He places his hand on the small of her back and leads her towards his car. In the dimly lit car park he doesn’t notice you standing in the shadows watching. Your back tenses as you wish it was you he could touch.
The wind carries the sound of their laughter to your ears, and you feel your heart break a little more.
You’re not surprised to see them like this. You’ve seen the way they’ve been looking at each other, but you ignored it.
But this is real. This is it.
This is too late.
A voice comes
from behind you.
“It’s not
too late,” Daniel says.
Unconsciously
you twist the ring you now wear on your left hand.
“Yes it
is,” you reply sadly.
“Why?” he
asks in that way he has, the ability he possesses to think that everything
could be simple.
You lower
your head as you consider your response.
How can you make him understand something that you just
instinctively know?
“Because it
has to be,” you say eventually, so softly he barely hears it.
But he does.
“Why?”
You laugh
angrily. “What are you,
three? Quit asking why.”
He almost
says it again, you hear him stop himself.
Then he’s silent as if you’ve taken from him everything that he
could possibly think to say. There’s
the proof. He knows this
isn’t simple. He knows what
you’re saying is true.
He puts his
arm around you and pulls you tightly to him.
You won’t cry. But
you want to.
“Will you
be happy though?” he asks quietly after moments of just standing in
silence.
Your heart
immediately says no.
“Yeah,
I’ll be fine,” you lie. Although
you insist to yourself that eventually you will be fine.
That it’s not a complete lie.
“Liar!”
he accuses gently.
The tears
prick at your eyes, threatening to fall, as you laugh at his accurate
observation.
“You know
me so well,” you say light-heartedly, but the sadness is there behind
your tone.
You share
some more silence. The cool
breeze managing to dry the tears you refuse to allow to fall.
“If you
asked him to wait, he would,” Daniel says solemnly.
“I have no
– ”
He doesn’t
let you finish. “He made
that mistake, Sam. You can
fix it.”
You look up
at him, frowning. You think
you know what he means but you want him to explain.
“When you
started seeing Pete, he could have spoken up.
But he didn’t – ”
“Maybe he
didn’t want to.”
Daniel shakes
his head. “He thought he
had no right to.”
Daniel’s
words echo what he earlier stopped you from saying.
“But if
he’d asked, you would have waited…” he continues.
“You still would.”
It’s like
he can read your heart. “But
he didn’t and now – ”
He stops you
again. “He thinks it’s
too late… That’s why it
isn’t. Talk to him, Sam.”
You turn away
to where his car used to be. “Maybe
it’s for the best. We
can’t. Maybe it’s time we
faced that.”
Daniel steps
up beside you. “Okay…
Picture yourself in ten years time…” he pauses, giving you time
to do that. “I bet you
didn’t see Pete.”
Damn him!
“It
doesn’t – ” you begin.
“It does
matter… Do you want to look
back on your life and regret the choices you made?…
This choice. This
decision. The one you make
tonight…”
You know
it’s a rhetorical question. But
you also know the answer.
***
~Where you
gonna be in ten years time?
~Will you be happy with the way you've been living your life?
~Will you be alright?
~When you're looking back to all the years gone by
~Will there be something that you'll say that you shoulda done right...
~In your life? ~
THE END