One Shots

Prompt One

Prompt One: Say Something - A Great Big World

He occupies the leather sofa, his legs spread apart. He looks straight ahead, staring into space, his eyes dull and glassy. His hand is wrapped around a partially full bottle of whiskey, with various other empty bottles perched on the coffee table in front of him.

He had been thinking of her again. She had sent him a mix-tape over a week ago. He didn't know if it was going to be music at first, but whatever it was, he knew it wasn't going to be good. Nothing about them was ever good anymore.

They fell apart in the most complicated of ways. It wasn't some big fight. He wishes he had all the answers to all the questions. He remembers waking up one morning to find her packing, outlining all the days she would be gone for all her business trips and meetings. He remembers how hard he had kissed her, her telling him they would be alright.

He pops the CD into the laptop in front of him and waits until it loads. He thinks about opening photobooth and looking at all the pictures of them when they were young and so into each other. But the last time he did that, he ended up calling her and leaving a voicemail on her phone so he thinks twice about it and clicks on the file.

As the first music note plays out, he realizes it's an acoustic piece. Piano. It takes him a minute, but he recognizes the melody of the song. Say Something. But instead of A Great Big World performing it, he realizes it's her voice instantly. She's always had a beautiful voice, but she usually didn't share that talent with very many people. It pinches him directly in the heart, hearing her raw voice against the soft piano. He hadn't heard that voice in person in so long and god, he missed it. He missed her.

"Anywhere, I would have followed you." It was ironic. She was the one who was halfway across the country. She was the one who had come home for three days and avoided him because she was mad at him. She was the one who had partied out too late and then called him the next morning hungover, begging him to take care of her even though they were thousands of miles apart.

The chorus of the song makes his heart ache in pain. He should have been the one singing this song to her. He was the one who showered her in attention, gifts, love, spontaneous actions. She was the one who had pulled away and fled their relationship for a break two months into her business trips. She had said it was temporary, said she needed time to think.

The song comes to an end, but he had put it on repeat so it continues to play again. Listening to her voice sing the lyrics, the mesh of words wrenches his heart. It gives him a sudden burst of overwhelming feelings, makes him rethink his entire relationship with her. It hurts to know that she sent this to him as a message. He wonders if he wasn't good enough for her. It breaks his heart to think he didn't do enough for her; He would have done anything for her.

They were tornadoes and fireworks, the golden couple, the couple that everyone thought would be together forever. He wasn't so sure of that anymore. He wasn't so sure about a lot about them, not anymore.

He stands up, takes a long swig from the whiskey bottle. He can already picture himself tonight, overwhelmingly drunk and playing the track repeatedly on the stereo system that she had insisted they install.

He walks over to the big glass door leading out to the backyard. He looks back at the spacious living room and realizes there isn't a god damned thing in this house that doesn't hold traces of her. The closet upstairs in their bedroom still holds some of her clothes and he still pulls back the covers of their bed in the morning when he wakes up. He remembers the time they had sex in every room of the house to bless it. It was so stupid, but so painfully them.

He directs his gaze outside to the backyard. He had told her this house was big enough for them to live in forever and they could put a swing set outside when they had kids. The yard is still vacant and he doubts she's coming back. He doesn't blame her. He sits back down, phone sweaty in his palm, thinks about calling her for a moment. But he doesn't want to talk to her in the first place and he knows she won't answer anyways.

The cover of the song is still playing on repeat and it's perfect. It was everything neither of them could put into words and it gives him the closure he so desperately needs. With a heavy heart, he turns the volume up until her voice surrounds him in the room.

This is it. After having stumbled and fallen so hard for her, he finally understands that she never caught him. Their relationship wasn't intended to be that way. His love to her wasn't a two-way street and no matter how much love he tried to embrace her with, he could never make her love him the way he had loved her for so long. He had given her his all, given her everything he had.

He needs to let her go, give himself the freedom he so desperately needs. He knows that now. But just because he knows that, doesn't mean it makes it any easier.  Taking a shaky breath, he sets the whiskey bottle down on the coffee table in front of him. He lays down on the leather sofa, makes himself more comfortable. He lets his eyes flutter closed, wanting the night to spiral to an end, the sound of her voice still taunting him in the background.