my past life

•7•

"What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to surprise you," she says as she gets off of me. "Aren't you surprised?"

"Uh, very," I say.

I look over to see Lydia staring at us in complete confusion. What am I supposed to tell her? How do I tell Lydia something like this?

"Who is this?" Lydia asks.

"I'm his-"

I cut her off, "This is Emily. I didn't know she was coming to see me. It was a huge surprise."

"Ah," Lydia says. "It sure seems like you guys haven't seen each other in forever."

"Yea," I say quietly, "It's been a while."

Lydia furrows her eyebrows, "Well it's nice to meet you. I'm Lydia."

"Nice to meet you too," Emily says.

"Uh, I'll meet you out in the car?" I ask.

"Yea," Lydia nods her head and walks out the front door to get to my car.

"She seems like a bitch," Emily says right as the door closes.

"Emily, stop. She's not."

"Who is she anyways?"

"Just a friend," I say.

"Well she doesn't matter," Emily says. "I'm so excited to be here with you. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to come, but I got off of work for it."

"You shouldn't have come."

She looks at me confused, "Why would you say that? I'm excited to be here."

"I'm not though," I say.

"How could you say that?"

"Look, Emily. We really need to talk about something."

"Okay, I'm listening. I have all day."

"I don't though," I say. "I have to go to a memorial at school for a girl that passed on our girls basketball team."

"I'll come."

"No," I say quickly. "You can't come with us."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know," I say. "But you can't come and you can't stay here by yourself."

"Why can't I stay?"

"You just can't, Emily," I start to walk to the front door. "But I have to leave and so do you."

"Okay then, I'll come back later?"

"No," I say. "I'll come to you. Text me wherever you are at."

"Okay," she walks to the front door and I follow her out. We get to my car and she stops next to me, "Edwin, I love you."

I sigh, "I know." She starts to walk to her car and I look down at the ground. I then mumble to myself, "You won't love me after today."

***

"Hey, baby," I say softly.

She wraps her small arms around me and I do the same. She lays the side of her face on my chest and I start to rub her back.

"Hi," she says against my chest.

"It was a beautiful memorial."

"Yea, it was," she says. I can feel her tears soak through my shirt and onto my chest.