Piece 12: Think Twice
Don't say what you're about to say Look back before you leave my life Be sure before you close that door Before you roll those dice Baby think twice
Baby this is serious Are you thinking 'bout you or us? Baby...
(Don't say what you're about to say) No no no no Look back before you leave my life Be sure before you close that door Before you roll those dice Baby think twice
(Don't do what you're about to do My everything depends on you) I depend on you (And whatever it takes, I'll sacrifice) Be sure before you sacrifice Before you roll those dice Baby think twice
-Think Twice; Kelly Clarkson
(American Idol)
Kelly felt tears forming in her eyes as she looked down at him, sitting helplessly on their bed. She tossed the pillow she'd been gripping onto the floor and walked to him. "Nick?" she whispered, kneeling in front of his hunched over form.
"What?" Nick murmured from behind his hands. He felt her take hold of his hands and move them from his face. He opened his eyes slowly and looked down at her concerned face. Gosh, what was he doing? "Kel . . ."
"What, Nick?"
"I'm so sorry."
Kelly's tears fell silently down her face. She didn't know how she knew what he meant . . . she just did. He was apologizing for how he'd been treating her, but also for so much more than that. He was apologizing for leaving her. He was leaving her.
"Don't, Nicky," she whispered as she bent and rested her forehead against his knee. "Don't do this."
"I'm sorry, Kel." He put his arms around her shoulders and held her as she cried. "I just can't do this right now. I've never treated somebody so poorly before . . . not somebody I loved as much as I love you. I don't know what's wrong with me. And if I don't figure it out, I'll destroy us both."
"Please, Nick," Kelly cried as she lifted her head and looked into his eyes. "Can't we figure it out together? There has to be a way--"
"There isn't."
Kelly stood from her place on the floor and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her as she broke down into tears. She'd never felt so heartbroken in her entire life. How could he really be leaving her? How could he claim it was for her own well being? She wanted him in her life.
"Kel," Nick called through the door, his forehead leaning against the door frame. "Kel, please open up, baby."
"No."
"Kelly, please . . . I don't want to leave with things like this between us."
Kelly opened the door and glared at him. "Well, things aren't going to get any better. Don't wait for my good-bye, or well wishes, because they're not gonna come. I love you, Nick, and I don't want to break up."
"Kel," Nick sighed and reached for her, but she pulled away with a vicious look in her eyes. "Kelly, don't you see that this is better for you? You don't need me, baby . . . you're better off without me. You said so yourself, I treat you like sh*t."
"And you can't change that? Gosh, Nick, are you just saying that for some reason you can't treat me how I deserve to be treated, because you're such a huge prick, so you're just gonna leave me instead of trying to be a better person?"
Nick looked at her with tears in his eyes and for the first time he knew what it felt like to be the betrayer, and not the betrayed . . . and he realized, it felt no better.
