Good Job

ARIELLA

I didn’t move from my spot.

I didn’t sleep. I just drifted in and out of little daydreams, half-asleep, half-awake, neck stiff against the wall, arms wrapped around my legs like they were the only thing holding me together. I watched the light change, night turning into bright morning. Light seeped across the floor and up the walls. Still, I waited.

Because some part of me still believed in him. Still believed in us. But the truth was there in the silence.

The door didn’t open.

He didn’t come back.

And eventually, the only sound in the house was the soft creak of the wood beneath me as I shifted on the step. The weight of everything we had, everything we lost, settled inside me.

He left. And maybe this time… he wouldn’t come back.

I went towards my bedroom, and I guess I was tired from everything, tired from crying, from the heaviness of it all, so I sat on the bed, letting my body sink into the mattress. My head was foggy, my limbs heavy.

Then came the knock. Sharp, sudden. I