▸  @desolction ​ ⟶  ❛ is it my fault? ❜  ╱  ( angsty questions , accepting . )
Gerry cards his fingers through his hair, giving it a little tug as he does. “No,” he answers, somehow unable to meet her eyes, even though he is telling the truth. The answer comes so quickly to him, and he can no longer pretend he ever had a well-founded problem with Agnes at all, from the day they formally met. “No, it’s not your fault.”
For all of Gerry’s life, he has been trying to fill in gaps with whatever makes the most sense to cram into them, despite his increasing awareness of the futility of the endeavor. Every cause has an effect, and if you can figure out the order of that chain, you can either channel it for yourself, like his mother tried to do, or put a stop to it, like Gertrude is striving to do. He is still coming to terms with the fact that, while the Fears operate in some predictable ways, there are many things in life not ruled by them, which don’t have clear reasons behind them.
Still, there was the impulse to find the cause and effect, even where none existed, to give a name to the thing twisting up his insides. And then, he did find the word for it—jealousy—and realized it was the most foolish thing it could have been.
“I’m sorry I made you think it was,” he says, the words coming out of him in a rush before he gets it in mind to take them back while he fumbles for a cigarette as an excuse to keep his eyes downcast. “I don’t know—whatever my problem is, it’s not you.” His cigarette catches under his lighter, and he inhales deeply. Sighing, feeling a twinge calmer with the smoke in hand, he continues, “I mean, I’m usually about as personable as I have been, but I figure I owe you the apology, anyway.”













