Zoe and Olivia
Here is a snippet of fiction I wrote last night. Tell me what you think.
The box was almost full and the dresser only half packed. It had been six months since the “accident”. Zoe had left her six months ago and now that her lease was up, she was forced to look back on all their memories together. She lifted a bundle of love notes from high school. They were from when they first started flirting. Zoe always perfumed her letters and they still smelled of lemongrass. Hot tears flooded her eyes and rolled down hills of her cheeks. This was all her fault. Zoe would still be here loving her if they hadn’t of been fighting that night. She couldn’t even remember what the fight was about. She just remembers getting pissed and driving off. After driving through the mountains for while, she returned home to find her beloved on the couch, breathless and without a heartbeat. She blamed herself for leaving. If she had stayed home then she could have saved her, helped her. She couldn’t believe that she would never again feel Zoe’s lips beneath hers or feel tender nibbles nip at her flesh. She would never hold her tight during the scary parts of movies or cuddle under blankets in the dead of winter. Six years of her life was spent with Zoe at her side and she wasn’t sure if she could make it with out her, especially since it was her fault she was gone.
She snapped out of her recollections. Her lease, their lease, was up tomorrow and she was moving to Seattle to start grad school. She had to finish packing tonight, but first the bathroom beckoned. Upon returning to dresser she noticed the well-worn edge of a note taped the mirror. She released the thick bundle of paper from its cobweb prison. It smelled of lemongrass as she opened it. Scrawled in her lover’s delicate yet almost illegible handwriting was a note dated January 5th. The night of the fight. The night she lost Zoe. The tears didn’t stop. They got worse. Her face got red and hot with emotion. Through blurry eyes she read the note.
Dear Olivia,
When you read this I’ll be gone, but I want you to know that it’s not your fault and I’m sorry I have to leave you to the mercies of this world alone. I love you very much and I always will, but I can’t deal with myself anymore. I’m going crazy and I can’t bear to see what it’s doing you, to us. I can’t ask you to live with me anymore. It’s just not fair to expect you to be able to deal with my insanity when I can’t myself….
….Just remember that I love you, Liv. I never stopped loving you and you did nothing wrong. You loved me and comforted me. You did the best you could. I don’t blame you for anything and I’m sorry that it must end like this.
your dearly beloved,
Zoe
Wow. Powerful. Great, even. I love it.