To Whom It May Concern

31 | Sydney

    "Did you actually have to tweet before you started the car? It's freezing in here."

    Jacob rolled his eyes and turned the key in the ignition. My ears practically jumped up and down with joy at hearing the heat kick in; New York City tended to get below freezing at the end of December.

    December 28th, to be exact.

    Three days post-Christmas.

    Three days post-breakup.

    "I did have to tweet first, because otherwise I would forget. And we have to document this trip! I've never been anywhere outside of New York before."

    "You went on a tour across the country."

    "But that was for orchestra. I've never been on a vacation anywhere outside of New York, where I could just relax and have fun without worrying about my vibrato being fast enough for Amy to not look over and yell at me for slowing down her pace."

    I couldn't help but laugh at that; I had been privy to too many arguments from the two of them during the fall season about Jacob's inability to vibrato at exactly the right speed to fit Amy's needs.

    The heat was really starting to work and I stopped shivering in my jacket; three years on the East Coast and I still couldn't get used to the freezing cold winters. California had never even had a winter; it hardly got below 60 degrees in the middle of January. And yet at this point the East Coast felt more like home to me than the West ever had. I had friends here, and despite being far from family, the East Coast was where I had begun to build my own life; a life that included people I wanted it to, and a life that was independent.

    Maybe that was why I had had a relationship with Connor. I had always assumed that it had been to marry him and form our own life, together. But perhaps it had really been meant to bring me to the East, somewhere where I could meet my actual soulmate and begin a real life. I never would have considered applying to James Madison University if it hadn't been for Connor; I would have gone to whatever school Jen and Riley had ended up at.

    And yet I chose to follow my long-distance boyfriend to where he was.

    Long distance had been so much easier back then. Why was it so difficult now?

    I shook my head and forced myself to stop. I hadn't pined over Connor once in the past three days, and I wasn't going to start during the six-hour car ride back to JMU.

    I had been planning on surprising Connor by arriving at his doorstep six days before Britt and Dan's engagement party. Britt, Katie, and Mel already knew I was coming and I had sworn them to secrecy.

    Now, I was still going down six days early, but instead to simply see my friends; Connor wouldn't be on the list of places to stop by.

    I had asked Jacob to come along with me as company in a purely platonic sense--he would be my date to the engagement party, but he was my best friend in New York and I needed to be with someone. I couldn't make a six-hour car ride by myself at this point. For all I knew, I would break down halfway there and refuse to keep going for fear of seeing my ex-boyfriend.