The Dance Between Darkness and Light (girlxgirl)

Prologue: Thomas

Please note that each chapter is told from the point of view of the character listed in the chapter title.
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A single word is like a knife in the wrong hands.  Whether we know it or not, we all walk around fully armed with the ability to emotionally wound someone should the mood strike us.  But you and I saying the same word can have completely different outcomes. If you've ever been where I'm standing now, you'd know. You'd understand how what she just said has left me speechless.

I'm worried, she can't even look at me. Things like this don't happen in real life, they just don't. I know how I should probably feel right now, but all I feel is tingling in my limbs like when your legs go numb and you can't get the feeling back. I know Emily, I do. Whatever the hell this is, is not something she would do.

I'm confident I know her better than anyone on the planet. I know each and every unique facial expression; I know that there are subtle flecks of nutmeg sprinkled across only her right iris. I also know that her left eyelid crinkles when she's lost in thought, and I know what she's going to say before she even says it. But this? This is not Emily.  This one blindsided me and I'm wide eyed and drowning. I have absolutely no idea what the hell I should do. I'm trying to search her eyes for any sign of acknowledgement that this is a joke. This has to be a misunderstanding. Emily is avoiding me, she won't look at me. If I could just see her eyes...please, Emily.

She's my life, the woman I pictured in my head as my equal and ideal.  The woman I gave my whole heart to. If people meet her, the first thing everyone notices are her eyes. They're dark like the worn leather cover of an old book, and she has these long black lashes that shroud them when she flirts with me. She is tall with long hair, dark as the night sky. When she's nervous, she plays with it, pulling it over her shoulder as she rakes her fingers through it starting from the very top. She is smart, and her laugh... god it's intoxicating and sexy as hell. I live for the moments I can hear the sultry rasp in her voice; it lures me in every morning when we wake up together, and is a part of the quiet, intimate whispers we share.  I could listen to Emily's voice all night, but right now her silence is deafening.

Ever since we moved to Rosewood last year, there seemed to be an ever present cloud over us; and now it has settled over her eyes. Dammit, look at me! I'm right here! It's like the wind has been knocked from me; my chest is tight, like there are only a few moments of air as I struggle to breathe.

It was so easy with her up until this moment.  Now it's blurring out of focus to an impossible ending. I refused to see it, to believe it.  I don't think Emily did either, at first anyway.  She was right in front of me; but I didn't realize she'd always be just out of my reach.

Her head is still down, and my hands are wet with her tears.  They're falling like steady rain, washing away my future.

Our future.

She's still not looking at me and she still isn't talking. I want her to be happy, to feel joy, to feel loved.  I can give her all those things. If she'd just look at me I could tell her, and this whole situation could be behind us. Instead she's staring at the floor, her fingers raking through her hair on repeat.

I'm trying to get her to look, willing myself to speak a single word; but it's lodged in my throat and I'm dangerously close to losing my last shred of control. It's so simple, only three syllables, and I can't get it out.  Dammit, why can't I say it?  Alison had no problem. She blurted it out, all three syllables, like it was nothing. It makes sense now, though, those bizarre stories about how a butterfly can flutter its wings at just the right moment and cause a tsunami on the other side of the world. You wouldn't think a single flutter of paper thin wings, or Alison uttering a single word could even cause a ripple. That a single word could hurt you to your very core; that it could ruin everything.

You'd be wrong.