The Soldiers Girl

Chapter 11

This week hasn't been the best week. Senior year is harder than I thought and a few days ago my dad sat me down to tell me that my mom had cancer and she wasn't doing well. I had realized that was why she wanted me to move here so I could finish high school and not have to worry about her but I couldn't help but be mad at myself for refusing to talk to her. I was mad at her for not telling me and making me move instead of letting me help her somehow.

On top of that my dad had told me he got a call. They wanted him to re-enlist and be deployed to help with this war. I felt like I was being betrayed. Like I was living my old life and watching my dad leave for deployment. If the war kept on that would mean missing my graduation. The fear of losing both of my parents hit me hard. Depression set in and I started having anxiety attacks. It felt like my world was falling apart around me and I couldn't do anything about it.

After finding out all of this news I cut myself off from my social life. I refused to talk to anyone. Chris kept texting me and had stopped by a few times but I wouldn't talk to her. There was a guy at school. We had been talking for a little while until I found out my mom had cancer. He probably thinks I blew him off and found someone better.

I wanted someone to talk to but nobody understood what I was going through and I knew they wouldn't. So here I sit in my room building a wall so nobody can get to me. My room was my safe haven and my sweatpants and hoodies worked as a security blanket. I was losing weight from stress and lack of eating. I was sleep deprived because I refused to have the nightmares replay in my mind. I was lost.

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse I was home alone while my dad was at work yesterday. I heard the doorbell and looked out of my bedroom window. There was an older beat up Chevy pickup sitting in the driveway. I thought maybe it was one of my dad's friends so I decided to go down and answer the door and let them know that my dad wasn't home at the moment.

As I opened the door I saw two men in uniform. When I looked at them it seemed as if they didn't want to look at me. Like there was bad news. First I thought about my dad but he wasn't supposed to be deployed for another week. When neither of them spoke I decided to speak first.

"My Dad isn't in right now. I could take a message though?" I asked

"We are actually looking for a woman named Aria. Is she here?" The one man on the right asked.

I didn't understand why they were looking for me. It wasn't like I had been involved with talking to a recruiter or anything so why would they want to talk to me? "I'm Aria." I said slowly.

The man on the left gave me a sorrowful look and they both took their hats off. "We are sorry to inform you that Will Fischer was killed in action about a week ago in Iraq." The man on the left said. "There was an attack in the middle of the night. When one of the medics got to him there was nothing we could do to save him."

"Our condolences go out to you and your family." The man on the right says. "These are his dog tags." He says holding his hand out.

By this time I was speechless. I sent a letter and he never wrote back. I had forgotten about him until now. Not understanding why these two men showed up at my door but they did. "I don't understand.." I said quietly.

"We are sorry." The man on the left said. "We tried contacting his family but we couldn't. The only other family he had was you."

"But... I'm not his family." I say trying to figure out what was going on.

The man on the left went to the truck and pulled out a small box and brought it up to the porch. "These were the things that were in his tent. Again we are sorry for your loss"

After the two men left I stared at the box and the dog tags on top of it. I walked inside and up to my room. I refused to open it as it sat there on my bed, but I needed answers and I was hoping there were answers inside.

I sat down and opened the box. There were letters addressed to me. Letters that were never sent out. There was a letter addressed to him and after looking at it I realized it was the letter I had sent him. It had been untouched. He never got to read it. As I opened the letters I read each one. He talked about how much he missed seeing me. He told me that he thought he loved me but was afraid I had forgotten him. He swore that when he came back he would work everything out. That he would marry me.

I dug through the box a little more and found a small box. It had my initials on it. When I opened it there was a ring inside. I hid my feelings and forgot about him while he remembered me let his feelings out. Guilt flooding into me as tears rolled down my face. Reality it like a brick wall as I realized he was really gone and all I did was try to forget him. I let the one man go who really loved me and refused to say goodbye. Now I will never be able to.

Woah! Not all stories have a happy ending do they? Let me know what everyone thinks. Leave a comment. Hit that vote button. If I get enough comments I'll add an additional chapter to let you know what happened with her mother and father. <3