'd spent too much time indoors and needed some air. He'd been so preoccupied, he hadn't noticed.

"I thought we talked about this," he said gently. "I thought you knew what to do if someone scared you like that again." She sighed deeply, blinking hard.