The Rest Is Up To You Stella: I’m getting sick of this. Riley: Getting sick of what? (Riley looks up from the want ads in the paper, confused and annoyed.) Stella: Of this. (Stella punches the table.) I don’t need this anymore. I don’t want this anymore. These last three years have just been pretend. Riley: (Riley stands up furiously.) Just pretend? How can you say that? After all that we have been through, after all that has been said. (He throws the paper on the table and pushes the chair back.) Now I know that I love you, and if I am remembering correctly, I do believe that you love me, too. So explain to me how our love can be pretend? Stella: See, Riley, this is what I mean. (Stella tried to hide the quivering of her lower lip by glancing down at the floor for a moment.) You mistake your words for actions you haven’t been able to do. This relationship, it has been fun I can admit, but fun isn’t enough anymore. I’m getting older. You are getting older. And this feeling of being inadequate is unsettling to me. I’ve just had the realization that as much as you mean to me, I can’t stay. I have to move on. Riley: Move on to what? (Riley moves around the table and grabs Stella violently. He makes sure that her eyes are meeting his.) Why don’t you see what we have right here right now? (He loosens his grip slightly.) Stel, I wish you could slow down and see that nothing else matters, no one else matters. You know, maybe our problem isn’t our problem, but yours. I’m content with the thought of you and me in this house for the rest of our lives. But I would give that all up for you if you asked me to. Stella: (Squirming to get out of his hold, she sighed in a silent surrender.) But that’s just it, Riley. I don’t want to ask you to do anything because I would always feel guilty for dragging you into something that you didn’t want to be in. Nothing would be the same. And let’s face it, Riley. Nothing is the same now. I wasn’t meant to be a small town girl. And I’ve always known that my world was made with just one throne and that I… Riley: (He pulls his arms away and steps back.) You are selfish and naïve. (Stella shivered as Riley’s icy stare burrowed deeper and deeper into her.) Nobody ever made it alone, or at least not happily. I always felt bad for people who wouldn’t allow themselves to be alone. They prided themselves in their strength when they were really cowering away from their weakness. I thought you were stronger than that. Love is never easy, and it shouldn’t be. Anything worth having is difficult to obtain. (He pauses for a moment, dropping his hands to his sides, and began to whisper.) You have my heart, and you also have the choice as to what shall be done with it. I won’t try to stop you from leaving, but maybe I can persuade you to stay. Stella: Riley, it’s too late. I am… Riley: Stella, listen to me. Your roots are here. And there is no other place that possesses a man with so much love for you. I can’t promise you a life of lavish things. I can’t promise that times will always be good. (Riley starts to choke out the words, as a single tear streamed down his face. Stella again was fighting back emotions she couldn’t let him know she felt.) I can’t promise that we won’t fight. I can’t promise that I will live forever. I can promise you, though, that as long as I can, I will love you with every ounce in me. I can promise that there will never be anyone that could come close to be compared with you. Oh, hell, I can promise you anything, but I have been doing that a lot. You want me to prove just how much I love you? Then I will. Just know, that whatever you do, my mind will be filled with pictures of your face and my heart filled with memories of the best times in my life. (Riley walks over to their closet and takes out Stella’s suitcase. He walks back to the table and places the suitcase at Stella’s feet.) I’ll leave the rest up to you.
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Birth sign: Scorpio
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