To The Boy Who Stole My Heart

1955 Natchez, Mississippi Chapter 1

It was a rainy day in  Natchez, Mississippi. Amorea Mayes was sitting in her room writing a letter to the love of her life, Asher O'Neal. It was a letter written from the bottom of her heart. This letter was probably the hardest thing Amorea would ever write in her life. This letter was never meant for Asher's eyes, though it is for him, Amorea could never get the courage to send him the letter. As she writes a silent tear rolled down her cheek. She thinks about how he thinks she never cared about him, but this letter states the very opposite. Sending this letter to Asher could ruin his relationship with his current girlfriend, Katie. Amorea could never dream of destroying Asher's happiness, she knows that if you really love someone you let them go. 

Amorea is the type of girl to wear her heart on her sleeve, but also try and stay strong, and she was good at doing both. Out of all the guys she had gone steady with, she never showed any sadness when they broke up. Even when Asher broke up with her.

Amorea signs the letter, 

Love, Amorea.

She seals the envelope and leaves it on her desk.

"Amorea, the guests are here." Her mother yells. Amorea rushes down the stairs to see Asher and his girlfriend, Katie, Luke, and their parent, Janet, and Frank, coming through the door. As Amorea walks down the stairs her eyes meet with Asher's. She smiles sweetly at him and waves, he smiles and waves back, and so does Katie. Amorea finishes walking down the stairs, she hugs Janet and Frank.

Janet and Frank were close family friends, in fact, they were so close to Amorea and her brother and sister, grew up calling them Aunt Janet and Uncle. Janet and Frank had made the decision to move from Money to Natchez because of the lynching of Emmet Till, they didn't feel safe knowing men would kill a young boy of color for flirting with a white woman.

Amorea's brother, Charles took everyone's coats and hung them up.

"Well everyone, make yourself at home! Why don't you kid's play What Tune is that." Amorea's mother smiles and hands her the game, and gestures them all to family room. Amorea put the record on and started the game. The entire game Asher and Katie were just unbearable to watch for Amorea, but luckily she won every round.

"Why don't we play something else?" Katie whined. 

Amorea rolled her eyes, "I'll go see if there are any games in my room." She got up and headed to her room, she walked as slowly as possible. When she got up to her room she looked for any games she might have on her book self, she didn't find any.

"Hey." Amorea jumps.

"Ahh! Oh my heart, you scared me, Asher." Amorea places her hand on her heart and takes a deep breath.

"Sorry," Asher takes a look around Amorea's room, "Nice room." He smiles and looks at her.

"Thanks." She says as she tucks her long brown hair behind her ear, and smiles.

"Did you find any games?" He asks her.

"I think so, I found the new game! The Game of Life." Amorea smiles tilting the game toward Asher to show him. Asher smiles. "Great! I have to go to the bathroom, you can go set up the game." 

"Okay!" Amorea smiles and heads downstairs.

Asher roams around Amorea's room observing some of her pictures on her wall. He looks at the beautiful family photo on Amorea's desk, he notices an envelope beautifully inscribed with his name. He picks it up and looks at the letter. He looks at it wondering what could be in there. He looks at it debating on whether to open it or leave it. Curiosity gets the best of him, he opens the letter. He read the heartfelt letter Amorea had written for him. As he reads the letter he notices a small water stain. 

A teardrop?  He thinks. He continues to read the letter in awe not knowing what to think.

"Asher, are you coming?" Amorea yells from downstairs.

"Uh.. yeah I'll be right down." He quickly resealed the letter and places it carefully back on Amorea's desk and goes downstairs.

***

Asher sits at his desk trying to think if the words he could write to Amorea. He had absolutely no clue what to say. He cared for Amorea... a lot. One could say he still loved her. But he was with Katie so he wouldn't admit that, but he wanted to. The words he slowly came to him as he sat alone in his room trying to write this letter. 

"Asher! Katie is here." His mother yells. He quickly finishes his letter. He hears the once soft footprints get louder and closer to him, he quickly seals the envelope.

"Hi."

"Hey Baby." He says quickly turning around hiding the letter behind his back.

"Wanna go grab a bite?" She asks and smiles at Asher.

"Sure, I'll meet you downstairs," Asher says as he slightly smiles. 

"Okay." She turns around and goes downstairs. Asher puts his coat on and puts the letter in his pocket. Asher and Katie head to the best diner in town, Al's Diner. 

"We'll share a Chocolate milkshake, please," Asher said to the waitress.

"All right hun." She said as she wrote down the order. 

Asher sat there listening to Katie go on and on about how her 'daddy' wanted her to go to college, but her talking became muffled noise to Asher. Asher flashed back to the day Amorea talked about in the letter. 

###

Asher ran away from the other children and sat down on a rock. He looks around and see a piece of slate, and picks it up. He looks around for a slightly bigger rock to write with. In the rock, he writes I "love you". He looks to see Amorea, Luke, and Charles coming around the corner. He quickly writes "From your dad." and he hands it to Amorea. She looks at it and smiles, then runs away chasing Luke.

###

"But I don't think that's a good idea, what do you think asher?" Katie said pulling Asher out of his trance.

"I'm sorry what did you say?"

"I said, I don't think it's a good idea for the school band to play for prom."

"Oh yeah, they should enjoy the dance," Asher said agreeing.

"Well I guess that, but they are just horrible," Katie said in disgust.

"Here you go, hun." The waitress said, placing a chocolate milkshake in between the two. Katie took a sip and kept on talking, and Asher just nodded as if he knew what she was talking about, but he was thinking about how he could get his letter to Amorea. 

When they finished the milkshake, Asher took Katie home stopped by Amorea's house and put his letter in her mailbox and drove off.

***

Amorea woke up to the sun shining brightly on her face. She got up and look outside to see a neighbor mowing the green grass, she smiles at the sight, Amorea loved the little things in life. She stretched and notice the smell of bacon, she went downstairs to see her mom had made bacon and pancakes.

"Good morning sunshine." Her mother said smiling.

"Good morning mom!" She smiled, "Mmm, this all smells so good!"

"Well here take a seat." Amorea sat down beside her sister and her mother gave two pancakes and some bacon.

When Amorea was all done eating, her mother asked her to get the mail and milk. When Amorea got outside she took a deep breath and sighed peacefully. She walked over to the mailbox when she was looking through the mail, she noticed a letter that said, Amorea. She quickly hid the letter. She picked up the milk and walked inside. When she got to her room she opened the letter.

Amorea reread the letter a few time, then sat there in disbelieve. She couldn't believe that Asher read her letter. It was never meant for him. She couldn't think of how he would have got the letter. Then she remembered how Asher was in her room and when she went downstairs he must have looked at the letter. She was a little relieved that he knew how she felt but was a bit wary of what was to come.