The Loveless Letter (GirlxGirl)

Chapter 4

POV: Bree

I was feeling like a giddy teenager again.

Nervous as shit and a little sweaty.

This would be the first real encounter I would have with my best friend in 10 years. Finding Liv on the bathroom floor drunk off her ass didn't count. And the ensuing awkward conversation afterward didn't count either.

I couldn't believe Liv wanted to go to our old spot that just the two of them knew about!

At first, I thought Liv didn't want anything to do with her anymore. Her mind raced and couldn't come up with an answer for why that would be. Her second thought was that maybe Liv was mad at her for not telling her about the engagement beforehand. It's not like she did it on purpose, it's just how things worked out. With her abrupt exit from the army and her engagement announcement lined up to make a perfect storm.

Once upon a time I would have waited an eternity for Liv...

Somewhere in my heart, I knew I still loved my best friend.

The cold, hard reality I had to learn was that my love would never be returned, no matter how much I wished for it to be true. After almost a decade of waiting and no sign of change happening in the horizon, I went ahead with my life.

I heard the crinkle of twigs under shoes and whipped my head around toward the noise.

"Bree?" Olivia said in a quiet tone.

It was so quiet that I almost missed what Olivia said entirely.

I moved my head to the right and looked up to see Liv standing there in all her glory. What I didn't expect were the horrific bags under her eyes. She obviously hadn't been sleeping well. The Liv I knew was always outgoing, had a wicked sense of humor, and oozed confidence. I let my eyes rake Iv in - from top to bottom - giving my best friend a good once over. Olivia looked like the exact opposite of the person I knew, small, exhausted, withdrawn even.

"Come here." I said as I pat the empty space next to me. "Sit." I commanded.

Liv looked apprehensive at first, but seemed to resign herself to her fate. Liv sighed and let her shoulders hunch forward as she walked towards me with resignation in her eyes. I wanted to be mad at Liv in all honesty. It was not at all the reunion I had imagined in my head.

But...

I also didn't imagine a future where Liv would have been in a life or death situation that she was lucky to come out of in one piece.

I was there when Mrs. Rodriguez got the call.

My heart felt like it was ripped right out of my chest when they informed them over the phone that Liv was injured in the line of duty. They were pretty vague on the details and the extent of her injuries, so I wasn't sure what state Liv would be in once she got home. She had been flown to Germany straight from Afghanistan once she was stabilized enough to be transported. It broke my heart that I wouldn't be able to visit Liv. That was probably one of the hardest points of Liv's life she'd ever have to endure and she had to do it alone.

Without anyone by her side.

As Liv sat down, I studied her face now that I had an up-close view. There were scrapes and scratches along the left side of her jawline. Not deep, which relieved me, so they would heal with enough time. The bags underneath her eyes were even more pronounced than I had thought. I wondered if Liv had been getting any sleep at all. Her hair was very short and styled with a touch of jell that seemed to fit Liv well. Her body looked toned and she had a lot more muscle than she used to. I knew Liv was a part of the ROTC, but the training regimen she endured in the army must've been a thousand times more strenuous and thorough than what she'd gone through in high school.