Title: Pinprick
Author: RichelleBrinkley
Word Count: 539
Rating: K+
AN: This Wildflower's companion piece, and is the breakup scene detailed in 'Part IV: To Run'.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series, it belongs to Louise Rennison.
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It is a rainy winter evening when they break up, sitting on the floor of her bedroom, huddled together underneath a blanket.
As far as breakups go, it is definitely not the most dramatic of them. There is no yelling or screaming – she doesn't cry, he doesn't shout. Instead, they both just avoid each other's eyes as they murmur in as few words as possible acknowledgement of the distance between them. The large, gaping hole that used to be their strained, bittersweet relationship.
It is her fault really, the reason they break up. It always is. But this time it's a real breakup, from a real relationship. This isn't high school anymore, and this time they aren't fake-dating.
Maybe it would have been better if they were. A real relationship required dedication and commitment and most importantly, loyalty. The latter has never been either of their strong points.
He sits beside her, stiff-backed and tense-jawed, the blanket draped over his rigid shoulders, and she can sense the change in his demeanour as they finally say those last words, the ones that put an end their relationship. Already it feels as if he is a complete stranger, cold and distant. Seeing him this way strikes her with a pang of sadness, but knows she will not feel it for long.
Because they've done this before, the both of them; countless times, with numerous people. It is who they are and what they do – believing they could ever behave otherwise was a notion both foolish and naïve.
But it is just that – foolishness and naïveté – that they thrive upon. Because to come to terms with what they do to other people, the poor flies they entrap so craftily in their honey-spun webs – well, they would never be able to sleep at night otherwise.
They might have felt something akin to love at some point; some blurry, faded-out and indistinct point in their relationship. But she cannot feel it anymore, and she knows that neither can he. She looks at him now, still sitting beside her on the thick-carpeted floor, his knees folded up to his chest, and she cannot see them together anymore, even as friends. She sees a stranger when she looks at him; remembers nothing of how she used to feel for him.
It is emptiness, she thinks – this feeling that has filled his place in her heart. It will only be temporary, she knows, but even emptiness cannot stop the dull ache, or rinse the bitter taste from her mouth. Being empty does not make one immune or invincible to sadness.
She doesn't know why she ever thought that it would.
But in the presence of darkness however, a light, however faint, is always easy to see.
They never belonged in the gilded cages that were each other. She sees that now as she clumsily hands him his coat and watches him walk out her front door for the last time, into the pouring rain.
Sadness is only temporary, as is emptiness. The relief they both feel, the light that shines feebly from being free from each other, the light that was growing brighter and brighter every second they were apart...
That light will last a lifetime.
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AN: Thank-you for reading. Wildflower details the future of Gee and Dave after this scene, so if you're interested you may want to read that.
Much love,
RichelleBrinkley xx