2AN: This is a story that just sorta popped into my head… I was in a pissy mood when I wrote it though, so you have to remember that. But, everything is mine! Review!
"Can't you see that I love you, Dree?" he asked her, with eyes reflecting the pain that they were both feeling.
Audrey sighed. "Oh, Dare, I know you do, why can't you see that? How could I not know? It's just that, sometimes… I don't feel worthy of your love. I don't deserve someone like you, or a love like ours. I love you, with all of my heart, but…"
Darren sighed. "There's always a but, isn't there Dree? Why isn't it enough?"
She didn't have to ask what he meant, she knew. There was no use pretending that she didn't. "You know why, Darren. You know. I just… sometimes, love isn't enough. I just… can't handle everything, sometimes. It doesn't even really hurt anymore, I just feel so… empty. Always empty, though I'll never know why. Completely void of… everything, really. Oh, don't look like that, you know I love you no matter what. But… you'd be happier with someone else, someone who could truly be happy. I'm happy with you, Dare, but… I have second thoughts when we're apart. Hell, how could I not? We're just too different, Dare! You would be happier with another girl; you know it, deep down. Someone who could have your children, someone who doesn't cry herself to sleep every night that she's alone just because of the thoughts that enter her head."
"What thoughts, Dree?" he asked her, desperately trying to find some way to get her to stay with him. He looked into her eyes, and instantly wished he hadn't- they were so hollow, so empty… God, she didn't even look like his Audrey anymore!
Her answer was barely above a whisper, and she turned to stare at the floor. "Thoughts that I'm an absolute failure. That you can do better than me, and someday, before I told you, you'd realize it and leave me. The fact that I can never wear a swimsuit in public because of scars that can't even remotely pass for accidental. Thoughts that you can't possibly love me as much as you say you do. Thoughts that maybe I'm wrong, and I'm not in love with you, even as I am crying myself to sleep at the thought that you don't love me. Do you really want me to go on, Darren?"
He sighed. He knew the rest would only be worse, and he would just be torturing himself by asking more. "Dree, just give me another chance, please. We'll get you on anti-depressants, they might really help. You don't know that they won't, I mean-"
"Darren, don't do this to yourself." She said, her voice cold for the first time when talking to him. "You know damned well that they won't help, even if I did try them. Which I won't. I want to be happy, Darren! Not just because some 100-dollar prescription is screwing with the chemicals in my brain. I mean happy happy."
In that instant, he realized that he'd lost her. She wasn't the woman he fell in love with a year ago… she'd changed. Or maybe, she hadn't really changed; maybe she'd been this way all along. There was a lot that he'd refused to see during their relationship… maybe that was just another part of it. I'm sorry, Dree, he wanted to say. It'll be ok, in the end, we'll work through this… but even as he thought it, he knew it was useless. She was gone, they were gone. It was hopeless, pointless to even try. He sighed. "Dree… I'm sorry. For everything. I guess… I guess this is goodbye." He felt a tear slip down his cheek, and watched as she turned to him again, with those empty, hollow eyes.
"Yes," she whispered, "This is goodbye."