Packing was slow going, not because it was difficult or strenuous, but because there was just so much emotional baggage attached to everything from the pots and dishes to the furniture. It would be more than a week before she had the courage to even go assess the bedroom. She didn't go every day, and some of those that she did, she just spent sitting on the floor, feeling overwhelmed. The real change came when Terence asked if she was going to sign the papers. Alicia tried to stop herself, but she just couldn't stop responding to him. Afterward, she could see that she'd just wanted him to keep talking to her, to get just a little of him back, because surely a little bit of Terence, even if she was making him angry, was better than none at all, right? But the more she wrote, the more worked up she got, until she was saying everything she'd been thinking, and she was angry. Alicia hadn't even realized how angry she was about everything.
Like in most things, once she got the anger out, she was done. The fight was almost all out of her. She signed the papers and sent them off, cried some more, and pulled herself up enough to go finish packing up her things. Nearly everything in the rest of the flat was ready to shrink and move when Ashleigh invited herself over. Alicia was in her room, two half-filled boxes on the floor in front of her as she just stared helplessly at everything. It was, frankly, a wreck in there.
"I said I didn't need help," she replied, a tiny bit more snippy than she meant. Clearly she did, but she wasn't going to admit that when she'd also said she didn't.