Angels Cry in the Rain

It was funny how rain always haunted the most melancholy of days. It was the foreshadowing of future events or the driving nail in an argument. Today, it only cemented what a man already knew.

"Why?" Her voice quivered, shaking the right hand that held his ring. "You had all this time to let me go, but..You couldn't. You wouldn't."

"I'm sorry," he whispered, making her look up. Her eyes didn't betray tears, but they were glassy. She stopped shaking now and the only thing her face held was a smile. Many days were filled out of the year where her smile would fill him with joy, but today it was the feeling of dread. It was all his fault.

"No," she shook her head, turning to look at her packed bags. "It's okay." There it was. Another reminder why he couldn't end it. She was so easy-going and so eager to please that she would let something go, even if she loved it fiercely. It happened with her doll-house, her former house, and now her husband. Shutting his eyes, he nearly sobbed when he heard,"You're doing the right thing. She needs someone to help her."

Flashes of sweaty limbs, deceitful smiles, and oblivious kisses punctured his open wound of a heart. She didn't deserve the pain he inflicted on her, but at the same time, he couldn't leave his child. She understood, but she hated him all the same. She was just trying to spare themselves unnecessary words that they would regret later. He knew her like his favorite song.

He messed up. He really did. While she was on tour and his band was on tour, all he had to do was be faithful. He couldn't even manage that. The lies while she was on the phone with him after a show, laughing at her exhilaration of her singing to her first audience, the sadness when the homesickness hit home. He messed that up. Instead of looking forward to several months of being home with her husband and recording some songs, he hit her with that truth. She braved it like the soldier she was, nodding and accepting it. She had to leave though; she was determined that his child would have his father despite his pleadings for forgiveness.

Thunder rolled, and that was her cue. Dropping her ring into his hand, she smiled, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. Grabbing her bags, she looked into his eyes before going towards the door. Swinging the door open to look upon the grey scenery that drenched her former neighborhood, she whispered goodbye before climbing into her tiny car and driving off.

It was funny, he mused after dragging himself in the kitchen and pouring the contents of a bottle down his throat. The girl who let him go was the one he wanted. The one who let him in was the one he wanted to disappear. The liar was stuck with his partner in crime, while the love of his life decided to cut her losses. Yeah, very funny. The alcohol burned his veins as his heart ached, the tears flowing into his hand and the counter-top.

Vows meant nothing if you didn't mean them. He didn't know that two hours from then, his wife would be outside his friend's house, soaking and crying saying the words that would make another's day. He didn't know that she rejected every advance he made, holding on to the stubborn belief that his "I love yous" were genuine. If he did, it probably would have made the difference. It would be months before his heart would shatter in a million pieces again, all because of a mistake on the back of a tour bus.

"You were right," she cried, wiping her tears furiously as Johnny let her in. "You were right all along."

This time, Zachary Baker had no one to enact vengeance on but himself. His actions led to his own ruin because he fell for an angel in disguise.