Some People Stay

Bridget walked into her living room, having just gotten home from work and deciding she should probably go and visit Amelia, who she hadn’t seen all day since she had gotten called into work. She saw Jonathan sitting on the couch, and she smiled at him. “Hey,” she said. “I think I’m going to head over to Amelia’s, see how she’s doing,” she told him.

Jonathan sat his laptop on the coffee table in front of him, standing up. “Do you really think that’s such a good idea? Maybe you should just let her come to you,” he suggested.

Bridget looked at him curiously, wondering why he was saying that. “No, I think I’m just going to stop by her place. I want to see if she’s doing any better.”

“You saw her yesterday,” Jonathan said.

“Yeah, so?” Bridget shrugged. “She’s my sister, I see her like everyday. What’s the big deal, Jon?” she asked. “What’s going on?”

“I just think that maybe you should just let her come to you. She’ll come and talk to you when she wants to. I don’t think you need to go over and push her all the time,” Jonathan replied.

“I’m not pushing her,” Bridget said defensively, crossing her arms over her chest. “Where is this coming from? Why are you saying this?”

“I just think that maybe you’re pushing her a little too much and maybe you should just let her come to you when she’s ready.”

“You think I’m pushing her too much?” Bridget questioned, getting angry at Jonathan. “Who the hell are you to say I’m pushing her too much. Did you ever think that maybe I have to push her in order to get her to talk to me at all? To get her to talk to anybody?” she defended herself. She didn’t know why Jonathan was saying all of this, but she wasn’t liking it one bit.

“Did you ever think that maybe if you just let her come to you on her own time that maybe she’d open up just a little bit more?” Jonathan retorted.

“Who the hell are you to say that?” Bridget asked him. She looked at him for a moment, waiting for an answer before everything started to become clearer to her. “Have you talked to Amelia?” she finally asked, only to be met by more silence, only confirming her suspicions. “She talked to you?” she asked, completely shocked. On most days, Bridget had to force Amelia to say five words to her, so why had she come and talked to Jonathan. “When? What did she say?”

“Bridge, calm down,” Jonathan told her, wanting her to stop firing questions at him.

“Why the hell did she talk to you? She doesn’t even talk to me!” Bridget exclaimed. It didn’t seem fair to her. She was Amelia’s best friend. She was the one that had been by her side the entire time since David had died. And yet, Jonathan was the one she was opening up to. That just wasn’t fair.

“Does it matter?” Jonathan asked. “As long as she’s opening up?”

“She’s opening up to you?” Bridget questioned, hearing him say those words. She had just assumed that Amelia had just talked to him, but now Jonathan was revealing that she was actually opening up to him, telling him how she was feeling or what she was thinking. That was all Bridget had been asking her to tell her. So what made Jonathan so special?

“Bridge, why are you getting so worked up about this? Isn’t this what you wanted? Isn’t this why you asked me to come to Nashville? To hopefully have Amelia open up to me a little, to have another person here that she could rely on? And, now she’s doing just that, and you’re getting upset? I don’t get it. What exactly do you want?” he asked.

Bridget sighed, throwing the purse that was in her hands down on the couch. “I don’t know what I want!” she admitted loudly. “I want her to be able to rely on you. But, I don’t want her opening up to you when she can’t to me. Jon, I’m her sister. I’m the one that’s been here for her the entire time. Why can’t she open up to me?” she asked, throwing herself down on the couch next to her abandoned purse.

“Maybe it’s just easier to talk to me about some things,” Jonathan shrugged, knowing that the real reason that Amelia was opening up to him was because she was talking about her sister. He had tried to delicately tell Bridget that she needed to back off and let Amelia come to her when she was ready to talk, but Bridget didn’t like to hear that. And, he couldn’t just betray Amelia’s trust and tell Bridget exactly what she had said.

“Easier to talk about what?” Bridget wondered aloud, and once again, Jonathan got quiet. “What did she talk about, Jon?” she asked, but got no answer. “Jon!” she practically screamed his name, getting more and more frustrated by his quiet stature.

“I’m not going to tell you, Bridge,” he said, knowing she was going to get angry at him. But, he didn’t really have a choice.

Bridget stood up, taking giant steps to reach him until she was standing toe to toe with him. “What do you mean you’re not going to tell me?” she yelled. “She’s my sister! I deserve to know!”

“And, if she wanted you to know, she’d tell you herself,” Jonathan said. “I’m telling you, Bridge, you need to back off of Amelia. Let her come to you.”

“Fuck you,” Bridget said so lowly that at first, Jonathan wasn’t sure he had heard her correctly. But, the look on her face let him know he had heard her perfectly clear. “I wanted you to come down here to help me help my sister. Not so you can keep things from me,” she continued, speaking just as lowly as she had begun. “I don’t know what makes you think that you’re so much better than me that you can keep things that are as important as my sister actually talking about something from me, but it’s ridiculous.” She shook her head at him, a look of complete disgust on her face. Jonathan had never seen her look like this before, and it was killing him that she was looking at him this way, but he couldn’t break. He couldn’t betray Amelia, no matter how angry Bridget was at him.

“Bridge, I’m sorry,” Jonathan told her, though he knew that wasn’t going to help right now. “If it was anything critical that you really needed to know, I would tell you,” he promised her.

Bridget didn’t respond, but instead continued to just shake her head at him. She turned around, grabbing her purse off the couch and headed towards the front door.

“Bridge!” Jonathan called out to her. “Where are you going?”

But, Bridget didn’t answer, opening the door and walking out of it without a word, slamming it behind her. If Jonathan didn’t want to tell her what was going on with Amelia, then she sure wasn’t about to fill him in on everything that was going on with her. Two could play this game.