The End of Us

In February she told her dad for the first time she was moving in with a guy. Her dad was disappointed, but told her it’s better that she isn’t pregnant or a dropout. She left feeling excited and secure about her decision.

A month passes and somehow she scrambled together enough furniture for the apartment to feel like a home. Everything seemed wholesome and safe. Two bedrooms, two good jobs, two lovely cats, two working cars and a college education. That is a lot to accomplish for two newly 19 year olds. They were happy.

A couple weeks go by and they decided to invite two of his friends over (Joe and Lily). He knew Joe for a decade and Lily for a little while. Him and Joe had lived together for two years up until now. Joe and Lily were a new couple and they dressed up for this occasion as if we weren’t all friends trying to get through life together.

Enough time for us to all be friends and enough time for Joe’s lease to end goes by. They invited to Joe to stay with them for a few weeks. Lily starts spending the night unexpectedly. At this point, Joe worked at a grocery store and Lily didn’t work.

The two of them had lived in the apartment for about three months when Lily’s birthday came around. Joe had only been staying with them for two weeks. They decorated for her and made her dinner. It was a good day. Then, Lily’s grandma wished her a happy birthday, but told her if she didn’t give her $200 by next week and every month moving forward she’d be kicked out. Naturally, Lily moved in with them and Joe.

A few weeks go by and Joe isn’t working as late anymore. The next morning Joe broke up with Lily and moved to another city without telling anyone. He lost Joe his best friend. They had found out Joe got fired and decided to move away to finish school.

Of course everyone was devastated. The two of them weren’t very good friends with Lily yet, but they didn’t want to kick her out. She had nowhere to go and she just got dumped. Everyone was sad, but came to terms with his decision.

Two weeks later, Joe gets back together with Lily and decides to come visit the three of them for the weekend. His weekend visit turned into a six month stay...

During those six months, the two of them added two dogs to the family. There were four people and four pets in a two story apartment that only had two bedrooms. They all made it work though. Well some of them.

As time went on, the two of them and Joe were inseparable. The three had discovered weed, LSD, good sitcoms, their love of tennis and a lot of great memories. Meanwhile, Lily didn’t want to watch shows with them and gradually became irritated with smalls things. She also never understood jokes. All the two of them and Joe would do was make jokes. She’d start yelling at Joe for leaving the coffee grains out or for putting the dishes in the dishwasher the “wrong” way. She turned into her mother.

Joe approached Lily with the mindset that he could break her bad habits with time. All the while, Lily was oblivious. She was deeply in love with Joe despite being so disconnected. She couldn’t see what she was doing.

It’s October, Lily’s favorite month. She strung four Halloween themed lights across the living room and bought candy. One day Joe sat the two of them down to talk. Joe was clearly not very open about decisions or feelings. It came as a surprise to them when he said he was thinking about breaking up with Lily. Things weren’t always perfect, but the four of us could all coexist. The two of them asked him what he would do when December rolled around. December was the month Joe and Lily would move out.

A few silent moments passed and Joe said he didn’t know. He didn’t want to lie to Lily for any longer, but if he broke up with her now, then they’d still be living together. He decided he was going to wait until the last minute to make any decisions...again.

A week later, the two of them told Joe he could stay with them as long as he wanted. He could even move in with them to the next house. Joe was surprised and tried to sound confused, but you could tell that’s what he wanted to do. If Joe broke up with Lily, she’d lose her three friends, the love of her life, and a place to stay.

One morning, she went downstairs and sat across from Lily in silence for quite sometime. That morning was the same morning this story was written about Lily’s fate to be devastated in December.