The house was quiet. It had been quiet for a couple of hours now. But Natalie wasn’t feeling much of anything. She didn’t feel the soft heat in her room, nor the occasional tear that quietly ran down her face, as she looked out of her bedroom window.

Today she’d buried one of her closest friends. He’d been killed in a drive-by shooting in front of Jessica, his wife of just four weeks and Natalie’s sister.

She looked down at the small statue of Mickey Mouse that was on her bedside table. It had been a gift that Jessica had bought her on honeymoon at Walt Disney World. She picked it up as two tears ran in perfect sync down both cheeks. Her body started to shake with sobs.

*

Downstairs her partner Emma had finished loading the dishwasher. The two girls had hosted the wake after the funeral and it had been a very emotional day all around. Jessica hadn’t spoken at all, she’d just spent the whole of the wake in the garden in complete silence. Everyone had been worried about her

Except for Emma, who had been worried about her beautiful girlfriend who meant the world to her. They had met when her previous lover Mark had been killed in a terrorist attack. She had wanted to stay on in the house they’d both shared but found it too difficult, so she’d moved in with Natalie. She hadn’t known her new housemate was gay, or that she was bisexual. They’d fallen for each other after a couple of months and then spent the next four privately denying their feelings hoping they would go away.

And then Natalie sprained her ankle in a car crash, and Emma who had been so devastated at the thought she could have lost her forever blurted out to her in the hospital the fateful sentence of three words and eight letters that changed her life forever.

Tears ran down Emma’s cheeks as she ran through their time together. Their first coffee as housemates at the Starbucks round the corner, the first time they’d shared a kiss in the local park round the corner. And now she was afraid of losing her, afraid that the death of her brother-in-law would mean she’d push her away.

But no, that wasn’t going to happen. Natalie came downstairs and gave her girlfriend a loving hug. The two girls softly cried together their tears falling freely.

“I thought I was going to lose you."  Emma sobbed.

“I’m not going anywhere remember."  Natalie sobbed. “I promised you in the hospital and I will never leave you."

The two girls wiped away their tears and shared a deep and loving kiss.

“There’s something we need to do."  Natalie told her when they broke apart her eyes still wet with tears

“Are you sure?"  Emma warned. “It won’t be too much"

“No."  Natalie decided as another tear ran down her left cheek. The two girls went into the garage to a large cardboard box, containing a special cabinet to house all of their Oscar winning Best Pictures on DVD. It was Natalie’s brother-in-law who had clubbed together with Natalie’s sisters to buy them both the cabinet when their collection had reached 75 films and the edge of their shelf in the living room. It had arrived on the day of the drive-by shooting and had been in the garage since that time.

They both lifted out the cabinet and after securing the special base that allowed it to rotate, loaded it with all the films. The collection was now complete until the next ceremony and when it was full the two girls both shed another tear.

“Shall we watch one?"  Emma asked.

“Yes."  Natalie agreed. She took out ‘You Can’t Take It With You’ and put it into the player.

Last edited by reptongeek (November 13, 2011 6:55 pm)