“Lace” I heard a voice call out as I submerged from the water. I cringed hearing it: there was only one person on this planet who ever called me that. I climbed out of the pool as began walking in the opposite direction not daring to look back at the owner of the voice.
“Tom I told you to never speak to me again!” I screeched over my shoulder as I heard his footsteps following me. I ran up the steps when I finally heard them stop.
“Please just talk to me for two minutes” he shouted upwards toward me. When I didn’t answer he began to run up after me.
“Just leave me alone. Please” I begged tears began to prick my face “I don’t want to talk Tom, I can’t talk to you” I continued to climb up and he continued to follow until I reached the 10m platform: he stood with his arms out stretched between the railings on the steps. I was trapped up here with him.
“I can’t do that Laci Rae” He took a step forward towards me, and I staggered backwards “I never meant to hurt you” His chocolate eyes began to glaze over as tears began to build up but not fall from his eyes. I felt my guard beginning to come down and quickly put it up again. I couldn’t let myself fail for him again only to get hurt again.
“If you never wanted to hurt me you wouldn’t have done any of it Tom” I spat back at him as the small water droplets falling from my eyes turned to rivers. He reached his arm out to touch me and I ran backwards once again.
“Laci!” he yelled as there was suddenly no more platform under my right foot as I continued to backpedal away from him. I wanted to scream but no sounds came out as I began to topple backward, my vain attempts to regain balance failing me. Tom grabbed ahold of my arms just as my left foot was following my right in slipping off the edge. “I’m so sorry for everything, Lace” he says as he pulls me into a tight hug. I say nothing as I try to calm down my racing heart and even out my breathing. “I love you” and suddenly his lips crashed onto mine. Sweet blissfulness began to-
Suddenly I was snapped out of my dreams and awoken by a knock on my bedroom door.
“What?” I whined realizing I was not at the pool with Tom, but alone in my bedroom. Why did it have to be a dream I asked myself: everything had felt so real.
The door opened and Chris walked in. “What’s with this box you left in my room?” he asked holding the aforementioned box in his arms; all six sides of it covered with the word ASSHOLE written in thick black ink and my curvy handwriting. His eyes wandered around my empty walls and shelves and I could see he realized what exactly was in it.
“Give it to Tom” I rolled over so I was face down on the bed not wanting to see the box anymore: the sooner it was gone the better. I heard a thud and then footsteps as Chris walked over to sit down next to me on my bed.
“Why do I have to, can’t you just give it to him at practice, Lay?”
“I’m not going to practice anymore” I mumbled into the pillow I had my faced crushed into.
“What?” Chris asked either in shock of me no longer diving with them or the fact that he maybe he actually didn’t hear me as I spoke into the pillow
“I’m not diving with you guys anymore! I just can’t do it anymore!” I yelled making sure he could hear me loud and clear this time.
“Lace you can’t-“
I quickly cut him off midsentence “I can’t see him anymore Chris and I don’t want that box anywhere near me anymore so please just get rid of it!” I freaked out a little bit as I felt a lecture from him coming on. There was silence for a while and I felt Chris’s eyes burning holes in the back of my head as if planning to say something. He never did though and eventually I heard the springs of my bed creak as he got up. Soon enough I heard a car door slam and someone pull out of the driveway.
Tom’s POV:
“Dude, what’s with the box?” I asked opening the door; Chris is standing there with a large cardboard box. The bright sunlight from outside hinders me from seeing anything but the outline of both Chris and the box
“Special Delivery from Miss Laci Rae” He quickly passes the box over to me and without the blinding sun in my face I can see the word asshole written at least once on every side. ‘Great she fucking hates me’ I thought to myself.
“Fantastic” I say my voice dripping with sarcasm. “You wanna come in and hang out?” I ask as he awkwardly stands in the door way halfway between being outside and in the house.
“As much as I would love to get out of the house and away from Laci’s depressing music, I can’t. What about tomorrow?” he shrugs his shoulder.
“Yeah tomorrow’s fine” I smiled; glad at the fact that breaking up with Laci hadn’t ruined us.
“I have a question though:” I just stand there waiting for him to ask it. “What happened between you two last night? The pair of you seemed so happy and in love just a few days ago”
“I don’t want to talk about it Chris” I say realizing that Lace must have not told him. “If Laci hasn’t told you, it’s not my place to either”
He leaves without another word clearly not happy with my answer. It was all I could say to him though; it wasn’t my place to tell him. I kick the front door closed with my foot since my hands we’re preoccupied with the box Laci had sent over.
I sit down on the couch, the box sitting between my feet on the floor, unsure if I should open it now or later. It may seem weird but I was afraid of what could possibly be in it. Eventually I built up the courage and took my car keys out of my pocket using them to slowly cut through the thick black duct tape that held the top of the box closed. The top flaps of the box flopped open and the scent of warm vanilla, Laci’s most used body spray, exploded into the room: the box clearly contained items from her room.
I reached in and picked up what seemed to be a note and set it aside on the coffee table to read later. As I sifted through the other items in the box I came across various items of my clothing that I forgot I even owned or that I didn’t even know she had taken from me. Under the piles of my clothing there had to be more than a hundred photographs of Laci and me ranging from age five to a couple weeks ago at age seventeen. I went through each photo one by one avoiding the broken pieces of glass from a couple of the frames and for the most part I remembered vividly the exact day they were taken. Towards the bottom of the box I found a picture from the day she stayed over: the two of were sitting on my bed, I was shirtless, my brown hair messed up from Laci’s fingers running through it earlier, my arm was wrapped around her shoulders. Laci had no makeup on and her hair in a messy bun on top of her head, she was wearing one of my t-shirts and she still looked absolutely beautiful. Her smile was always so contagious and even just looking at it in the picture I couldn’t help but let a small one escape my lips.
When the box was empty I put the clothes into a pile next to me on the couch to carry up to my room later and I carefully placed the pictures one by one back into the box. I was sure at some point or another she would at least want back the pictures from when we were younger.
There was now only one thing to do: read the letter she wrote to me.
Throughout much of the letter the purple ink had been slightly smudged by what had more than likely been tears. As I read the letter I was a complete mix of emotions. I was still highly angry with her for making such a big decision without even asking me about it; I still didn’t even approve of it now. I was also upset by how much pain I had caused her in the course of a day: I never wanted her to ever feel like this. I just wanted to go see her for not even five seconds and apologize for how things turned out; I wasn’t sure if we could go back to how we were, but I just wanted to at least be civil with each other. I knew she wouldn’t want that though: her letter clearly stated that I should never contact her again, so that’s exactly what I had to do. I just hoped this whole thing would eventually blow over, but for now I’m going to move on with my life as if Laci Rae Mears had never stepped foot in it, just like she planned to do with me.
