The house seemed empty without her in it. The rooms were darker, it was smaller... It just wasn't the same.
He wandered around the house in what seemed like a daze. It was like she was still there, in his house and in his life. Her sneakers were sitting by the door, the ones she bought on Christmas eve because she complained the heels she was wearing hurt her feet. They had to stop at a Wal-Mart to grab them - but they were "the most comfey shoes" she had ever worn, according to her. And she was constantly complaining that he had too many pairs of sneakers.
Her book was lying on the floor next to the bed. It was a VC Andrews book that he had never even had any interest in touching, let alone actually reading. The seven of hearts was marking her page, holding her place at chapter twenty-one until she picked up the book again. He picked up the book and fingered the cover for what seemed like the thousandth time since she had left. He bought the book for her birthday two weeks prior. She had been complaining that she wanted the book since it was released, hinting toward it for her birthday. Who would leave when you were at Chapter twenty-one? Without even bringing the book with you? He put the book down, leaving the seven of hearts in it's place.
Her favorite t-shirt was hanging in the closet. The one that she bought from the Virgin MegaStore while they were in New York. It was her first time in New York City, and she had desperately wanted to go to the Virgin MegaStore just to buy a t-shirt. Why, he never knew, but for her, it was like some sort of obcession. They had ended up walking to Times Square at nine PM, in the pouring rain, just to get her the black Virgin t-shirt. The shirt was so worn out that you could barely tell where it came from, the logo was so worn out. But she had worn it as often as possible.
The Beanie Baby Bears they had collected were still sitting on a shelf in the hallway. Most of her favorites were on the left and the right of the shelf, surrounding Kicks the soccer bear. The bear's birthday was August 16th, 1998, which was the day they had begun dating exclusively. They bought the Beanie Baby a few weeks after they had started dating... They were in a mall, in a Hallmark store looking for a birthday card for his friend when she got bored and began looking at the Beanie Babies. She picked up a green bear with a soccer ball in his chest and looked it over, reading the birthday to him and commenting that it was the day that they had started dating. He thought it was cute and grabbed it along with the birthday card without another thought
Her bucket hat that she insisted on wearing was still sitting among his Nike hats, the one with all the butterfiles on it. Whenever she claimed that she was having a "bad hair day," she would stick it on and that would be the end of it. The hat was entirely too big for her head, which, in turn, made it slip over her eyes every four seconds. But she didn't care, she thought it was cute and that is why she bought it in the first place.
She had an obsession with butterflies, espically blue ones. The curtains in the bathroom were filled with blue and purple butterflies, the one room she had insisted on decorating. If he had gotten his way, it would have been filled with TV Guides and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issues from the past three years, but he had given in to her and let her have the bathroom. He had to admit, he liked the way she decorated it - it looked better than it had before, that was for sure.
Her shampoo was still sitting in the shower. Herbal Essences was the only shampoo that she used - she had used it for the few years that they had been living together. He loved the way she always smelled like it when she got out of the shower.
The lamp she had insisted on buying was sitting on the desk in the study. It had a purple shade on it and was constantly falling on it's side because the base was broken on one side. But she had fallen in love with it as soon as she saw it - and so had her three year-old neice Whitney. Within hours of it being on the desk, it was broken. It was still waiting to be fixed, after all these years.
The little green turtle candles were sitting on the coffee table, waiting to be lit. She had had those candles since she was a little kid, and he thought they were... interesting... so they decided to put them on the coffee table. Friends gave them strange looks, but it didn't matter to them.
He took a seat on the couch, looking around the room. His eyes filled up with tears as his baby blues rested on the pictures of them together. They were taken at different stages in their relationship, one was at an amusement park on a roller coaster, another was of them sitting on the beach, another was of them on New Years Eve the year they were at MTV Studios, another was of them playing with Whitney on her second birthday party. He fought back sobs as a knock sounded at the door. "Come in."
"Hey man," Brian said, walking in the room. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah," Kevin replied, standing up and straightening his tie. "I can't believe she's gone," he said weakly, taking his jacket from the coathanger by the door.
"That's because her stuff's still here, I told you to let LeighAnne take it," Brian commented as they walked to the limo.
"Yeah, she can," Kevin said. "But I just wanted to keep Kristin alive for a little while longer, I guess. She can take it after the funeral."