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downpour

925 words, no warnings, @dorlenemicroficprompts

Relationships naturally broke down. It was just something that happened. People changed, no longer got along, wanted different things in life. They could still like each other, but slowly, they had fallen out of love.

Despite living in the same home, Marlene and Dorcas barely saw each other. Their schedules conflicted, their hobbies led them in different directions, they had no mutual friends, no common interests, except maybe their interest in each other, but that was… gone. How could Dorcas be interested in someone she no longer interacted with? When she saw Marlene, she felt… empty. Like there wasn’t enough of her, and there wasn’t enough of Marlene. Their conversations were stilted, and the last time she’d kissed Marlene was on a date, now almost a month ago. They hadn’t spent time together in weeks.

In Dorcas’s opinion, they were coming to an end, and there was nothing to do about that.

Except, if they were coming to a natural end, then why did it feel so unnatural? If Dorcas was falling out of love with Marlene, then why did she still feel like she’d move mountains for her? Maybe they were better off as friends? And after that, due to a lack of similarities, they’d drift apart as friends. They were meant to be nothing.

Dorcas didn’t quite like that ideology, but it was probably true. She couldn’t even remember how she and Marlene had gotten together in the first place. Wasn’t that supposed to be a momentous occasion, treasured forever?

She suggested they take a break. Whatever face Marlene made at that, Dorcas couldn’t recognise. They really were growing apart.

Marlene asked if they should keep living together. Dorcas shrugged, not feeling too happy with that. Marlene shrugged in response, and that was that.

They were still living together, as if they were merely acquainted roommates. Marlene worked the night shift and had the flat during the day, Dorcas worked morning to evening and had the flat through the night.

Dorcas changed her relationship status to single. Marlene followed. This probably meant they were broken up.

One night, while lying in bed and scrolling, Dorcas saw a picture of Marlene on a date. She liked it. Well, she didn’t like it, she just clicked the like button. She turned her phone off and couldn’t fall asleep.

Marlene announced that she was moving out. Dorcas helped her pack.

Everything felt empty.

Marlene lived in a flat on the other side of town. Dorcas sometimes walked past it, looked up at the window, wondered what Marlene was doing.

She kept doing that. It was sort of becoming a daily thing. Routinely, Dorcas just stared at Marlene’s flat.

One evening, it began drizzling, and Dorcas stood there, feeling the coolness trickle down her skin, getting heavier and colder as the seconds ticked by. Until she was standing in a full-on downpour, staring at Marlene’s flat.

Her hair was weighing her down as water collected between the strands, her clothes were soaked through and sticking to her skin, raindrops were rolling at an increasingly fast pace down her face, and she was staring at Marlene’s flat.

“Dorcas?” Marlene pushed open the door of the building, umbrella over her head while beneath it she shivered in her thin casual wear. Both their teeth were chattering, and they stared at each other. A million different expressions flitted across Marlene’s face, and despite understanding none of them, Dorcas wanted to, she wanted to understand again, keep relearning everything about Marlene, even as it changed, and the thought made her burn up from the inside out until she was crawling out of her frozen skin, crawling towards Marlene like a dog with its head hung and tail low, shame and embarrassment pressing against the walls of her heart like flaming torches. If she dared open her mouth, she knew what would come out, and she couldn’t give Marlene her charred black heart, but she did.

Dorcas stood right in front of Marlene with her tail between her legs and her heart in her throat, and she opened her mouth and gave Marlene the burnt remains of her actions. “I’m… sorry.”

Rain poured steadily between them, washing over the words, making them feel cleaner than how they’d felt in Dorcas’s mouth. They may have been burnt and old, but the water made them new. The water gave them life.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Dorcas broke down, and the words flowing out of her were as heavy and as all-consuming as the downpour around them.

Marlene stared at her, and Dorcas’s life felt like it was hanging by a thread, a thread which consisted only of the words, “I’m sorry.” So she repeated them, stitched them together, “I’m sorry,” and “I’m sorry.”

Slowly, Marlene lowered her umbrella and let the downpour overtake her. Once it did, her arms were immediately around Dorcas’s neck, pulling their noses together as she muttered, “You should be. You should be.”

They were laughing now. It was cold, but they were warm.

“I’m sorry too,” Marlene whispered.

“We must look really sorry,” Dorcas smiled, feeling her eyes light up with each second she spent talking to Marlene.

“Such a sorry sight,” Marlene shook her head wistfully.

“Pitiful,” Dorcas sighed.

Marlene laughed, bright and loud. Dorcas watched her intently. As her laughter subsided, Marlene paused, watching Dorcas watch her. Her hand rose to Dorcas’s cheek, brushing the water off. And suddenly they were on the same page. It was raining. What did lovers do in the pouring rain?