Alright, my first foray into Hart of Dixie. Probably going to be bad. Real bad. Well, maybe not that bad.
Lemon sat on her couch in her apartment, pouring over the paperwork for the Rammer Jammer on the coffee table in front of her. Despite being a bar, the establishment had a surprisingly large amount of paperwork that had to be done every so often. An open laptop sat in the middle of the papers, displaying a few documents that had to be done electronically. Lemon didn't really trust Wade with this, so she took it upon herself to get this done. Wade was more than happy to oblige, paperwork wasn't really his thing.
She cross legged, her golden hair done up in a loose bun. Her face was devoid of any makeup. She wore a simple black t-shirt and a pair of sleeping shorts so she could jump into bed as soon as she was done.
But a certain New York doctor lingered in the back of her mind as she worked. The girl had left last week after breaking Wade's heart, running off to New York with Jonah for some wedding.
When they had finally gotten home later that day, Wade claimed he was fine. But he wasn't. Over the past few days, Wade seemed completely out of it. His eyes had lost that bright light and his smile just wasn't as big. All because of Zoe Hart.
A knock at the door drew her away from the paperwork and the mess Zoe Hart created. Cracking open the door, she found her business partner. And his eyes were red, as if he had just been crying. A near empty bottle of whiskey was clenched in his left hand.
"Wade?" She opened it further. Normally, she wouldn't let anyone see her looking like how she was, but she was willing to make an exception for one of her oldest and closest friends. "What's wrong?"
"Lemon," His voice was weak and raw. His breath stank of whiskey. "Can I come in?" She nodded and moved to the side to let him in, closing the door softly behind him. They moved to the couch, where Lemon quickly gathered the papers and placed them on the kitchen counter. She could deal with those later. The laptop was simply closed and left on the coffee table. Wade left the bottle of whiskey on the short table in front of him. The partners sat on the couch, Wade with his face in his hands and Lemon with her hands on her lap.
Lemon was shocked at what she was seeing, to say the least. This was a side of Wade that she had only seen once before, the night after his mother died when they were teenagers.
Her teenage self had found him sitting alone by the water. Wade was a broken, sobbing mess, a far cry from the cocky varsity football player he was. He had poured his heart out to her, letting loose all of his pain. All she could do was offer a few consoling words and comforting hugs, as she hadn't lost her mother, yet. After that incident, he made her swear not to tell anyone what had happened. Lemon was pretty sure she was the only living person in Wade's life that had ever seen him when he was that weak.
They sat on her couch for what seemed for like an eternity. Lemon didn't even attempt to coax an answer out of him. She had to wait for him to be ready to speak on his own. After a few more agonizing moments, her raised his head out of his hands and spoke.
"I..." He croaked. "I... don't think I've ever been in here." His voice was soft. Wade waved a finger around, gesturing at the entire apartment. "And... I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've visited." He sent a sideways glance at her. His eyes were still red. "And I don't think I've ever seen ya looking like anything other than the getup ya got every day."
"Well, I wasn't expecting any visitors tonight," She reflexively straightened out her t-shirt. Lemon was going to play along. She had to get him comfortable enough to talk to her about what happened. It was probably Zoe Hart. No, it was definitely Zoe Hart. "And you're probably right, I don't get too many guests at all." There was another silence. Wade snatched the whiskey from the short table, gulping down his remaining whiskey and returning the empty bottle to the coffee table. Lemon cocked an eyebrow "Do you want a drink?"
"Beer, if ya got any." Lemon rose and walked to her refrigerator, answering before she even arrived there.
"I have water and sweet tea."
"Water it is, then." Wade shrugged. Lemon handed Wade a glass of water before sipping at her own water and placing it on the table. Wade took two gulps before speaking again. "Did ya get one?"
"Get one what?"
"An e-mail," He stated listlessly.
"From?"
"From the Doc." Zoe fucking Hart.
"No. Well, I mean, I haven't checked."
"Then check." He pointed at the laptop. Lemon complied and logged into her e-mail account. "That one." He pointed at the one titled 'I am staying in New York'. Lemon clicked on it and began reading.
Dear Lemon,
I've decided to stay in New York. My time in Bluebell was great, but I think it's time to move on. Thank you for having me.
Lemon, I know that you and I have never seen eye to eye. And that I've caused you a horrible amount of grief and pain. I want you to know that I'm sorry. I truly am. And I know nothing I do can make up for it. All I can say is that I wish you a long and happy life.
-Zoe Hart
"She said the same thing for the first bit for mine too." Wade leaned back on the couch and sighed. "I bet she wrote goodbye emails to everyone and said the exact same thing in all of 'em. 'Thanks for having me' and all that crap." He huffed. They fell into another silence, this one being filled by the low whirr of the laptop.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Lemon rested a comforting hand on Wade's knee.
"No." He shook his head. "Yes. No-I don't know!" He barked suddenly, before dropping his voice. "I don't know..." He slouched into the couch, a thousand mile stare directed at his knees.
"Wade..." Lemon scooted over and gave him a one arm hug.
"Why? Why do they keep leaving?" He didn't break his gaze with his knees.
"Who?"
"All the people I care about, leaving." Wade sighed. "My mom died. My brother ran off for the army. My dad drinks like it's water. George disappeared with Lily Anne. Zoe ran back home to New York with your cousin." He finished his glass of water. "Everyone keeps leaving me, one by one." Lemon rested a comforting hand on his knee, drawing his gaze.
"You have me. I care and I'm still around." She offered a smile.
"But how long will it be until ya find a rich guy and run off to some other place to live in a big fancy house?" He shrugged. "You're gonna leave eventually. Same with Lavon, he can't be the mayor forever. Only a matter of time once he finishes his term before he decides to pack up. Maybe to be a coach or something. Everyone's go-"
SMACK
She could hear the sound of the slap echo in her ears. He felt the warm pain in his cheek, but made no move to assess the damage.
"How dare you, Wade Kinsella." He could feel the anger coming off her voice. She had shot up to her feet and her chest rose and fell rapidly with her breaths. "How dare you think that we would just leave like that. How dare you think that we would just leave our friends and family like that. How dare you think we would leave Bluebell like that. How dare you think that we would just leave our home like that."
"They did." He responded flatly. Lemon had half a mind to slap him across the other cheek, but suppressed her urge and returned to her seat next to Wade.
"Wade," She said softly. "You can't think like that. You can't let this consume you."
"How?"
"Don't hope for them to come home. It might not turn out how you had hoped. Just abandon the feelings."
"What?" Wade shook his head in disbelief. "How should you know?"
"My mama never came home. She just abandoned us." Wade's face fell.
"Lemon, I-I'm sorry, I forgot-" Lemon cut him off.
"No, it's fine." She shrugged listlessly. "I went looking for her."
"What?"
"I went looking for her." She repeated. "Like I said, it might not turn out as you hoped."
"What happened?"
"She has a new family." Lemon sniffed, patting a tear away with her hand. "A new husband. And a daughter, I think a few years younger than Magnolia."
"Lemon..." Wade grasped her hand. Lemon made now move to resist.
"She replaced us. She just left and made a new family."
They fell into another silence, clutching eachother's hands. Then Wade spotted something on a shelf that sparked an old memory.
"Say, remember when were, I think, 15?" Wade scratched the back of his head. "You and I went to the Harvest Festival?"
"Yeah."
"And I won that," Wade pointed at a small bell that was painted blue that was sitting on a shelf. "at one of the game booths?"
"I remember that. You won the game and just tossed it at me when the guy gave it to you." Lemon smiled at the memory.
"Yeah, I wasn't about to keep some lame prize like that."
"Really now?"
"Yup, I was aiming for that pair of tickets to that 'Bama State game." Wade shook his head in amusement. "I can't believe Meatball won those tickets though. Remember when we up and got lost in the hay maze?"
"Yeah." Lemon smiled at the memory. "We didn't get out until the middle of the night. My daddy thought I was out with a boy all night."
"Well, technically, you were." Wade quipped, his demeanor now totally different from the wreck that had entered his apartment. Lemon slapped him again, this time more gently and with a laugh. "Hey!"
"My daddy didn't let me leave the house at all except for school for the next month!"
"Yeah! You looked so miserable in class!" Wade rubbed the tears of laughter out of his eyes.
It was like that for the rest of the night. Like the flip of the coin, the mood in the apartment shifted from one of cold sadness to one of warm nostalgia.
Morning found the two blondes asleep on the couch, smiles still plastered on their faces.
And there you have it. It was 2 months in the making, but I got it done.
Questions, Comments, Concerns?