This is a Rant. With a Capital 'R'.

Good day. Today I shall rant.
This is applicable to more than one of you so read well. Understand. Weep.
Or maybe not. But you'll be hit by a large moving automobile in the next three days. Yes that's right. I'm talking about you.
And I'm really, truly sorry that I couldn't resist doing this. But this sits and festers and putrefies, it's time it goes out of my system.

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Hey you there, yes you, the one with the mask on. Does it bother you that your cover is blown? Of all the years of pretending and putting a show on, does it bother you that now someone besides you knows the truth about you?

It’s easy to spout ideas and ideals, easy to talk but not so easy to act, now is it? The challenge is to actually act on what you pretend to believe in. But what I don’t understand is why you do it. So let’s examine that, shall we?

If I were petty (well, any more than I am already) I would launch into a detailed description of just what you did but honestly, that’s not the part that shattered everything I thought about you into tiny fragments. Much like when my phone fell out of my hand and the screen cracked. It’s quite pretty actually, my broken screen that is, not you.

Keeping the actual event aside, let me just say, your mask never was perfect. There was something that you said one afternoon that made me realize that you were not as open-minded as you seemed. Now back on topic.

What I don’t understand is why you have to pretend to be someone you’re not. Maybe it’s not easy to be honest with yourself. Or is it just not easy to be honest with others. Does all of you know what the real you is like, or do you lie to yourself even when it’s just you in a dark room with no place to go and no place to be and no one to impress.

Now that I know the face behind the mask when I meet people who think you’re oh-so-funny or maybe even oh-so-smart I wonder how it’d feel for them when at some point they figure out who you really are. It’d break their hearts, you know. They really look up to you.

What you like and what you don’t is honestly up to you, no amount of arguing or ranting is going to change that and I don't even want to attempt to change your beliefs because I wouldn't want someone to do that to me. However try (for the sake of those who still believe your mask is your true face) to face the consequences when you make a decision instead of deleting accounts and running away because that’s a sure-fire way that they’ll know you for the wuss you really are.

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Thank you. I have ranted.

Boxed Belongings

Natalie opened her eyes sleepily. For a few seconds she couldn't figure out where exactly she was. She felt an arm around her waist and then she remembered. She focused her gaze on the pale blue curtains, and the light filtering through the crack. She crawled out from under the thick comforter, only glancing behind her for a second at the figure hidden in the sheets. The glimpse suffices, she’s filled with a rush of affection. Her partner, her love, the only one she’s wanted as much as she did right then.

She hummed Emily’s favorite song as she stepped out of the washroom. She pats her face dry with the worn out towel hanging by the door. ‘I really ought to redecorate, now that I've moved in officially,’ she thinks, eyeing her boxes piled by the door, making plans to go shopping later in the day.

She went into their room with steaming mugs of coffee, filling the tiny room with the scent, “Emily, sweetie, wake up.”

“Em. Come on, you've slept enough, love.” Natalie sets the mugs of coffee down on the dresser and pulls apart the curtains. She stands there for a bit, basking in the sunlight. She watched their neighbor cross the street, checking the time on his watch, in a rush to get to work maybe.

She smiled. She felt so calm now. Now that everything was decided, now that they were finally going to begin their life together. 

“So I was thinking we ought to go shopping later? Maybe get a few towels. Do you have milk somewhere else besides the fridge? I threw out the empty cartons.”

She turned around from where she was folding her clothes to find Emily still wrapped up in the sheets. She giggled as she crept up to the foot of the bed, her mind filled with almost childish delight at what she was about to do. She grasped the comforter firmly and with a quick tug pulled it off Emily’s body, expecting to hear a slew of curses and whining. Emily didn't move.

‘Wow she must really be fast asleep.’

All she could see from where she stood was Emily’s long dark hair all over the pillow, it was only when she walked over to the side of the bed that she saw.

Emily’s eyes were frozen wide open, her mouth slack, something that looked like dried spittle all over the edge of her mouth and pillow, and her lips the grey-blue color of death.

Natalie's scream resonated through the apartment, filled with boxed belongings and dreams. She fell back and kicked herself away from the bed, collapsing against the walls, pushing apart a bookcase on her way, with soundless sobs escaping her shaking body.