Letters I Never Sent

Chapter One

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”

― Marilyn Monroe

                 Chapter One

          She stormed into Evie’s room; her eyes alight with urgency unparalleled by anything Evie had seen before. Her mother reached out her arms, motioning for Evie to jump into them. Evie hesitated, searching her mother’s face for any clue as to what was going on.

          “Baby,” Elizabeth urged. “We need to go, now.”

          Evie stood up from where she had been doing her homework on the floor. Elizabeth immediately ushered her daughter out of her bedroom and down the silent hallway. “Mom, where are we—”Evie began only to be hushed instantly.

          Evie watched as her mother stopped them at the base of the staircase. She looked left and right, her shoulders visibly relaxing when nothing happened. Not uttering a sound, Elizabeth continued dragging Evie alongside her until they were safely out the front door and bustling toward the car parked in the driveway.

          “I don’t understand what’s going on,” Evie stated, crossing her arms and fixing her mother with an expectant gaze. “Where are we going? Why are we leaving? Where’s Dad?”

          Elizabeth chewed on her lip, drawing out the silence for what seemed like an eternity. “I’m taking you to Jasmine’s house,” she finally explained and nodded to herself, a strained smile stretching her lips. “Yes, Jasmine’s house sounds good. Doesn’t it, sweetie?”

          “Well, I guess so…” Evie agreed, furrowing her eyebrows together in confusion. “But why are we going this late?”

          Elizabeth ran her hand through her messy hair, glancing sideways at Evie before she spoke. “Mommy and Daddy need to have a discussion, baby, so I need you to go to Jasmine’s house and play nice, all right? If Jasmine’s mommy asks you anything about what’s going on, I need you to tell her that Daddy is talking to me. That’s very important, Evie, you hear me?”

          “Yeah,” Evie muttered. “I hear you.”She turned toward her window, watching as the car pulled up alongside Jasmine’s house.

          Evie opened the passenger door and turned to face her mom. “Does she even know that I’m coming?”

          Elizabeth forced a smile and nodded meekly. “Yes.”

Evie slumped against her door, her heart rate escalating more and more the longer she thought about her dad drinking. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing the memories of her mother’s late night antics to go back to the dark recesses of her mind. Evie ignored the loud voices from downstairs by walking over to her desk and picking up her pencil. The voices became stronger. She crushed the lead against the paper and began to write.

          "Some things never change. You two are arguing tonight, like always. I don’t even know what it’s about this time. You assure me that it’s nothing to worry about, that what is important is that you two are in love. I don’t understand, Mom. If you love each other, why do you scream all the time?"

The door slammed, and Evie dropped her pencil. The letter she had been writing was forgotten as she strained to hear her parents’ voices, but she couldn’t. Jumping out of her chair and over to her window, she pressed her face against the glass. Through the darkness, she made out her mother’s figure getting into her car and peeling off down the street. Evie rolled her eyes. Like always.