Too Much to Wear
By rese
Summary: A series of completely unlikely Revenge Tragedy stories
Disclaimer: I swear on my life I do not own any of the things referencing Little Women and its fun characters.
A/N: I decided it was about time I actually did some study for extension English (the hsc is on Friday and its Monday now, go my study habits) and so I'd work on the easier part which is creative writing. So that means the following story will be filled with as many rev trag conventions as I can possibly fit into a response in under and hour, sorry its way ooc and ridiculously cliché/au. That's genre studies for you.
Can'ts and Vases
…
He had her pinned against the wall, trembling and terrified. But that wasn't the most concerning part, for when Laurie looked down, past the eyes he couldn't meet he found his hands stained the worst colour imaginable. And they were holding her perfect cream wrists.
"Jo," he rasped, his face incredibly close to hers. Still he couldn't look at her.
They stood there, the force of the moment fixing them to the spot against the olive wallpaper where the shadows from the fireplace vibrated and twitched along with Laurie's gaze.
"I… I –" What? He questioned himself, was he sorry? Could he really hurt her, hurt him and want to take it all back? Ask for her forgiveness when all he wanted…
"Teddy," she spoke, her voice teary and shaking and he knew she was watching the body that lay behind them. "Please. Please let me go."
"I can't."
And it was as simple as that. He'd begun on that basis and he wouldn't rest for the same reason.
Theodore Laurence couldn't let her go.
…
"He's here again."
"Who my lord?" Amy asked, shuffling her way from the mantelpiece to her husband's seat to lay a gloved hand on his shoulder.
"The Professor."
…
"We're going to be married!" she announced with a smile he was unfamiliar with and Laurie wasn't sure what hurt more – Jo's words or not knowing a part of her.
There was a silence she hadn't prepared for and Jo took a step back away from him. Like she'd done so many time before and it made his fist curl. The way she stood timidly, awkwardly and almost ashamed of him.
"Aren't you happy for me?" Jo looked upset.
"Oh," was all he managed.
And he couldn't look at her and pretend a smile, even if it would relight the woman he'd admired for so long without any requite. Without even so much as that smile.
He wouldn't let go of the feeling that he could be loved by her. He would get it in the end. Even as she turned about and hurried down the lane, tears in eyes that he had caused.
…
Laurie was never a good enough friend.
He honestly tried but always seemed to fall short of the mark.
It was after their first argument, during the time it took to take the courage to make up and be friends again when he realised the truth. That he couldn't be a good friend to Jo. It was then he knew he wanted to be more.
He had to be her best friend. He had to be the closest.
He had to be her lover.
…
"Please," Jo asked again without sound. Her eyes were glued to the ground in complete disbelief that the evening had ever happened.
"Just go home to your wife," she begged, "go to my sister, Laurie." Jo could clean the mess, she could make it so it never happened.
…
"Why couldn't you just say 'congratulations'?" his wife had raised her voice four times in the course of one hour, in two separate disagreements which came about in response to three very unsatisfactory comments made by himself.
"I couldn't!" Laurie declared, his fists shaking by his side in the fine dark grey suit they bought yesterday.
"It's not the hardest word in the English language, Laurie. Why couldn't you just pretend!? Pretend for one minute you actually cared about her happiness, about mine!" Amy stomped her pretty little foot.
"It's not just about you." She spat through her teeth, sweeping out of the room in her matching dress.
…
"Jo," Laurie stepped out of the shadows, startling his neighbour who pressed her hand against her muslin-covered chest.
"Whatever do you think you're doing?" she asked, her brow creased. Jo still hadn't forgiven him.
"I'm sorry, Jo." he took her hands, careful to see they were alone. "I'm really, really sorry." Laurie bent slightly, kissing her forehead and lingering longer than he intended. When he looked down Laurie was met with confusion for Jo looked so quaint before she shook her head and smiled at him quietly.
Jo nodded and kissed him on the cheek before stepping back and leaving the way she came, down the corridor with the ends of her dress caressing the carpet.
But he still couldn't be happy for her.
…
The tall young man brought her hands down from above her head, feeling his own limbs shake alongside hers.
"It was an accident," he said in a low voice, not believing his own words. He had thought about wrapping his large hands around the old man's neck and wringing it until the professor turned blue. But doing it, ending the man's life was so far from reality that when the vase left his hand time itself seemed to collide. "Please, I –"
"Laurie, let us be!"
He met her grey eyes, the water gathering behind his own brown matching hers as he finally processed what he'd done. "Tell me you love me" he choked desperately, feeling her trying to shift away from him. If she said she did that would make it better. It would make it fine.
"Just please, go home."
…
This should be our home, thought Laurie, stepping through the door of the future Bhaer's house and scuffing his leather shoes along the carpet runner as he checked for any signs of inhabitants.
Sure enough he found the small living room empty and he dropped his hat in the chair he knew would be the Professor's. Once they were married.
And that was why he had come in the first place. Laurie sighed to himself, taking a seat on the worn sofa he supposed they'd bought second hand from the savings they'd made together. His stomach turned and he thought back to what he had done that afternoon, setting the turn of events that would have Jo removed from the old man and his chair.
He'd kissed her. Full on the mouth for the first time. The wrong time.
They'd been on the settee in Orchard House and Laurie couldn't keep his mouth shut, he'd told her everything. How he couldn't stop loving her, even though he'd tried – so hard he thought he might have lost his heart – and that he couldn't let her marry some old fool feeling the way he did.
And then he kissed her. And Laurie knew, beyond doubt that she had felt the same, for when her thin lips grazed against his, and he touched her waist lightly she had gasped, reaching for his collar and made his head spin.
So there he was sitting in a house she would never own because he was going to make sure that Fredrick Bhaer would never marry Josephine March.
…
He had found out. He knew before Laurie had opened his mouth and the red face of the elder man had struck some defense in Laurie they both hadn't expected.
"You can't marry her!" Laurie declared, his finger pointing at the usually cheery fellow who was holding his breath hard.
"Get out of mein haus."
"You can't!"
"You're in love with her." He said with distaste, still clutching his hat.
"She's in love with me!" Laurie returned emphatically poking himself in the chest.
There was a moment's silence as the old man shook his head slowly and Laurie fumed inside, looking for a way to show him. He had never felt so out of control of his temper when he picked up the vase and held it in the air, hesitating only once before he let go.
…
Stepping into the chilled air, he closed the door behind him, shutting the sound of Jo sobbing over her Professor, wailing for the doctor to hurry as she clutched his bleeding head to her body.
He couldn't let her go and she would never love him.
…
A/N: I know, 'omg wtf'. But rev trag is…. Well a lot more hardcore than little women has room for.