You Promised Me the World

The piece of lined paper stared up at Emma Thomas from her desk, taunting her to write everything she had felt for the past few months down on to it. Begging her to fill both sides with words that held enough venom, one bite would take down even the strongest man. But she knew that wasn’t her, she could never muster up enough courage to lash out at him. He had done the unthinkable, and all she could do was feel sorry.

So after an hour of looking at the blue lined paper, that was what she wrote. “I’m sorry”, two simple words that were anything but simple.

Emma was sorry though, sorry he was incapable of being a man, sorry she had ever met him, sorry he wasn’t what she thought, but most of all she was sorry she had to do this. Emma was sorry that this was what their relationship had been reduced to.

Folding the note up she tossed it in the bottom of a box she still had lying around, it was the last thing she wanted him to see. Next would come the only thing Kennedy had genuinely surprised her with, the blue velvet box which was still in the most pristine condition. She had feared even getting the slightest bit of dirt on it, ruining its soft texture with the tiniest scratch, making the happiest memory in her life dirty like all of the rest.

Prying the smooth object open with a familiar creak, the ach of a tight joint that sent shivers down her spine, Emma gazed at the silver ring with a fine cut diamond perched directly in the center. It wasn’t a huge and gaudy diamond, it was simple and small, something she had assumed he could afford. She had fallen in love with it the moment she set her eyes on it. The small piece of jewelry had come with so much attached to it then, and even more now.

Lifting the ring from its confines of the soft material, she placed it on her left hand. It still fit perfectly, but now it looked out of place much like the rest of the things awaiting their new home inside of a cardboard box.

Once everything had been packed neatly inside of the white box, Emma carried it out into the kitchen and lay it down on the scruffy looking table. Retrieving the clear packing tape from one of the drawers, she tapped the flaps shut and sighed. These were the last of his things; now all physical memory of Kennedy Brock had been erased.

As Emma glanced around her apartment now, she wasn’t reminded that he was supposed to move in with her. She wasn’t reminded that they had come to see it together, planned out every room, paid first and last months rent, painted it and picked out furniture. She no longer remembered moving in alone, wondering how she would afford any of this on her own. For the first time in months, Emma felt like she was able to move on guilt free. She was living her life now, not their life.

Placing the box on the passenger seat of her car, Emma made the familiar drive towards the Brock household. A home that she had spent many nights in, people she had called her second family, where she had fallen in love and gotten her heartbroken. She walked up the driveway, knocked on the door and smiled sympathetically at the women who answered.

“Hello Mrs. Brock,” Emma greeted quietly.

The formal tone sent a shock through both women; the younger girl had not been this formal since they had met for the first time. Even that formal tone had quickly been replaced by first names and the loving words a second mother would give her daughter.

“Emma, it’s nice to see you dear,” his mother replied noticing the heaving white box in her son’s former girlfriend’s arms. “Let me take that from you.”

“No, thank you Mrs. Brock, I would really like to bring it in myself if it’s okay with you,” Emma said shyly, feeling awful that they had to have this exchange.

The older women’s face contorted with confusion for a moment, before realizing what the box in Emma’s arms really was. This was it, she was coming to do the cliché thing of “dropping off Kennedy’s things”, a moment his mother hoped she would never have to see.

“Oh, of course come on in,” she nodded, opening the door further. “You know what room it is, just go on up.”

“Thank you so much, I won’t be long,” Emma nodded in return.

Carefully moving through the doorway and removing her shoes, Emma began the walk she had been dreading since her relationship with Kennedy had ended.

Every room held moments in time, prom pictures, late night movies, pool side days, family functions. She tried her best not to falter, fumble over her feet that wanted nothing more than to run away. But she kept pushing forward until those feet hit the stairs, took her down the hall and stopped her at his bedroom door.

She turned the knob with ease, like she had so many times before and stepped in to shut herself inside. Glancing around she smiled slightly, better times had been had between these walls. Memories were hidden behind glass or sprawled on a cork board, push pins of every color securing them there. She took comfort in those good times, wanted to shrink behind the glass and relive them.

Just when she was almost too lost inside the memories, the heavy box tugged her back to reality. Taking a deep breath she placed it down on the floor, picking a spot where it would be the first thing he would see without tripping over it.

And just like that Emma had released all ties she had to Kennedy, ties she thought that she would never be able to cut. Now that they were gone, she could go on living her life.