Forgiveness

I opened my eyes to the sound of the birds chirping. I let out a deep sigh and got up from my spot in the park. As I walked home from the park, my mind kept returning to the argument I had witnessed between my two friends. I just couldn't make sense of it. I shook my head in confusion as I walked. I mean, I get why they were upset at each other, I think. But it seemed like they were taking it too far. I made a mental note to talk to them both later and try to sort out the issue. I pulled the small wooden door on the mailbox and grabbed the small packages and letters from inside, running up to the door and holding it open for the people behind me.

I pushed the button that read the number seven on the elevator and headed up the apartment building. When I did get up, I changed out of my clothes and threw on pajamas and an apron as I threw pasta on the stove for dinner.

As the water was boiling, I opened the mail. I put the packages on the counter and opened one of the letters as I threw the pasta into the gray pot on the stove, and I swear that I almost dropped it when I saw that it was addressed to a girl named Sarah Laneon. Who the hell was Sarah? I opened the mail and started to read it.

Dear Sarah,

I hope you’re doing well. I’m going to come and visit soon, I promise. I miss you and can't wait to see you. Please let me know when would be a good time for me to come. I'm looking forward to it. Let me know when you think I should come and I'll start planning my trip. I know that it's been a while since we've seen each other, and I'm sure we both have a lot of stories and news to share. I'm sure we'll have a blast catching up and reminiscing about the good old days. I'm sure we'll have so much to talk about, and hopefully not too much to argue about! 

I paused. Why do I feel like I know this handwriting? No, I definitely know it, but who is it? I turned off the stove and continued to read.

To answer your question from before, Alana is doing better than ever. My sister’s out of the hospital now, too. Alana has this one friend, her name’s Monica, and she’s the best friend I could ever have.

I dropped the empty box of pasta as well as the paper in my hand onto the ground. A friend?

He sees me as a friend? I sat on the floor next to the box and read the paper faster.

She’s always been there for me, you could probably call her my best friend at this point in time, and don’t worry, she’s not trying to steal me away.

Steal him away? Away from what?

What would I steal Wes from?

Honestly, I’m glad she was with me when Alana was first diagnosed. I mean, having cancer isn’t the best thing to happen to a person, and I’m going to sound fucked up for saying this but it actually brought me and Monica closer, you know? It brought up Alana’s spirits too for some reason. According to her, it was seeing me smile everyday with her that made her day, even if she was being all depressed in her hospital bed while we enjoyed our senior year of high school.

Did Sarah go to school with us?

Alana got better a couple of weeks ago, though she isn’t doing that well. She’s been constantly sick.

She has? Didn’t he just say she was feeling better?

Just ignore what I wrote about her being better, okay? I don’t want to lie to you, especially about the important things. I’ll come and see you as soon as I can, babe. 

My hands immediately felt numb, and so did my legs and feet, my head would be next if I don’t pull it out of this gutter right now. 

He just called her babe.

My boyfriend just called another girl babe, and not the friendly kind of babe to where you’re talking to one of your family members or to a baby because I know for a fact all of his family members and there are no babies in them, plus he’s not good with kids so why would he be writing to one!

I threw myself on the couch and put a pillow over my head.

He’s cheating on me. 

My boyfriend of three years is cheating on me.

No, no no.

No. This cannot be happening. This has to be a misunderstanding, right? I mean, it has to be. I threw the pillow onto the ground. I can’t lose both of my best friends and my boyfriend in one day. That would be insane, that would be stupidly insane, but yet it happened.

I lost both of my best friends and my own boyfriend within a day, to hell with that, I lost them both within the span of two hours! 

Ring,

Silence. Ring ring.

I picked up my phone from the coffee table next to me, spilling over my cold coffee from earlier this morning.

It was Wesley.

Wesley Thompson. Do I tell him off? Do I play it cool? Do I call Alana and get her opinion on this? I mean, it’s his sister, plus she never says no to me. Without thinking about what I’m going to do, I pick up the phone.

“Hello?” Wesley said on the other line. “Monica, are you there?”

Silence.

“Monica?”

“Sarah.” I blurted out. What the hell am I doing?

He went silent, but then spoke again after I put the phone on speaker. “What?”

“You heard me, I said Sarah.” I sat up. “So who is she?”

“We went to school with her, you don’t remember?”

“Bullshit.”

“Excuse me?” He snapped.

“This is addressed to Washington. You don’t have family or friends in Washington.”

“It was a mistake then.”

“How the hell could that be a mistake, we live in damn Maine?!”

I hung up the phone and tossed it back onto the coffee table and stood up and headed for the door. If he wasn’t going to explain his mistakes over the phone, he was going to do so in person, but I can’t believe it. I won’t believe it. Wesley Thompson isn’t a cheater and he never will be. He’s nice and caring and-

I stopped as I put my left shoe on, then I took it off with my hands and threw both shoes back into the closet, slamming the door behind me. 

He didn’t deserve me coming over there.

He doesn’t deserve anything.