Sweet Delilah

FOUR~GOOD GIRL

~DELILAH~

I open my eyes to a knock on the door. Instantly feeling my body stiffen as my heart begins to beat fast.

As I go to sit up, I feel a sharp pain in my head.

My eyes slowly come into focus as look around the room and meet the source of my headache.

The wine.

Why do I do this to myself?

To feel numb.

My attention goes back to the door as I slowly walk over to it.

After looking in the keyhole, my heartbeat eases as I see Cassie smiling and holding one of my only two coffee cups.

I hold my head with my hand as it pounds over and over again and open the door.

"Jeez girl, you look-" Her eyes look over to see the empty wine glass and bottle by the couch from last night.

She looks back at me and gives me a reassuring smile.

"I'm making you coffee, you clearly need it." She says, walking over to the kitchen and grabbing the coffee grounds. I make my way over to the couch and sit.

I look down at my watch to see it is almost 6:00 p.m. already.

My shift starts in a couple of hours. Joe asked me to take the night shift tonight, even though it's not a weekend, I couldn't afford to say no.

At least I got a lot of sleep.

Once Cassie gets the coffee started, she goes to grab the milk from the fridge and I internally cringe at what she is about to find.

"Delilah, peanut butter and wine is not a food group." She says as she shakes her head and turns back to the two cups of coffee.

She makes her way over to me and sits on the couch, taking a sip of her coffee and handing mine to me.

"Thanks, Cass," I say, leaning down and inhaling the warm steam of the cup against my face.

My survival juice. The source of all that is good.

"So, what happened to you today? You didn't answer the door this morning and I don't think I have ever seen you hungover before."

I let out a sigh.

"I um...it was just a rough day yesterday, plus I have the night shift today so I slept in," I say.

I hear her let out a deep breath.

"Ya know Delilah, one of these days you'll tell me the truth. I know you like to keep to yourself, but if you continue to keep whatever is going on inside, eventually, you'll explode." She says, looking me dead in the eye with the most serious face I've ever seen on her.

I look down at my coffee and then back up at her, trying to figure out what to say.

Can I open up to her? Should I?

Maybe sharing a little couldn't hurt.

"Cass..." I pause and take a deep breath, trying to muster up the courage to tell her even a little. "A while ago, over a year or so ago, I was engaged. We had been together since high school. Things were...well they were great. After we got engaged though, he changed. He-he just wasn't the same man I fell for. So I left. And here I am."

I do my best to hold back my tears as the words leave my mouth. I haven't told anyone about what he did. Just that he wasn't the same man I fell in love with. If they knew, if anyone only knew...