Letters To James

Chapter #6

The loud sound of the boys snoring made James cringe. Yes, it was a twelve hour flight and they were all tired but that didn’t stop the awful noise. He took the chance to read a letter from Elsie – he had put the parcel in his carry on bag.

Dear James,

I went to a bookstore and brought a book for the first time today. The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones. I’m only two chapters in – it’s a huge book, but I’ve read larger. You’re probably not interested in books though. Boys find books boring I think. Never have I ever seen a boy reading a book haha. You’re all interested in girls and rapping music. A good example of this is Lil Wayne being Daniels idol. But mind you, Luke and Beau are huge Directioners and Jai’s a Belieber then there’s you. You’re a Veronica Bravo fan obviously.

Charlotte used to be a Taylor Swift fan – a Swiftie so they say. She once went to her concert and came back to me with what seemed thousands of videos and pictures. Come to think of it, Charlotte was a lot like Taylor. The looks, personality just the dating history is the opposite. She only had a few boyfriends, not fifteen. I once met one of them. His name was Jayden. He was really nice and he came around to see me each week with chocolates, marshmallows and other sugary foods and liquids. It was only months later into the relationship they broke it off. Never saw him again.

Speaking of relationships, Charlotte caught the counsellor at it with one of the doctors in one of the hospital beds. Gross. And because everyone like the counsellor and sucks up to that doctor everyone began picking on Charlotte. They didn’t talk to her, made her work overtime, and sometimes docked her pay. I sometimes wondered if they were jealous – The staff I mean. That they were jealous of my relationship with Charlotte and that’s when I got it into my head that it was all my fault that they bullied her. If I hadn’t always needed her attention because of my illness and just kept quiet nothing would’ve happened to her. She wouldn’t be dead if it wasn’t for me, James. I killed her. I encouraged them to do those things to her.

If there’s watermarks on the paper when you get this, you’ll know that I was crying while I wrote this. It’s hard enough as it is just to think about it, let alone tell anyone.

James ran his eyes over the clear white paper to see the faint grey blotches over the bottom of the letter. A sickening pang filled his stomach. How could anyone do this? He thought about the line “I encouraged them to do those things to her”. Why would she want to kill her bestfriend? And who was them?

The letter ended there and ended with her usual ending.

Love from,

Elsie

With hours to spare, James decided to read another letter.

Dear James,

I was put under some drugs today. Apparently I went crazy and tried to attack the nurse who came into my room to deliver my breakfast. I don’t remember a thing, so I relied on them to tell me what happened. I screamed a lot and the nurse has a red mark with dried blood on her cheek. I was told I had to say sorry, which I did as she didn’t do anything to Charlotte. You may be wondering why I went crazy. It’s because it’s the one year anniversary of Charlotte’s death. I can’t even look at anyone today without wanting to rip their heads off. Why? Because they put drugs in her coffee. Inside was a knock out pill. It puts you to sleep in less than five minutes after you’ve had it, except they overdosed it with around five pills instead of one. It still kept her awake for five minutes, but then while she was in my room.

I can’t do this. I can’t write this. You already know, I’ve told you but I can’t tell this whole story. It hurts too much. I’d rather me die than her but it’s too late, and I’m going to die anyway. Sooner than some of the others my age because of my illness but Charlotte had nothing wrong with her. She was healthy and could’ve lived so many more years compared to my several more months.

Months. I was told today I only have months to live. They finally told me. I guess they were expecting a crying reaction but I didn’t do anything. I just went back to reading my book. It’s like they thought I didn’t know already. Of course I know, I’d be a foul not to. It was only a matter of time.

I probably have less than months, it could be only weeks. Days.

Goodbye James, I don’t know if I’ll be able to write my next letter. I might be dead for all we know. I love you and the boys.

Love from,

Elsie.

James sat in his seat in shock. By the time this was sent to him, she could have been dead. He wanted to know if she was still alive. He wanted to see her before she died since he knew he had touched this girls heart.

“What’s that?” Jai asked, a tired look in his eyes.

“Nothing” James hid the letters under his top, feeling the cool paper against his skin.

“That’s not nothing” Jai stated. “What are they?”

James sighed. “Letters”

“From who?”

“This girl called Elsie”

“Elsie?”

“She doesn’t have a last name” James admitted. “I got a parcel filled with letters addressed to me”

“When was this?” Jai asked as James handed him the parcel.

“A while ago” James thought hard. “It was in Scotland”

“You’ve kept them secret for ages” Jai mused as he unfolded the first letter. “Can I have a read?”

James nodded. “She’s in trouble Jai”

“Trouble?” He looked at James with concern spreading across his face.

“Elsie’s sick, really sick” James looked away and turned to the flight assistant who was beside them offering drinks. “Just a water thanks”

She filled a white plastic cup with water and handed it to him then winked.

“I have a girlfriend” James stated coldly to the tall, early twenties with her blonde hair neatly tucked into a bun, blue eyed, long faced beauty.

“Oh” She seemed flustered. “I didn’t realize sorry”

“And even if I was single, you wouldn’t be my type” He added and her face paled.

“What was that about?” Jai asked once she had gone.

“Like I said, I have Veronica” James pulled out all of the letters he had read out of the parcel. “Read each one”

Jai’s eyes ran across the thin, black script words. His face showed no emotion as he went over each letter. James sucked in a deep breath of air as Jai neatly folded the last letter and slipped it into its envelope. “Well?”

“I agree with you, she’s in bad shape but we don’t know what’s wrong with her” He said finally.

“Do you have any idea?” James asked hopefully.

“I was thinking - ” Jai broke off. “Nevermind”

“No, what was it?” James pushed. “Tell me”

“She mentions an illness that keeps coming back and being hooked up to medicine” Jai said slowly. “Could it be -?”

“I can’t be” James told him firmly but deep down he knew.

“All the evidence is here James” Jai pointed out.

James bit his bottom lip and looked down at his lap as he felt tears pricking at his eyes. Why should a girl this young have this?

I CAN UPDATE NOW OMFG PRAISE THE LORD.

Okay so the reason why I couldn't update was because my ipod was left at a friends house and it was connected to her wifi SO if I updated there would be a notification on my ipod saying I've updated & she'd read it & see that it was my story and read everything else blah blah blah AND I DON'T WANT HER KNOWING ABOUT THESE STORIES.