Twenty Minutes To Go (completed)

six

Six minutes to go.

Pushing open the door after possibly the longest day of her life, Leigh felt all the stress dissipate the second her bag hit the couch. She flipped through her mail, eyes landing on the one that was in the messy, familiar handwriting. Why would Ben send her a letter? It had been two years since they had that talk and she never returned his calls. She was thinking that maybe he would get the point - she didn’t want to talk to him. She even had a date with a guy named Caleb the next night and she really didn’t need Ben coming back to confuse everything again. She was thirty and ready to settle down in New York. Caleb was a nice guy and was one of Kathy’s cousins; he was on Broadway for a year, he loved kids, and now he was a voice teacher in the Bronx. She debated whether or not she should even open the letter, until the curiosity got to her.

Leigh,

Considering you don’t answer my phonecalls, you deleted me on Facebook and don’t talk to any of our friends anymore, this is the only way I could think of to reach you. I hope you’re well and that everything is exactly how you wanted it to be. It’s been a long time since I saw you or even talked to you. I don’t even know why I’m sending you this letter. My fiancee thinks I’m crazy.

She stopped and stared at that sentence for a good ten minutes, making sure she wasn’t imagining things. His fiancee? His FIANCEE?

There will always be questions as to what would have happened if you hadn’t despised the thought of becoming a military wife. With our history, we probably would have broken up ten times since then. You were a part of the biggest time of my life and I will always thank you for that. Now I have to thank you for letting me go. On the flight home after our talk, I thought a lot. I thought about how that whole time, I thought we were going to work out. When you called me the night before your first day of school, or how we would have two hour Skype conversations every month or so. Even when we didn’t talk at all, I knew that eventually one of us would break the silence. You gave me the best college experience I could hope for and it’s insane how far we have come. Part of me always thought we would end up together in the end.

I met this girl when I was in Washington D.C. She’s an editor for one of the big publishing houses and she makes me laugh. A year ago, I asked her to marry me. I know what you would say if this was one of our other friends: that it’s too fast, we had only known each other for ten months and that she could be a serial killer for all I know. But it’s just right. There’s no sense of dread of when she’s going to stop talking to me out of the blue. Or that she’s going to refuse to leave her little town. 

I hope you don’t think this a letter to brag that I’m happy with someone else. The point of this was to let you know that you will always be my first love. You’ll always be the girl I would rush out of soccer practice to see. I want you to be happy and I know you’re happy in New York. Now I’m happy too.

You’re invited to the wedding, by the way. It’s in two months. I know it’s weird and Marie is sure that I’m making you feel awkward as hell. You can say no and I won’t ever talk to you again. But I would love to see you one time before I get deployed again. Plus James, Jenny, Charlotte and Mark will all be there and I know they’re all antsy to see you again.

Ben

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let's be real. i don't know how to write happy stories anymore. i spent too much time writing cliche, happy fan fictions that i must make you feel aLL OF THE HURT. i am sorry though.

update every day!

Oh. AND I GOT ACCEPTED TO THE COLLEGE IN NEW YORK. -happy crazy girl dancing-

-katie-