Chocolate Chip Mint 28, Fudge Ripple 21: When They Come Back
Title: When They Come Back
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: Chocolate chip mint 28 (lumpy), fudge ripple 21 (guilt), rainbow sprinkles (Hugh).
Word Count: 318
Rating: PG.
Summary: He doesn't sleep that night.
Notes: Follows can't go back. Summer Challenge part 1.
He doesn't sleep that night. How could he? He doesn't even lie down.
He stays up instead and wanders through the house, hoping against hope that it's not real, that they'll come back. That it's all some big stupid mixup and he'll turn around and Olivia will be there, asking why he's been so worried. He'll pick her up and hold her tight for a little while, if she'll let him, and then he'll apologize for that stupid fight, and maybe even let her talk him into letting her go to that party. When they come back.
They left so much behind. Yvonne left half her clothes (though not, he notices, her jewelry), and Olivia her sheet music, her hair clasp, her schoolbooks with her chickenscratch handwriting in the margins and her favorite pillow that she's had since she was small and her brand-new pair of ballet slippers, the ones he gave her for her birthday. All the things she loves, all the things that matter to her. She wouldn't have left her ballet slippers.
He swallows a lump in his throat when he sees them, sitting on her bed, ready for the dance class that she never made it to. Maybe he should have paid more attention to Yvonne. Or less. He's not really sure what she wanted from him. But he should have done something different, obviously. If he had, then she wouldn't have gone, then Olivia would be...
When they come back, he decides, he'll do what he's only been thinking about: divorce Yvonne and get custody and take Olivia somewhere far away, where it can be just the two of them. Somewhere he can set up a practice, somewhere she can be happy. They'll take her ballet slippers along.
They're coming back. They have to be. He doesn't know what he'll be without Olivia.
They're coming back.
It's almost forty-eight hours before he sleeps.
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: Chocolate chip mint 28 (lumpy), fudge ripple 21 (guilt), rainbow sprinkles (Hugh).
Word Count: 318
Rating: PG.
Summary: He doesn't sleep that night.
Notes: Follows can't go back. Summer Challenge part 1.
He doesn't sleep that night. How could he? He doesn't even lie down.
He stays up instead and wanders through the house, hoping against hope that it's not real, that they'll come back. That it's all some big stupid mixup and he'll turn around and Olivia will be there, asking why he's been so worried. He'll pick her up and hold her tight for a little while, if she'll let him, and then he'll apologize for that stupid fight, and maybe even let her talk him into letting her go to that party. When they come back.
They left so much behind. Yvonne left half her clothes (though not, he notices, her jewelry), and Olivia her sheet music, her hair clasp, her schoolbooks with her chickenscratch handwriting in the margins and her favorite pillow that she's had since she was small and her brand-new pair of ballet slippers, the ones he gave her for her birthday. All the things she loves, all the things that matter to her. She wouldn't have left her ballet slippers.
He swallows a lump in his throat when he sees them, sitting on her bed, ready for the dance class that she never made it to. Maybe he should have paid more attention to Yvonne. Or less. He's not really sure what she wanted from him. But he should have done something different, obviously. If he had, then she wouldn't have gone, then Olivia would be...
When they come back, he decides, he'll do what he's only been thinking about: divorce Yvonne and get custody and take Olivia somewhere far away, where it can be just the two of them. Somewhere he can set up a practice, somewhere she can be happy. They'll take her ballet slippers along.
They're coming back. They have to be. He doesn't know what he'll be without Olivia.
They're coming back.
It's almost forty-eight hours before he sleeps.