Just a quick short story

The one and only chapter

A few years ago, I had big plans. My girlfriend of three years was over, and I was planning to propose. We were to get married at the nearby state park we both met and bonded at. She would try on dresses until she found the one that fit her best, or maybe use her mom's old one that she always loved the pictures of, and I would get fitted for my tux. We would be married for a few years before she would get pregnant, and I'd be blessed with two, maybe three kids, hopefully a boy and a girl. We would raise them in the suburbs, I'd have a stable job and she'd stay home with the kids, or maybe the other way around, with her superior college degree. We'd raise the kids to be involved, to be respectful, and to get married themselves one day.

But none of that would happen unless I popped the question. My plan was simple. Meet at my apartment, then head off to dinner at the new fancy restaurant down the block.

She opened the door, with the key I gave her a few months ago, and waltzed in, her elegant yet stylish dress swaying behind her. I smiled then went back to my room to get my coat, when I heard Joe.

Now, Joe was a bit off. He was my roommate, but not for long. I barely knew him. I just knew he could pay rent and probably wasn't a serial killer. He seemed nice enough, but I was just a bit wary. I mean, I didn't know what football team he rooted for, his last (or maybe current) girlfriend, or even the state he used to live in.

Because we weren't close, I didn't even think to tell him of the engagement that was on the horizon. So he had no qualms about running into the room where my future wife was waiting. He was sprinting, but from what I did not know. He was sprinting too fast for me to warn him about the table before him. He tripped and toppled face first onto the glass table in our apartment's little living room.

My future fiancé called the ER as we waited for a sign my roommate was okay. He groaned, blood leaking everywhere around the shattered table. The ambulance arrived minutes later. He was mutilated, but alive. Glass shards were embedded throughout his body, mostly in his face. The emergency team rushed him on a stretcher and he was rushed into emergency care.

As could be expected, I wasn't going to propose tonight. Having your roommate almost bleed out isn't a good way to set the mood.

One of the shards was embedded in his left eye. He was going to be permanently blind in that eye. To stop the bleeding for now, they put one of those eyepatch cotton bandage cloth things over it. He had to keep the pad thing on his eye for months at the least.

My girlfriend stayed by his side during the operation. I think she felt partially responsible for the whole ordeal. Or maybe she was just empathetic. Either way, she said she didn't think she could leave him after witnessing what happened firsthand. She had a better view of the carnage than I did. I was behind him. She saw it right in front of her. I stayed with him too, but left after the operation. My girlfriend stayed until he woke up.

A week passed and I couldn't find my girlfriend. She wouldn't answer her calls or texts. The GPS on her phone was turned off. Joe was also transferred to a different hospital, an hour away. At least he paid this month's rent early. I had spent the last of my savings on the engagement ring that still waited in my pocket. Next month, when this ordeal was forgotten, I'd pop the question.

A month passed. Joe came back. He was fine, other than the dissolvable stitches still working their magic in his side and chest, and the pad on his left eye. My girlfriend came back two days after that. There was a family emergency and so she had gone to her mother's house and accidentally left her phone behind in her rush to leave. We got back into our rhythm, with her stopping by the apartment a bit more often to check on Joe. They had become friends. Joe and I had gotten closer as well. I still didn't know his old state or football team, but I had learned he had a long time girlfriend until last year, and had moved here after the tough breakup.

I never got the chance to propose to her. It was too late. My girlfriend left again, but this time not alone. She and Joe had apparently gotten to be more than friends. They eloped. I got a text from an anonymous number a month later telling me. Just like that, I lost my girlfriend of three years, and the roommate I depended on each month.

They didn't tell me where they went. I never got any more texts after the first, and the anonymous number, my girlfriend's new number, blocked me. Well, my ex girlfriend's new number. She left me for him.

I tried to track them down, but I never could. I tried everything, even the police, but apparently the cops won't find someone if they leave you. It didn't warrant an investigation. That didn't stop me from trying. I tried for nearly a year to find them. But I've stopped trying.

I have nothing left to say to them. Yes they destroyed my life in an instant. Yes it was the night I was going to propose. And yes, my life plans had to change considerably. But as it all concluded, I realized I really only had one thing to say to Joe, if I ever had to see him again.

If it hadn't been for cotton eye Joe, I'd have been married a long time ago. Where did you come from? Where did you go? Where did you come from, cotton eye joe?

... I'm sorry.