They Weren't There
(based on the song They Weren't There by Missy Higgins)
Emily walked down the street with one thought running through her head. And that thought was to get rid of Rick for good. She sighed as she passed a display of wedding gowns, and new that she wouldn't ever be able to wear one for Rick. Emily and Rick were a off and on couple, and every time they were on, he was ether cheating on her or pressuring her into having sex. Emily refused every time but it hurt her to do so. It wasn't that she didn't love Rick, it was that she wanted her first time to be special, with her husband, when she got married, but Rick always tried.
Emily's friends always told her to get rid of Rick, but she never had the guts. One of her friends made it very clear that he hated Rick with a passion. This friend was Cole, her ex-boyfriend who still loved her. He always said, "Wait for me we'll fly the wind, we'll grow old and you'll be stronger without him." She never actually thought that her love for Rick was hurting anyone other than herself.
She finally arrived at Rick's apartment, and braced herself for what was waiting on the other side of the door. Her knock echoed through the hall and startled her. Rick opened the door with a warm smile and lead Emily through the small maze of rooms.
She sat on the nicely made bed and waited for him to return with the drinks. As he sat he stared into her eyes, longingly. "I love you." He whispered softly.
"Thats why I came..." Emily was about to end their relationship for good, but Rick silenced her with his finger and then his lips. Passion rushed through the two of them and soon enough their hands were moving to remove the cloths that were separating them. It was just the two of them in a room that nether of them wanted to escape form.
He took her hand and moved it up his body, and they faded into the night with all the love and lust in the world.
The sun beamed into the room with a brilliance only the sun could have. The two masses in the bed started to wake from their pleasure filled sleep. The white fibers of the sheets gleamed from the caress of the suns rays. His hand glided up her body to reach her face. She smiled warmly and placed her own hand on top of his.
"Sleep well?" was the only thing Emily could say. She knew how wrong they were for doing what they did.
"Yes," Rick murmured while throwing the covers off of him, "I feel good about this," he sighed.
"How could you feel good about THIS!" Emily asked as she stood before him and spun around to show him that she was fully unclothed. "We had sex, and you think thats okay?" She asked with a annoyance.
"Yes." He replied while staring down at her, his eyes piercing hers. "I got to go to work I'll talk to you later." Rick said as he slipped into a pare of jeans and left.
Emily was alone in the room, and all she could think about was how wrong she was. She thought that all she had to do was come over and break up with him and her life would be okay, but now her whole plan had backfired on her.
She quickly got dressed and ran over to Cole's house. When she arrived her hair was a mess and she was wearing the same cloths she wore the day before. When Cole finally answered the door, he leaned against the door jam and stared at her. "You didn't, you wouldn't." he said as he lead her to the kitchen filled with friends.
"I did, and I don't know what to do." She sighed as she took a seat at a stool.
"I told you you'd be stronger without him, but no, you didn't listen to your closest friend, you decided to trust that, that, boy! He should have known his limits!" Cole said frustrated.
"Hey! It's not like I stopped him! I let him! It's not all his fault!" She tried to protected the one who just deflowered her.
The room was in an uproar. Every one was chiding Emily for letting her relationship go that far, And all Emily could do was sit there and hear all their complaints. "You're so stupid!" Cole said as he slammed his fist into the table.
"You weren't there, you don't know! God damn it!" Emily yelled as she ran out of the room full of people hating her for her one mistake.
Later that night, Emily returned to where her mistake was made. Her hand shook as she knocked on Rick's door one more time. When he opened the door his smile faded, "What do you want?" he asked as she stepped passed him.
"I want to talk. I really believe what we did last night was wrong." She said as she sat at the kitchen table.
"If you think it was so wrong, leave, because I don't need to deal with you any more. I got what I wanted." He said matter-of-factly.
"Was that all you wanted form me, really?! To think I was defending you." Emily screamed, her frustration finally boiling over. "Do you know how mad my friends are?!"
"It's not all my fault, you could have said no, they have no reason to be mad at me." Rick said with a snarl.
"But they weren't there beneath your stare, and they weren't stripped 'till they were bare of any bindings from the world outside that room. And they weren't taken by the hand and led through fields
of naked land where any pre-conceived ideas were blown away... so I couldn't say 'no'." She replied. "You know I thought you loved me. And that's why I didn't think it was so bad, oh, but now I know that no matter what I do, I can never recover from this loss, the loss of my friends, and the loss of love."
"What do you want? Seriously. You can cry all you want but I WONT love you. You should have listened to Cole when he said ' you're too young to even know, just don't let it grow and you'll be stronger without him.' He knew what he was talking about. Now leave and go cry your eyes out because no one cares, because you could have said no." And those were the last words Emily heard form Rick.
Emily lived her life alone, but always remembering that they weren't there, so they will never know why things ended the way they did.