Pray For Us (A Richie Jerimovich Story)

The Morning After

You woke up next to Richie. Neither of you wanted to sleep alone last night after everything. It was a very hard day. Nothing happened between you two, but waking up next to someone was nice. Waking up next to him was nice. He rolled over and wrapped his arm around you and pulled you closer. You weren't expecting that but you like it. You snuggled into him in return.

"Thank you." You heard him mumble.

"For what?" You whispered.

"Being here." You've never heard two words hold so much weight in your life.

Being here.

It rung in your head over and over again.

Tiff left. Carmen left. Michael left.

You flew across the world to be here.

"Thank you for being here, too." You're voice broke as you started crying again.

"I know. I know. It's alright. It's ok." Richie ran his fingers through your hair.

"I'm sorry I left."

"Hey, no, don't do that."

"But I wasn't here. Maybe if I was here I could've helped him." You were sobbing now and Richie sounded like he started tearing up.

"I was here and I couldn't help him."

"Maybe he just needed one more person to help support him and I could've made that difference!"

"Do you hear yourself? That's ridiculous, it's an insane stretch. Stop it. You had absolutely nothing to do with this. Do you hear me? Nothing." He placed a kiss on top of your head.

"How can you be sure?"

"Because it was Mikey Bear. You know him. You know it doesn't matter who he would've had around him. He always acts like everything is so good- so happy go lucky."

"Yeah." You sniffled.

"He didn't talk to anyone. He didn't talk to me, he didn't talk to Sugar, he didn't call you and talk to you, he didn't want people worrying."

"But we should've been worried."

"Hindsight.... I know. I should've handcuffed his ass to the fucking desk or something."

"But you didn't know either."

"I thought he'd pull himself out of it. I should've known."

"Hindsight." You repeated his words.

"Yeah."

You two laid there in each other's arms, no words left to speak. The knowing and understanding between you two of losing someone and not being able to fix it.

"Richie?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you have work today?"

"Yeah." He sighed. "We can't afford not to be open." He rolled over and grabbed his phone to look at the time.

"Do you think it'd be ok if I came with you to work today?"

"Of course. We gotta get up though, it's already 8."

"Alright."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You two lit a cigarette as you climbed into the car.

"Ach. Another day another dollar I guess." Richie started the car.

"Yeah."

"You ok?"