Julia

Two

That night I threw my purse onto my bed and plopped down next to it with a huff. It had been a long day, and I had school in the morning. My phone chimed and I reached over into my purse to find it. I was searching for it without looking when I felt the papery texture of the envelope. Amidst the chaos of the move I had completely forgotten about it. With greedy hands I opened it.

“Dear Nate,
I really hate to do this this way. I know it’s messed up and I’m being a coward. But you know how I am.  Gosh you know everything about me. And it breaks my heart to do this to you. And maybe in another lifetime we’ll find each other and it’ll be the right time. I thought our stars were aligned, but I’m starting to think yours was more like light in the sky from a star that was already dead. We had some good memories. But I can’t handle the stress. After what you did, I can’t see you the same way anymore. I feel like there is a knife in my chest. I can’t heal if you're still in my life. I’m sorry Nate.
All my love,
Julia

I slowly put down the letter. Julia…I knew I had heard that name before.
“His friend. The “Old friend” he always talked about. She was obviously more than just some friend!” My thoughts were screaming at me.
“Calm down!” I countered. I took a deep breath, then another. The anger began to dissipate. Maybe I was overreacting.
“It’s not like he mentions her that often…Right?” I thought. I didn’t have an answer for myself.

That night I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about her. I got the envelope off of my dresser. Something smelled of roses. I took the letter out and sniffed it. Sure enough, the paper seemed to be scented with rose perfume. Typical girl. I thought. I reread it again. I couldn’t understand why Nate hadn’t told me about her. We had been dating for about a year now. I thought we had told each other just about everything about our pasts. We had talked about our exes before and he hadn’t told me about Julia. I put the letter down and laid down on the bed.

I looked at the clock, 2 A.M. I really couldn’t fall asleep. My thoughts kept going back to that small box that next to the envelope.
“What was in that box?” I asked myself.
“You know exactly what it is.” A voice said in the dark. I sat up in my bed.
“Who’s there?!” I said, my voice just above a whisper. I shivered. The quiet of the night was getting to me. I rolled over and grabbed my phone. I put music on and finally went to sleep.
“Get up!” I sat straight up in bed. My head was ringing from the voice that had yelled in my ear.
“Stupid dreams…” I muttered to myself. I swung my legs out of bed and dragged myself to the bathroom. I glanced at the clock, 3:45. No way I was going back to sleep. I may as well get ready.