Falling | h.s

forty-eight

JANIE'S POV

"Oops," Bella shrugs with a devilish smirk. 

My heart pounds out of my chest as I stare at the opened envelope. It was like Pandora's box; now that it was open, I had to know what was inside. I race across the living room and snatch it out of her hands, wanting to be the first to read whatever is inside.

With shaky hands, I peel back the top of the envelope to reveal a folded piece of printer paper and a flyer of some sort.

"What is it?" Bella asks as she peers over my shoulder, making Emma shush her. I pull the contents of the envelope out hesitantly and hold the folded piece of paper in my hands. It was folded haphazardly, almost as if it was a last-minute decision to include. The other piece of paper hangs loosely in my hand, and Emma grabs it gently, understanding I care more about the note.

Everything sounds static as I slowly unfold the note in my hands. I notice his handwriting right away, and much like the exterior of the note, it looks as though he scribbled the words down quickly. I feel my stomach flip as I read my name in his handwriting.

Janie -

Falling

Sunflower, Vol. 6

Fine Line

H.

"What does it say?" Zoey quietly asks after a moment.

"I-I don't know," I confess breathlessly. "I don't know what this means." She takes the piece of paper from my nervous hands and reads over the words.

"They're songs," Zoey confirms with a nod.

"W-what?" I ask in disbelief.

"Yeah, they're listed on the back of the album," Emma adds.

"I didn't write those with him," I say nervously, and read the note through again, the word sunflower popping out at me.

"Oh, god," I sigh after a moment, making all of their eyes land on me.

"What?" Bella presses.

"Sunflower," I say before sucking in a shaky breath.

"What about it?"

"We started writing a song called "Sunflower" the night Charlie broke up with me. We tried it a bunch of different times and a bunch of different ways but it never worked."

"What's so bad about that?" Emma asks worriedly.

"It was a song about how much we hated our exes," I all but choked out before raising my gaze to meet three sets of worried eyes.

"Do you want to listen to it?" Bella asks. 

"Hell, no," I shake my head and tuck the note back into the envelope. "Absolutely not."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because I don't want to hear him sing about how much he hates me," I confess breathlessly.

"You don't know that that's what it's about," Zoey says while rubbing my back soothingly. "It could be a love song."

"I highly doubt that he wrote a love song about me after I broke his heart," I laugh dryly, not an ounce of humor in my voice.