And Then She Was Gone

House Warming

While Jason stood underneath the shower head letting the hot water soothe his aching muscles, Elizabeth began to pick up the pieces of the shattered bedroom. She didn't like the way it looked, finding his destruction of its clean order rather depressing to look at. It was not a conducive environment for them to heal their fragile, haphazardly put together relationship.

The clothes scattered and strewn about the room, were placed in two piles, one pile that was salvageable and the other pile for those that were beyond repair. She found herself curious about what his exact state of mind was when he ripped through her closet, the same closet he had spent a fortune on, and the clothes he insisted upon her having. Some of the articles were completely shredded showing his clear malice against the fabric, something which she could not properly wrap her head around.

She picked up the wooden pieces of the night stands and piled them in one area tucked off to the side of the room. Pushing both of the arm chairs, one at a time, to join the remnants of the broken furniture after noticing ones legs were heavily damaged and deciding that they would just discard both. The sheets and the blankets of the bed were miraculously unscathed but determined in need of laundering so they as well joined the pile of wearable clothes. Finally, picking up the odds and ends scattered about the floor such as the charging dock, displaced books and the scattered contents of his briefcase, placing them all on top of the dresser where they would await to receive new homes.

There was nothing she could do about the holes in the walls, or the flickering lights, unsure of just what exactly he did to effect them. It made her incredibly sad to think about how upset he must have been when he did this. She knew he wasn't angry, she knew it because of the last look she saw on his face when she stormed away at the hospital, he wasn't angry, he was hurt. This too was only further confusing to her as one moment he was telling her to go and then in the next moment he's begging her not to leave.

Their communication with each other was very clearly poor, to say the least. She couldn't understand how they were so magnetically drawn to each other while knowing so little about each other at the same time. This was one of the things that they would have to change. Both of them being held to blame for closely guarding their own thoughts and emotions in fear of experiencing a rejection from the other.

Picking up the empty bottles of beer and placing them back in the cardboard they came in, sighing as she picked up not one but two empty crystal decanters after locating their lids, she headed down the stairs removing the only things from the room she absolutely could not bare to look at.

He was in a bad state last night when she found him, and she didn't want the empty liquor bottles to continuously remind her of his incredible self deprecating upset. It was very much unlike him, he was not the confident strong man she was used to seeing, she never wanted to see him so weakened again. They both needed to do better if they wanted it to work, and it was evident they both did.

As soon as she arrived in the kitchen, she placed the two decanters in the sink, that being a more acceptable and fitting spot for them, the bottles were placed in the recycling bin tucked into a kitchen cabinet. She found it to be peaceful knowing that they were currently the only two people in the large house. Not feeling the threatening presence of ears listening in to everything said between them and feeling more free to move about it.

It was actually liberating to not have food prepared for her, despite Jason having the best of intentions and enlisting the chef in his way of showing care for her. Bacon being placed in a large frying pan and flipped as it sizzled into its own greasy juices, and then plated on a paper towel for the grease to absorb.  Beating eggs with milk, adding in salt and pepper to taste as she poured their contents into the still hot bacon greased lined pan. Making the most simple of breakfasts, as she toasted four pieces of bread pulled from the pantry. This felt normal. This felt natural.