You Never Let Burn Out

Famous stores were lined up one after another as the couple began to walk around. Josie smiled at her long time boyfriend of eight months, Eric. Their shared smiles were cute, but he had no idea that hers were fabricated. She was good at putting on a show.

"Come on Eric, lets go into this store." he smiled at his girlfriend while she swung their hands. The blonde haired girl smiled as she looked at the items all over the store. It was as if dollar symbols had formed over her eyes.

Josephine couldn’t help herself when it came to possessing things; it was in her nature to want things because she couldn’t have them. With Eric, she could have anything she wanted whenever she wanted. In a way, it was like he was her 'sugar daddy'. She didn’t mind the thought of that; she was actually comforted by it.

Eric smiled at his girlfriend as she went from looking at item to item. He thought that it was adorable when she scrunched her nose or when her lips curved up just slightly. It was no lie that he was in love with her and he didn’t deny it.

“Sweetie, I want this one right here. Can I please have it?” the blonde began to pout her lips cutely. Eric just couldn’t resist her. She was unknowingly his drug.

The twenty four year old pulled out his wallet and Josie began to smile as she became giddy with excitement “Awe, thank you so much. I love you.”

Her words weren’t the truth. She indeed didn’t love him; she loved the money that he possessed. There was nothing more that she wanted than money. It wasn’t wrong to want things some of the time, but she wanted the universe.

She had her insecurities though, everyone did. Her worst fear was feeling like she would end up alone. Behind that was the feeling of living on the streets poor. Granted she knew she would never get that way with Eric, it was still a thought in the back of her mind.

An hour had passed before the two had finished with shopping. Eric wasn’t feeling well and they both decided it would be best if they went home. The two had been sharing a house of two months and knew each other’s boundaries.

Time had passed and soon enough it was dark. Josie had just gotten out of the shower while Eric was waiting for her in the bed. Its not that she didn’t enjoy the sex with him, she just didn’t find him sexually attractive.

Josie smirked at him as he smirked back. She lightly played with the hem of her short silk robe. Flipping the light switch off, she climbed into the bed and purred into his ear. “I do better in the dark.”



Weeks had passed; Josie and Eric seemed to be on the rocks. He could feel this void in the air whenever the two were together. Life wasn’t working his way and he seemed to be getting sicker.

He’d been in remission for about a year and a half, but his cancer was now becoming more furious. His skin was pale, his lanky body was even skinnier than usual, his eyes were sunken in, and he knew there were bruises on certain places in his body.

The door flew open causing Eric’s thoughts to be interrupted. Josephine came into the house with two shopping bags in each of her hands. He smiled at the girl he loved. “How was shopping with Hanna today?”

“We both had some fun. It has been too long since I’ve seen her. You know she has a little girl now. I didn’t know that, five weeks old.” Josie smiled thinking of her older sister. She hadn’t seen her family in what felt like the longest time.

All the money that could have gone to helping seemed to go into the Josephine fund. Her shopping trips were weekly. Eric didn’t want to accuse her of anything so he decided not to say anything.

“Are you okay baby? Do you need any help with anything?” there was a fake look of concern on her face. He ate up every lie she tossed out at him.

“Yeah, I’m feeling fine right now. Could you get me some water though? I’m feeling a little parched.” She smiled at him, walked to the fridge, grabbed him a water bottle, and handed it to him.

He smiled at the girl he loved while thanking her. “What did you buy today?”

Josie let out a large bright smirk. She grabbed one of the bags, the one closest to her. “You really want to know? I got something that I was hoping to show you tonight in bed.”

Eric’s eyes widened in curiosity and pleasure at the thought of the undergarments his girlfriend had bought. He couldn’t wait for the sun to go down now.

They both knew that they wouldn’t be able to wait. Josie loved the sex with Eric; he was almost an expert in the bedroom. She didn’t seem to like his appearance that much in the last month. She immediately noticed the changes that the cancer was causing him.

The main thing was to keep him happy so she could keep her wants and needs fulfilled. It seemed shallow and heartless, but that’s what she needed to do. “You know what? On second thought, why wait until tonight we can make our own night.”

It was making Eric ecstatic to think of getting his pleasure early; he was a man after all.



Laughs filled the house as Eric relived memories with his childhood best friend, John. They were both enjoying the time that they were spending together because it didn’t happen a lot. John was a traveling musician of the hit band The Maine.

“It still baffles me to this day to why you did that. You proposed to Riley at the senior prom and she told you to get haircut and maybe she’d think about it.” Eric laughed.

John didn’t think that moment was very amusing. “You know she was just kidding though. Later that night, she told me that she wasn’t ready. I’m sorry that we couldn’t reschedule the wedding so that you could come, Halvo.”

Eric understood what he meant. Riley had studies in Europe to attend and John was about to go on a year long tour and that was the only time they could get married. It was also the time that Eric was in the hospital for the cancer treatments.

Suddenly door opened and in came Josie with more shopping bags. Every single time Eric saw her it seemed that she had something newly bought in her hands. “Oh John, I didn’t know you were coming over. I would have cleaned up the house if you were going to stop by.”

He could see through her façade, John that is. Halvo seemed to be the oblivious one. Josie smiled at the two boys and excused herself so she could put away her things.

“So, you and Josie seem to be hitting it off really well. Its been what, nine months?” There was a tone in John’s voice that Eric immediately noticed.

“Yeah, I think I love her.” Eric said truthfully to his only best friend. The look that took over John’s face wasn’t a look of happiness. He wasn’t sure how to tell his best friend the news.

John let out a deep breath before he started to rip off the bandage. “Josie doesn’t love you Eric, she loves your money. She’s been playing you this whole time. I didn’t know how to tell you in the beginning.”

Eric blinked his eyes a couple of times not grasping what his best friend had actually said. He knew he was wrong. Josie loved him; he knew that for a fact, at least he thought he did.

“Come on Eric, she spends most of you money every week on clothes for herself when you can use that money towards your cancer treatments to help you.” John said a little too loudly, but he knew Josephine would be too distracted with her things to hear them.

It made the wheels turn in Eric’s mind as he thought about what John had said. “Well I have to go. Riley comes home today from her business trip in Washington. Please really listen to what I said and grasp it.”

How could he have grasped what John had said? It seemed like the world was crashing down at his feet.



Another week had passed and all Eric could think about was what John had said. It was a preposterous thought to think that the girl he loved didn’t love him only his money.

There was a part of his brain saying that his best friend was wrong, but the other part was saying that some of the facts did add up. Eric always had the fear of dying alone. Both of his parents had died when he was young, so he didn’t really have anyone.

He was going to ask her tonight, when they were having dinner. The door had opened and her laugh filled the house. “No, you’re kidding me. That is so horrible. I feel bad now.”

Josephine came into the house with a shopping bag in her hand and her phone in the other. Eric looked at his girlfriend with those eyes and knew something was instantly the matter with him. “I have to call you later Gillian.”

“Eric is something wrong?” the blonde asked. She knew there was something big going on inside of his head.

“Are you using me for my money?” his blunt words shocked her. She was beyond flabbergasted. Her mind instantly became blank and her mouth dry. She didn’t know what to say to him.

There was a silence filling the room and the more silence made Eric angrier. “Is it the truth? It’s a simple yes or no question Josephine.”

She knew she was in trouble. He hasn’t called her Josephine in a long while. He’d always given her little nicknames. Tears seemed to come to the corners of her eyes. She didn’t want to loose everything.

“No! Of course not!” Her voice may have cracked, but Eric already knew her answer. She had been lying to him and only staying with him for his money. He felt disgusted with himself for not knowing the truth earler. He'd been blinded by the fake love she had been showering him with.

“You’re lying to me Josephine! Why can’t you just tell me the truth? Did you ever even love me?” he asked. Eric knew her answers would stab his heart.

Tears started rolling down Josie’s face as the thought of loosing her luxurious life. “No and yes, you’re a really great guy Eric.”

He didn’t want to hear any more of her bullshit. He’d rather die alone with the way he was being treated now. All this pain and heartache wasn’t worth it to him.

Josie couldn’t have him leave her, she just couldn’t. She needed to tell him her secret, but she couldn’t form the right words. The secret would have made him let her stay. She was now dying on the inside. Her life that she had was now being taken away from her in a matter of minutes.

“I want you out of my house now, I don’t want to see your face for a long time, you gold digging whore. I’m giving you fifteen minutes to pack your shit up and leave.” His words stung her more than she ever thought possible. Waterfalls of tears seemed to fall down her cheeks.

She looked at him for two more seconds, hoping that there was some sort of forgiveness in his eyes, there wasn’t. Josephine ran into the room she shared with Eric and grabbed all of her valuable things.

In a way, she really did love Eric. It was a complicated matter for her to explain though. Throughout all the tears she had finally finished packing and looked at the man she admired. “So this is it?”

Eric didn’t want to look at her, but he did anyways. It hurt him extremely just looking at her. “Yeah, this is it. I don’t want to see you ever again.”

Josephine knew that she partially deserved all the hostility she was getting, that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt her. She looked at him one last time and was out of the door.

Both Josie and Eric were standing with tears in their eyes, for different reasons of course but it still hurt all the same. They were both now alone to suffer in their own misery. This would be the last time they were to see each other.