Rancorous

Chapter 30

PRESENT

Brevin

I couldn't sleep. It was a Sunday night, and I had been staring at the ceiling for the past five hours. My mind kept replaying the night I danced with Coval. What she spoke. How she felt in my arms.

Glancing at the night clock, I rubbed my eyes when I read the time. 5:03 am.

It was getting more difficult to see the girl who wrote me the letter. It was as if the girl who wrote me the letter and the girl standing in front of me were two completely different people.

Or more like the girl I grew up with was the same girl I was seeing now.

But that couldn't be. It was clearly her handwriting. Her address. Her name that signed at the end of everything she had written.

And then, a potential revelation hit me.

Her parents.

They never liked me. They hated that I was friends with her daughter and I don't doubt that they would've done anything to cut ties between Coval and I. Even ask her to write a letter maybe she never intended to.

But I remember her talking about the letter, and it seemed like when she spoke about it, she was adamant that she wrote it out of her own volition.

Nothing made sense.

Now, even as I thought back to the moment I read her words, to the moment my world fell apart, I couldn't level my head again. I couldn't see my path so clearly because I no longer knew what I wanted.

Even so, in this moment, it's just you and me. Like, we're the only ones that matter.

I hadn't thought she heard what I said when we danced under the oak tree, but she did. And she remembered. Was this part of her game again?

Or was she being genuine?

I ripped the covers off of me and stalked down the hall in a t-shirt, boxers, and socks. Once I reached my office, I snagged the door open and went straight for my desk.

Maybe I was a masochist for keeping her letter. Rummaging through the drawers, I found the pale yellow envelope that held a dark memory.

My heart and ears pounded as my shaky hands withdrew the crinkled letter. Even before I began reading, the memory of when I read it for the first time was already torturing me as it resurfaced.

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FIVE YEARS AGO

Brevin

Dear Brevin,

This is the only letter I will be writing to you and I want you to read it carefully.

I am the one who went to the police to tell them about you stealing. I knew that you would always be like your dad. A poor man who would resort to stealing to get what you want and not work hard because you're just lazy.

I was friends with you because I felt bad for you. Nobody else could step up so I had to do it. I tried hard to continue being your friend but honestly, I was tired of you. I wanted to get rid of you so I could finally live my life and make some actual friends. You were always holding me back from that.

So, I want you to never contact me again. We aren't friends anymore. Move on and live your life now.

Goodbye,

Herlina Coval.

I left my bedroom feeling overcome by lassitude. I hadn't had an ounce of shut eye. The pain in my heart was overbearing and it burned like somebody lit a thousand matches in my chest.