Title: Get It Right
Author: Meaning Scene
A/N: A response to challenge #10 on Pure Horace Mantis: Opening Lines.
A three part Nick/Macy story. Weird. Kevin/Macy is my favorite couple, but I keep getting Nacy ideas… hmmm… Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this! Please review!
~Meaning Scene
"It takes time to get it right; it takes no time to get it wrong."
Aqualung, "Glimmer"
"It doesn't have to be like this."
The words pierced Nick like a thousand knives. Not just because Macy had spoken them, but how; her voice was a broken whisper, strangled by the tears she struggled against. It was a losing battle, and two tears rolled down her beautiful face. The sight split his heart in two.
He hadn't wanted to do this. He once had had every intention of staying with her, marrying her, making his whole life with and about her.
Somewhere along the way, though, it had all changed.
He never expected a little thing like college to separate them as much as it had. When she received a full softball scholarship to James Madison University in Virginia, he had only been proud. Thrilled, even. He never imagined it would lead them here.
If he were entirely honest with himself, he knew the breakup wasn't Macy's fault. She wasn't the one who was always gone. She wasn't the one city-hopping every day of her life. She had a routine; she had consistency, and he knew her well enough to realize she needed those two things to function.
Two things he couldn't offer.
Every time he'd come to visit in the past, he'd tried to involve himself in her schedule. Help her with her classes, get to know her friends. It always felt… weird. Strained. Macy never said a word, and he assumed that her inherent kindness prevented her from doing so. But one thing was certain: his attempts to help were well meant. She had never doubted that he loved her. He had always loved her.
That's why he stood in the doorway of her dorm room now, ending it; he loved her enough to give her a chance at the life she deserved: one he couldn't give her, not in a thousand years.
He had been through his argument twice already: he couldn't give her stability, and was financial security really worth not seeing her husband? She countered that she'd give up her sports, and thus her career, to come with him, but he refused to let her do that. Sports were the biggest part of her life, and he knew she loved playing them; what kind of man forces his woman to give up the things she loves? She responded by yelling at him, pleading with him, begging him, throwing tantrums, but none of it phased Nick.
He had already made up his mind.
She tried to kiss him, but his lips were as unmoving as stone. Her hands clasped his face, searching for some emotion, some hint that maybe he would change his mind.
There was none.
"It doesn't have to be like this…" she repeated. "Please, Nick."
He withdrew her fingers from his face and placed a kiss against both of her palms. I'm so sorry. He thought. Then, pressing her hands together, he said, "Yes. It does."
Tiny little rivers of tears running down her face taunted him. He was breaking her heart; he was selfish, stupid, mean, cruel, unloving.
It's for the best. He reminded himself. It's better this way… for her.
"I'm sorry," Nick whispered, releasing her hands. The sound of her wailing followed him down the staircase, echoing in his mind as he hurried to his car, reaching it just before his own tears began to fall.
It's for the best… It's for the best…
He clung to the thought like a mantra, fighting for composure as he pulled out of the parking lot. He had been certain that this was the right choice, that this was the only way Macy would ever be truly happy. Now she could be with a person with a normal life who did normal things. They'd have a perfectly normal time dating, a perfectly normal wedding, and perfectly normal children. He wouldn't have been able to give her perfect normalcy. He couldn't even make it to her softball games.
He didn't deserve happiness with sweet, intelligent, beautiful, normal Macy.
It's for the best… he repeated. It's for the best.