Some People Stay

Jonathan sat in Bridget’s house alone while she was at work. She hadn’t wanted to leave, expecting Amelia to come over at some point, but her boss had called her in for what she had declared an emergency, and Bridget couldn’t say no. So, Jonathan sat on the couch with his laptop in his lap, catching up on a few emails and other things that he had been neglecting since he had gotten to Nashville. He had basically just up and left when Bridget had called him and asked him to come help her in Nashville, and he hadn’t really told anybody why he was leaving. And, he still didn’t really want to reveal everything to everybody, so he got by with just the standard “I’m helping a friend.”

The front door suddenly opened, and Jonathan barely glanced up from his computer, assuming to see Bridget walking back in. However, he was surprised when Amelia was actually the one to walk through the door. He hadn’t really seen her outside of her house, and according to Bridget, Amelia never really left, except when Bridget forced her.

“Where’s Bridget at?” Amelia questioned, shutting the door behind her. Jonathan looked at her, noticing she was wrapped up in warm clothes, even though it was relatively warm outside and there was no need for the added layers.

“She got called in to work,” Jonathan replied. “How are you doing?” he asked, shutting his laptop and sitting it on the coffee table in front of him.

Amelia glanced at him skeptically. “Are you asking because you really want to know or as a common courtesy?” she questioned, crossing her arms over her chest, seemingly glaring at him.

“Because I really want to know,” Jonathan answered honestly.

Amelia stared at him for a few more seconds before finally deciding he was telling the truth. She sat down on the couch next to him, looking over at him cautiously. “Do you think I’m crazy?” she asked suddenly, catching Jonathan off guard, who didn’t expect those words to come out of her mouth right now.

“What?” Jonathan asked. “Why would I think that?”

“They put me on medication,” Amelia blurted out. “For depression,” she added. “I don’t want to be on medication. It’s like I’m crazy or something. Hell, who knows, maybe I am crazy,” she muttered, more so to herself than to Jonathan.

“Amelia, I can promise you that just because they put you on medication that it doesn’t mean you’re crazy. Millions of people have to take meds every single day. That doesn’t mean that they’re all crazy. The medication is just there to try and help you during this dark time,” Jonathan explained. “I know a bunch of people that are put on medication, and they live their lives just fine. They just need the medicine to help them get through some stuff. That’s all that it’s doing for you, too. You’re not crazy because of it.”

“I think it means they think I’m crazy,” she said quietly.

“Who’s ‘they’?” Jonathan wondered.

“I don’t know, everyone. The psychiatrist. Bridget.”

“Bridget doesn’t think you’re crazy. I can promise you that. She loves you, and she’s worried about you. But, she doesn’t think you’re crazy,” Jonathan assured her, knowing that Bridget really didn’t feel that way about her sister. She knew Amelia was having a hard time, but that didn’t mean that she thought she was crazy.

“I know she’s worried about me,” Amelia told him, leaning back against the couch, looking as exhausted as ever. Jonathan looked at her, wondering if she still wasn’t getting any sleep, and if she had mentioned that to the psychologist so that maybe she could get some medication for that problem. “She’s constantly around me, wanting me to be okay. But, here’s the thing, I can’t be okay. I just can’t. My husband died. I can’t suddenly just get over it. And, that’s all she wants. For me just to act like it’s okay,” she opened up.

Jonathan wasn’t sure why she was opening up to him right now, but he wasn’t going to stop her. This was what Bridget had wanted all along, and he was happy it was finally happening. “She doesn’t want for you to act like it’s all okay,” Jonathan defended Bridget. “She wants you to be okay, but she knows it’s going to take some time.”

“It is going to take some time, if it ever happens at all,” Amelia said lowly. “But she’s smothering me, Jon.”

“What do you mean?” Jonathan asked curiously.

“She’s constantly around me. I know she’s worried about me, but Jesus, she needs to back off. She’s there when I wake up, and she stays with me all day, and she stays there until I go to sleep. She has her own life, she needs to get back to it. I’m surprised she’s even at work right now. She’s stopped going to it or something. She’s always around me. And, I know what you’re going to say, she’s just trying to help me. And, I know that’s true. But, she’s smothering me,” she repeated her earlier sentiments.

“Have you talked to her? Told her how you feel?” Jonathan asked her.

“Yeah, but she doesn’t care. She thinks she needs to constantly be around me, and it’s not really helping, it’s just stressing me out. She always wants me to talk to her, but I can’t. She doesn’t understand it all. She doesn’t know what it’s like to lose your husband. And, sometimes I just want to be alone, but she doesn’t let me,” Amelia poured her heart out to Jonathan, who still wasn’t exactly sure why she was telling him everything.

“I think you should tell her all of this,” Jonathan said.

Amelia shook her head. “I can’t. And, you can’t either. Promise me you won’t,” she said to him.

Jonathan was quiet for a moment. He didn’t really know what to do. On the one hand, he felt he needed to tell Bridget what Amelia had just said to him. She deserved to know, and he knew that Amelia was never going to tell her. Bridget had asked him to come there to try to help her with Amelia, and how was he going to help her by just keeping all of this to himself. But, on the other hand, Amelia was confiding in him when she wasn’t really talking to anyone else. And, she was asking him to keep this to himself. “I promise I won’t tell her,” Jonathan finally said, realizing he couldn’t betray Amelia’s trust right now.

“Thank you,” Amelia told him. “I know I kind of just blurted everything out to you, but thanks for listening to me. I know you came here because Bridget asked you to, but I appreciate it. You don’t really seem to judge me when everyone else does. So, thank you,” she repeated for the third time.

“Amelia, I know you thought that I don’t care about you and that I was only trying to get into Bridge’s pants,” he said, remembering what Amelia had told him earlier. “But, I really do care about you. And, I’m glad you can open up to me. I know that’s hard for you right now. And, listen, if you ever need anything, feel free to call me. I’d be happy to help you any way I can at any time,” he told her with a sincere smile. “Here,” he said, leaning forward and grabbing a post-it note and a pen from the coffee table in front of him, scribbling his phone number onto it. “Like I said, call me any time,” he told her once again.

“Thank you,” Amelia said once again, and Jonathan couldn’t help but think about how much she was like her sister. Those two seemed to thank everyone more often than Jonathan could imagine.

“You’re welcome,” he smiled at her, and he could swear that he saw the ends of her mouth turn up ever so slightly, and he was sure that Amelia was on the path to recovery, even if that path was an extremely long one.