An Apple... A Cabin... And Three Women.

"Phone's dead." I grumbled, taking a look at my cell phone. Deader than disco. The interior of the Cabin was dim, with the best light coming from the... no... NO, this wasn't... I knew it. This wasn't what it seemed.

"Yeah, afraid so. " Charlotte shrugged, tossing another log onto the fire. "Thanks for doing the firewood, by the way. I don't think I ever said thank you for that."

"Hey, I helped with that." Commented Helen.

I glanced at the top of the grocery bag I held, and saw a single apple sitting there. Golden, yellow.

"You can stop playing now. I know what's happening." I stated to the room.

"And the rules fucking suck." Helen nodded. "We all know what's going on, let's just fucking say it."

"I'm supposed to pick between you." I stated, pulling the apple from the top of the bag and lowering the rest of the groceries to the floor. "I'm supposed to decide which of you gets the apple."

I looked at Kaila, who stared into the fire. She wasn't even looking at me. She was right. It was making it harder. So much harder.

"I don't want to choose." I said. "But I knew I had to come back here. I wanted to walk away. So bad. I wanted to just forget about it. Chuck the thing as far as I could, and come back to this cabin. Back to where we were. Back to the four of us, and something... incredible happening. Because that felt real. As real as this. I had to see you one more time. If I had given it to her... it wouldn't have been the same. Maybe she would have created this for me, but I'd know it wasn't real. So yeah, maybe it's just one last time. But I had to be here."

"You mean..." Helen sighed, looking at me with a far off expression. "She... she's a liar. You know that."

"Yeah... yeah, she told me a lot of things." I admitted rolling the fruit back and forth in my hands. It felt... like a fruit. A boring, tasteless, supermarket golden delicious that would taste of cardboard and pesticides. "About you and me... she said..."

"Ok... Brent, I'm going to make this very clear, ok?" Helen said. "I love YOU. Get it? You are not your past. I am not my past. We have already changed things this time. More than they ever... Brent, I've been with other women, but... I have NEVER been pregnant before. I came close... CLOSE once, but that... wasn't a good time."

"Wait... you too?" I gasped in shock. "She... said you never fucked the mark."

"YOU ARE NOT a Mark!" Kaila shouted. "Did she actually say that? Seriously? That's fucking LOW."

"She is such a bitch!" Charlotte shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Brent." Kaila turned, looking into the fire again. "I'm so sorry that you have to do this. And I know who you're going to choose."

"Yeah, we all do." Charlotte nodded, looking at Helen with a smile. "But, if you HAVE to choose... well, I'm glad you're choosing someone I love." She looked back at me, and very, very slowly began to wink.

It felt like the world stopped for just one second, and in that instant, I could see everything in Sharp relief. The choices standing out in my mind. The thoughts rolled around in my head. This choice, this decision. They had ALL asked for me NOT to choose them. But if every choice is wrong...