I'm so very very tired this morning. Here, some more conversations.
The sound in my mouth
It gets so loud
It gets so loud
The little words can't slip out
Words like sorry
I'm so sorry
Where would you find yourself
Without love
Give love to someone else
Is that enough
If love is to find yourself
Are you fighting love
Or are you picking sides?
Ben fell off the wagon with a resounding thump last night, hopefully banging his head with enough force to knock some sense back into it.
One of the most difficult things about this dissolution of a long close friendship has now settled on the fact that he keeps trying to mend the fences that he summarily destroyed into matchsticks. I can't change my cellphone number again. Ruth and Henry have a hard enough time remembering this new number, after I was forced to change it back in May because of the order against Cole. I always have my phone with me and my kids being able to reach me when they're not with me is a lifeline that for some reason helps me sleep at night, even if it means receiving drunken apologies at 2 in the morning. If that's what Ben thought he was doing.
Hey.
Princess, don't hang up on me.
What do you need, Ben?
I need to tell you some things.
Start with how much you've had to drink and where you are.
I'm home. Too much. I'm alone.
Are you okay?
I'm peachy. I just need to talk to you for a little while.
No. Here, talk to Jacob instead. I can't do this, Ben.
I put Ben on speakerphone and passed it to Jake.
Ben?
I need to talk to Bridget.
Ben, maybe you need to get some sleep.
Let Bridget talk. You never understood me, preacher man.
She doesn't want to talk to you. Please don't call her anymore.
Let her tell me.
She has, Ben. Many times.
Oh. I get it. It's been a while though.
It's only been a month, Ben. Bridget has been through enough. Let her be.
You let her be. It's all your fault.
Goodnight Ben. Next time call Rob.
Yeah. Fuck you too, preacher man.
Right. Bye.
We returned to the warmth beneath the blanket. I could sense Jacob's mind churning with fresh doubts. He breathes deeply, differently when he's getting upset.
Don't do it, Jacob.
Do what?
Let him inside your head.
Maybe he's got a point, Bridge. If I had waited, things would have been so much easier for you.
Do you hear yourself, Jacob? I'm glad everyone got a chance to see who Cole really was before he died. He finally left a mark people could see. Are you telling me that you would have wanted me to go through three more months with Cole so that you would have some sort of peace of mind borne out of ignorance?
Don't say that, princess.
Besides, you didn't know for sure I would leave him, since I never had before. And no one can predict the future.
I could have done things differently. You would have been safer, somehow..
Jacob, where are we right now?
Under the quilts, in our bed. In our house together, kids and cat are asleep. It's dark. Safe. But does the end justify the means?
In this case, it does. No one promised that life would be easy. Don't let Ben of all people cast a pall on our lives together.
Since when did you become so optimistic?
Well, I met this amazing man and he changed me forever.
In a good way, I hope.
In an exemplary way, Jacob.
Oh, now, there you go with all those big words again, piglet.
Piglet? I thought I was the princess.
I'm thinking there's been too many people using that nickname and maybe you need a new one, Bridget.
I think since you gave it to me, it stands. Besides, piglet? What the hell is that?
Well I thought it was cute.
It's not cute.
At least it isn't perverted.
Oh I could make it perverted, Jake.
I give up.
