Dear Elliot

Dear Elliot-Chapter 13

Chapter 13

5 months after Elliot's Deployment

I laid on my bed, texting Carter about the date he had been on last night. It had been almost two months since I'd last seen Elliot and we only wrote to each other every two weeks, with the letters becoming more and more distant. I hated that we were growing apart but it was my own fault that it was happening. I hopped off of my bed and walked through my brand new apartment in Stanford California.

My parents and I had worked out a plan so that I could have my own apartment near my college. I had a job right now and that was really helping to pay my rent. It also helped that I had saved up a lot of money from previous jobs. I had moved here just after my class of 2012 graduated in mid May. I was loving it too. Carter had already been down to visit me and we texted and skyped pretty much every day. All in all my life was pretty nice. I was living on my own, my love life wasn't as screwed up anymore and I still kept in touch with my best friend from Vicksburg.

I sat on my kitchen counter and felt my phone buzz.  I looked down and saw a text message from Carter. I started to reply when my buzzer beeped. I lived on the 5th floor of my apartment complex. I finished replying to Carter and then walked over to the buzzer hitting the respond button.

"Hello?" I said.

"Lily Paisley? This is Drew Lawson, can I  come up?" I heard a voice say and I gasped. Oh my god, Drew was here. I stared at the intercom but buzzed him up anyways. Holy shit Drew was here. I'd never actually met him, just seen him on tape.  I started panicking a little. I ran around in a circle and took incredibly short breaths until I heard a knock on my door. I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled a smiled on my face before moving forward to open the door to the face of Drew Lawson. He was wearing his army uniform and I saw the words 'A. Lawson' engraved on the pocket like Elliot's had been. He smiled hesitantly at me and it looked like it actually pained him to have to smile.

"Hi." he said and I smiled. "I'm sorry to barge in on you like this, I just didn't really know where else to go." Drew said and I looked a little confused and stepped aside so Drew could enter.

"Come on in Drew." I said and I smiled brightly at him. He stepped hesitantly over the threshold and I saw his eyes darting around as if he was looking for something. This was the first time that I realized that his left arm was in a sling. I moved to the couch and he set his pack down by the door and followed me. I sat down and Drew stood there for a moment, standing at attention. I looked at him and patted the space next to me.

"Why don't you sit down Drew?" I asked and again his eyes darted around the space before he sat stiffly next to me. He looked around again and then looked into my eyes. I actually saw his panicked expression soften for a moment as he stared into my crystal blue eyes. I looked over every inch of his face. I stared into the interesting brown eyes that I hadn't seen since I'd watched the video. But the eyes from the video were so much softer than the panicked and frightened eyes that he had right now. I wanted to hug him, to pull him into my arms and tell him everything was going to be okay. I reached over for his right hand and I saw him gasp and flinch away from me, pulling his hand close to his body.

"Oh my god." I whispered and Drew looked at me sadly. I felt the tears building up in my eyes. I looked around, trying not to show him that I was crying but he saw a tear drop down my cheek and he turned away from me sadly. I wiped the tears away from my eyes and opened my arms, offering him a hug. He stared at me hesitantly and then leaned forward and into my arms. I squeezed him like I never wanted to let go and he wrapped his one good arm around me and I just cried into his shoulder. I don't think that Drew even knew what was going on but I just hugged him and cried.

I finally released him and he went back to being extremely stiff. I didn't really think about how much war could change people because Elliot never told me about the war. But Drew, I thought back to how cheerful he had been just two months ago, and how he was now, with his eyes darting around my house as though someone could attack him at any moment.