Torn Apart

Chapter 25

Chloe sank into the black, cushioned loveseat in the center of her living room. The soft material cradled her body like a detached yet warm hug as she cradled a glass of whiskey between her knees. The chill from the ice seeped through the material of her black sweatpants and bit at her skin, but she could barely feel it.

Her speakers were warbling out a Don Henley song across the room. It wasn't exactly on a quiet setting – she never could properly enjoy quiet music – but it wasn't so loud that the neighbors would complain. It was the End of The Innocence. That's what the song was called. In all her years of listening to it, she never could figure out what it was about. Was it about a woman's first lover? Domestic abuse? Was it about rape? As she continued listening to the lyrics, she realized that it no longer mattered. Her heart lay in pieces in her stomach, her innocence broken. The lyrics finally made sense.

Her head fell back onto the cushion. She had a fleeting thought that if anyone were to walk into her apartment right at that moment, they would not notice her right away. Her black hair, sweatpants, and t-shirt blended perfectly into the deep exterior of the love-seat. That was all she wanted, was to blend in; to melt into her furniture and cease to exist. Even for a moment.

The stereo sparked, the audio cutting out with an electronic gurgle. Chloe glanced over to the equipment, just in time to see a steady cloud of smoke rising up from the speakers as sparks scattered, blinking from existence before they even touched the floor.

With a groan, Chloe set her glass onto a coaster beside her and eased herself out of the love-seat. She bent down and quickly unplugged the cable from the outlet, waving her free hand above the speakers in an attempt to make the smoke dissipate before the smoke detector went off.

The air in the room swam with a light smoky haze, so she went over to the window. Placing both hands on the bottom lip of the panel, she jiggled it aggressively until finally, the window slid open. Within a few minutes, the air seemed to have cleared considerably.

She looked down at the broken system, sitting silently on the edge of the platform, like a child that knew they had done something wrong and was waiting anxiously for the scolding they were sure they were about to receive. The scolding never came. Chloe bent down and scooped up the speakers into her arms, and walked them out through the front door.

The apartment as only three floors high and Chloe lived on the second one. She walked slowly down the stairs, clutching the speakers to her body as though afraid she was going to drop them. Though she wasn't afraid of anything of the sort. In fact, she didn't know exactly why she held them so tightly in her arms. They were already broken, which was why she was bringing them downstairs in the first place.

At last, she came to the garbage bin that stood alone outside the building. She freed one of her hands from the object she was carrying, opened the massive lid, and threw the device inside it. As soon as she heard them make contact with the very bottom of the container, she allowed the lid to clang shut.

She turned from the large metal box that now contained one of her more prized possessions, and tilted her head back to look at the sky. It was a clear day, a few wispy clouds drifting lazily across the open, baby blue void. The sun seemed closer than it usually was. A large, blinding orb in the sky that burned her skin as she stood on the pavement. Was Emmett up there, right now? She wondered. Was he sitting on a seat crowded by strangers, wondering why he was on a plane in the first place? Would there be a time when he was rummaging through his possessions, and came across a diamond ring?

He would probably look at the ring and wonder about a possible fiancé that he had forgotten about, or wonder if he had taken the wrong bag by accident. Maybe it was a good thing that Lily didn't know anything about the ring that he had bought for her. Maybe he didn't buy it for her at all in the first place, as he had led Chloe to believe. Maybe there was another woman who he well and truly cared about? She thought back to his previous actions and words, then to the way he looked at Lily when they parted ways. Chloe chided herself for being so foolish. Maybe it didn't seem like it, but she knew it to be true. Emmett well and truly loved her all along.

Chloe turned her gaze back down to the building looming in front of her. She urged her legs to move, pushing them to bring her back up to her floor of the apartment complex. A silent room and a glass of whiskey awaited her return.

~*~_~*~_~*~

Jamie sat on the edge of the bed in the motel room. He ran his fingers through his damp hair as he contemplated his thoughts. The clamor of cars going by on the street nearby were rumbling through the paper-thin walls, mingling with the buzzing flies that were flinging themselves at the light fixture like it was their savior from the enclosed space.

He couldn't go home, it being burned to a cinder and everything, and he didn't want to impose himself on either of his friends. So in the end he decided to dip into his diminished savings and purchase a couple nights in a motel room, much to Chloe and Lily's displeasure. It was a good idea in the end, though. Despite what they said, it was a good idea to have some time apart for a little while. A little privacy so everyone could work out their emotions the only way they knew how to. Even though he still thought it was a good idea, the motel room seemed painfully empty with no one but his own lonesome to occupy it.

He stood, walking over to the edge of the room where a single-serve coffee machine stood. He poured some water into the reservoir and added the packaged coffee grounds. He stood there, watching the machine do its thing as his cup slowly filled with the black liquid. Once it sputtered out the last few drops and clicked off, he took the steaming cup into his hands.

Jamie stood there, staring down into his cup. The steam curled up into the air, touching his nose briefly before dissipating away. His stomach twisted painfully at the aroma. Maybe the coffee wasn't the best idea at the moment. With a sigh of resignation, he poured the contents of the cup down the drain and sat back down on the bed.

The bedside table had a book laying on it, which he picked up. It was a Bible, fairly new it seemed. He leafed through it for a few minutes before shutting it again and placing it back on the table where he had found it. Religion was never really his thing anyway.

He turned to face the wall, his head still swimming with thoughts that never seemed to end. He thought about blocking them out of his mind but realized that he would have to face them eventually, at some point in the future. Maybe it would be best if he acknowledged them, at least for the time being. There was nothing else to do anyway.

That's when a thought came to him. It was irrelevant. It was crazy. But maybe there a chance that it would be the best idea he had ever had, and maybe ever will.

He pulled out his phone, one of the only possessions that he owned, and connected to the motel Wi-Fi. Slowly, carefully, he punched in the letters to spell out the website that he was looking for. Eventually, the horrible internet connection took hold, and the page popped onto the screen. The University of Alberta.

"Major..." Jamie scrolled through the options for something that closely resembled his intentions.

"Psychology."