The Ugly Truth

Chapter 3

Flashback #2: 1 month before Mia went missing.

"What on earth are you doing?" Lucy glanced at Mia amusedly, putting her book on the bed.

They had been sitting on Mia's bed for the past hour in complete silence. The only noises permeating the room had been Lucy occasionally turning the pages of her book and Mia's excited tapping away at her computer keyboard. For an hour straight. It was so unusual to be hanging out with Mia in silence for so long.

"I'm writing" was the only grunted response.

"Well, no shit." Lucy smirked at Mia, whose eyes were fixated on her laptop screen. "Are you re-writing the entire Harry Potter series or something?"

Mia begrudgingly looked up, with a slightly annoyed look on her face. As soon as she made eye contact with Lucy, who was still smirking amusedly, her own face relaxed and she chuckled.

"Sorry for being so distant...I'm just feeling really... inspired right now." Her eyes glistened with excitement. She glanced again at her laptop, her eyes hungrily scouring the words painting the screen. Lucy was curious and playfully leaned over to Mia's side of the bed.

"Can I take a look at this masterpiece in the making?" There was humour in Lucy's voice, and she was slightly shocked when Mia abruptly shut her laptop, swiftly sliding it away from Lucy's reach.

"It's not complete yet," Mia mused, winking mysteriously at Lucy. "Besides, it's a surprise." Noticing that Lucy's lips were contorted into a sulky pout, Mia reached out and patted her hand reassuringly. She smiled sweetly.

"You'll see it when the time is right. I promise."

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­July 7th, 2015 – Lucy's room (one year since Mia went missing).

"So what exactly is this thing you want to show me?" Nathan hesitated at first, but pranced over to Lucy's bed, gingerly sitting on it. He looked at her expectantly. Lucy's lips twisted into a thoughtful grimace as she searched for the words to say.

"I'm...I'm not entirely sure," she started. "I haven't actually looked at it myself." She glanced at him briefly, trying to read his reaction.

"Did Mia give it to you or something?" Nathan looked around Lucy's room absentmindedly, his gaze settling on a framed picture of Lucy and Mia, both grinning and sweaty, with their arms tightly wound around each other. They were wearing matching white shirts, and bright red flowing skirts.

"Y-yeah...Sort of." Beads of sweat formed on Lucy's upper lip, and she lingered in her bedroom doorway, her fingers brushing the key attached to a small chain around her neck. She followed Nathan's gaze to the photograph of her and Mia.

"That was from the night she met Kevin." Lucy said softly, mostly to herself. She cringed.

Shit.

Mia had made Lucy promise that she would never tell anyone about Kevin. Especially not Nathan. She looked at him, hoping that her voice had been soft enough to evade his ears. Nathan didn't respond. His eyes stayed fixated on the photo, so Lucy assumed that he hadn't heard her speak.

It's now or never.

She steeled herself for what felt like the fifteenth time, and walked into her room. Without speaking, she pulled out a small black suitcase from her closet and placed it on top of her bed, right next to where Nathan was sitting.

She removed her necklace, and used the key attached to its chain to open the red padlock securing the suitcase's main compartment. She glanced at Nathan from the corner of her eye. He was now watching her expectantly.

"I haven't opened this suitcase for an entire year." Lucy murmured, breaking the silence.

She opened the suitcase ceremoniously, and Nathan leaned over to peer into it.

There were clothes everywhere. They weren't arranged in any sort of order – Lucy must have been packing in a hurry.

"Is this what you wanted to show me? Do you need help choosing your outfit for a party or something?" Nathan chuckled, looking at Lucy with a confused grin.

Instead of replying, Lucy pushed aside the top layer of clothing, and dug her hand into the depths of the suitcase. She felt around for a few moments, but finally her hands stopped as they settled onto something.

She carefully pulled it out and placed it on the bed, closer to Nathan. His eyes widened. It was a large brown envelope, with a red number #3 messily scrawled onto the top left corner.

"What-" Nathan had begun to speak, but his eyes widened further as Lucy continued pulling out numbered brown envelopes from the suitcase.

#2, then #6, then #1, then #7, then #5, then #4, and finally, #8. 8 envelopes in total.

Lucy hastily put the suitcase back into her closet and returned to her bed. Nathan had arranged the envelopes in order, from #1 to #8, and was now staring at them in disbelief.

"What...is this?" Nathan looked at Lucy, bewildered. She kept her eyes on the envelopes as she replied.

"You remember how Mia always wanted to write a novel?" She peered at Nathan.

"Y-yeah." He replied. "Is this-"

"It's something that Mia was working on, before she...you know..."

"She gave this to you?" Nathan ran his hand over the first envelope, mesmerised, caressing the messily written number in the top corner.

Lucy didn't reply. Instead, she watched Nathan's fingers affectionately stroking Mia's handwriting. She realised that this was the closest thing to Mia that they had encountered for a year. She couldn't help but feel her eyes welling up with tears.

He will always love her.

Why did it hurt so much to admit it? It was a reality that Lucy needed to come to terms with. Even Mia's handwriting was better than her. She felt her eyes welling up with tears, feeling stupid that she was being jealous of handwriting on an envelope.

"You should open it." Nathan snapped her out of her reverie.

"Are you sure?" Lucy gulped. She wasn't sure if she was ready for this.

"Of course. You're her best friend." He smiled at her, his beautiful blue eyes and gorgeous eyelashes making her feel weak.

Shit.

It had been a mistake inviting him here, especially with all these feelings that she hadn't had time to resolve.

He's in love with your best friend. You can't fall for him.

"Y-yeah, okay." She said finally, reluctantly reaching for the first envelope.

She reached into it and pulled out a thick stapled stack of paper. She instantly recognised Mia's messy handwriting scrawled across the top of the first page.

The Ugly Truth. Dedicated to those who will regret reading this.

Lucy smiled to herself. Classic Mia. Always messing with people's heads. Nathan moved closer to read. Lucy tensed up, hoping that she would be able to handle being this close to him for an extended period.

"Is this...fiction?" Nathan said this suddenly, causing Lucy to look up at him.

"Um...I don't think she mentioned it. But I assumed so..." Lucy was confused. "Why?"

"Look at this." Nathan had gone pale, and his finger shook slightly as it indicated the first line of typed text on the page.

Lucy followed his finger, scouring her eyes over the words of the first line. Her heart stopped. She could feel a shocked breath escape her lips. 

She couldn't believe it.

If you're reading this, I'm probably dead.

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