Falling to Pieces

The Chair was probably the most ridiculous thing she owned. It was oversized and bright pink, with all the other colors of the rainbow mixed into the multiple different prints of the back and arm cushions, but it was the most comfortable chair in the world. Her mother let her help pick out new furniture when they finally moved out of their tiny studio apartment and into an actual house and the moment she laid eyes on it, she fell in love. It didn't match any of the other furniture her mother had already bought, but the eight year old version of her had thrown a tantrum until her mother gave in.

He was sitting in it the first time she met him. It was her first day of school in the new town where they had just moved from Dover and as soon as she'd burst through the door of her new home, she promptly began complaining to her mother about her classes and the teachers and the lunches in the cafeteria. When she rounded the corner to go into the family room, he was right there sitting comfortably in her chair with a dimpled smile on his face. She recognized him from class, but as her mother got up and pulled her further into the room, she introduced her to the boy and his mother and sister, whom she learned were their across-the-street neighbors. His feet didn't even reach the floor that day.

When she was thirteen, at her mother's Christmas party for all the neighbors, he had squeezed into The Chair with her and they shared a glass of holiday punch as they quietly made fun of all the adults. And even after everyone else had gone home, he had stayed behind while his mother helped hers clean things up in the kitchen. His lips were stained the same red as the punch and he ran his tongue over them after he'd stopped laughing at his own cheesy joke, immediately becoming serious as he stared intently into her greyish green eyes. The kiss was awkward and rushed but it had been her first and the only details she held on to were that it was careful and sweet and that he'd tasted like cranberries and that it happened in The Chair.

The spring she turned sixteen found her curled up in The Chair, crying herself to sleep while their favorite movie played in the background. He was out on a date with the highly popular Emily Rhodes and she had finally realized that she was in love with him but it didn't matter because he only loved her as his best friend. He'd been so excited to tell her that he'd scored dinner and a film with the prettiest girl in their class and she'd had to congratulate him and put on a brave face until the bell rang and she could flee from the classroom to go home and grieve in private. The rest of the school year had been a struggle for her with the new couple parading around campus, holding hands and kissing in the hallway between classes.

The breakup had been even worse. Seeing him with Emily had been hard for her, but seeing him so torn up about it all ending was torture. She could take being in pain herself, but she hated seeing him hurting. He'd shown up at her door that night with bleary eyes and a deep frown and she'd ushered him into the empty house, sitting him down in The Chair as she squeezed in beside him and wrapped him in a hug. They both knew he was emotionally compromised and that it shouldn't happen, but when he leaned in to kiss her, she let him. It should have stopped there, but her mother wasn't home and he was so upset and she was so in love that nothing else mattered. The Chair had been a part of all their pivotal moments so it was only fitting that it was a part of that one too.

He sat her down in The Chair two weeks later to tell her that he was going to Manchester to audition for a singing competition and she knew then that it was the beginning of the end of life as it was. She knew what a talented singer he was. He'd always walked around singing Elvis songs in an overly cheesy manner and performed in the school plays and embarrassed himself quite a lot by singing at the top of his lungs when he thought no one was around. If he had a chance to show the world how good he was then everything would change, but even though that thought scared her to her very core, she put on a smile and tried her best to be happy for him.

As much as she had thought it wouldn't, life went on without him there. He was off signing to record labels and recording albums and touring the world while she stayed back in Holmes Chapel and went to college. The fragile friendships that she'd made with others through Harry fell apart once he was gone; she'd come to terms with the fact that he was the glue that held her life together, and when he wasn't there, she might as well have not existed at all. Her time was split between doing coursework, visiting her ailing grandmother, and waiting around for him. He only called once every week and which day mostly depended on what he was doing or what country he happened to be in so she stayed at home as much as possible so she didn't miss it. A twenty minute phone call one time per week wasn't much for a pair of best friends, but he'd shot to super stardom practically overnight so twenty minutes was all he had to give.

He came home every once in awhile, but it wasn't that frequent and it never lasted very long. She was lucky if she got three days with him every few months. He always came back with new stories of all the wonderful places he'd been and things he'd seen but he'd always made sure to bring souvenirs with him. A year into his new career, her bedroom was already covered with trinkets and other items of various sizes. Her favorite was the massive multicolored wool blanket he brought back from Mexico because she could curl up in The Chair and burrow herself down into it whenever she missed him (which was, like, all the time).

It wasn't until the thing happened that he came back home and stayed the entire week, never leaving her side for more than ten minutes. Any other time, she would have been ecstatic about it, but when your mother gets taken away from you on your eighteenth birthday, it's hard to be ecstatic about anything. The news was too much for her already fragile grandmother and within a period of twenty-four hours, she was planning two funerals instead of one. He took the first plane home to be with her as soon as he heard, and when they weren't out in town making arrangements, she was curled into his side in The Chair, tears streaming down her cheeks until her eyes were raw while he rubbed her back and pressed kisses to the top of her head.

It was the only piece of furniture she took with her when she moved to London. She packed up her personal belongings and left Holmes Chapel the week after the burials took place; it was too unbearable to be in that house without her mother and she wouldn't be able to handle having all of her mother's things in any new house. So she sold it all and went in search of a new home three hours away, with nothing but the few boxes of stuff from her bedroom, a suitcase full of clothes, and The Chair.