With My Heart Wide Open

Prologue

"I can't go with you, Jake. Not now" Audrey said with sadness in her eyes. Her fiancé of two years was just offered his dream job in Los Angeles, California. Producing music for big name artists had been his dream since he could remember and he was finally getting that chance. Jake loved taking chances and jumping head first into the unknown. Audrey, not so much. She liked planning and knowing what lie ahead of her. Moving across the country and leaving everything she had ever known behind her was not something she was willing to do.

Not right now. Her mother needed her more than ever. She was in the final stages of breast cancer and there was no way Audrey would leave her in her most desperate time. Audrey didn't want to leave her, but Jake was adamant that she follow him to California so that he could live his dreams now, or she stay here in Colorado and that was the end of their story.

How could he ask her to leave her dying mother right now? Audrey had always known that Jake was a selfish person, but this took it to a whole new level. Family always came first. Her mother, Sara, had raised her by herself since her father was killed in a car accident when Audrey was only three years old. She never remarried saying that nobody could ever compare to the love she had shared with Audrey's father. It had always been just the girls and now would be no different. Sara needed her more than ever and Jake wasn't going to change that.

"See, Audrey. That is why you will always be a miserable person. You never take chances. You are content living in this stupid town taking care of your sick mother. You will never go anywhere. You are mediocre and I can't be with mediocre. I need someone great. Someone that can keep up. I am going to do great things and you...well you won't ever amount to anything. I will be the only great thing you ever had in your sad life. Goodbye, Audrey". With that, Jake walked out of her life. She felt numb. How could someone who said he loved her, say such horrible and demeaning things? Maybe she wasn't one to take chances, but she knew what was important. Chasing a fairytale that wasn't meant to be, to a place unknown wasn't important.

Audrey turned from the window after watching the only man she had ever loved drive away. Jake's words kept echoing in her mind.

"...you won't ever amount to anything"

"...miserable person"

"...mediocre"

"...the only great thing you ever had in your sad life"

Tears began to spill out of her eyes. Jake was gone. Forever. That wasn't what upset her most. What really upset her, was the possibility that all of the things Jake had just spat at her could be true.

Taking a breath, Audrey walked down the hallway to check on her mother. As she walked she promised herself that when the time was right, she would take a chance. She didn't know what that chance could possibly be, but she was determined to be anything but mediocre.

Besides, did being there for her mother in her time of need really make her a miserable nobody? Absolutely not! She was reassured of that when she opened the bedroom door to see her mother's weak, yet smiling face.

"Goodbye, Jake" Audrey whispered to herself as she returned her mother's loving smile.