LOVELORNED

LOVELORNED (CHAPTER SIX)

Chapter 6: The Journal

I was running.

Past students. Past cars. Past the coffee shop where he just dropped a bomb and hung up.

He read Lily’s journal.

The one you left at the curb.

That journal was the only thing I had left of her.

Her handwriting. Her stupid doodles. The last page she wrote 3 days before the accident.

“Maya, if anything ever happens to me, promise you’ll still laugh at dumb movies, okay?”

I hadn’t opened it in 4 years.

I left it on the curb that first day because I couldn’t carry it and the umbrella.

And he picked it up.

My dorm door was already open when I got there.

Kayla was in the hallway, arms crossed.

“There’s a box,” she said quietly. “From him.”

On my bed.

A plain cardboard box. No name. No return address.

Inside: the red umbrella. Folded neatly.

And Lily’s journal.

With a green envelope on top.

My hands shook as I picked it up.

Maya,

I didn’t mean to read it. I swear.

I found it under my backpack that first day. It fell out when you left.

I thought it was mine. I opened it.

By page 3 I knew it wasn’t.

By page 10 I knew I could never give it back without explaining why I disappeared.

I kept it safe. I’m sorry.

There’s something on the last page you need to see.

-C_

I didn’t want to open it.

4 years of “don’t go back there” screaming in my head.

But I did.

I flipped to the last page.

Lily’s handwriting. Messy. Hurried.

“Maya, if you’re reading this and I’m not there…

Don’t be mad at the boy with green eyes.

I told him about you. I told him you’re the strongest person I know.

I told him to look out for you.

Promise me you’ll let someone in again, okay?

Love you. Always.

-L”_

The room went silent.

Kayla was crying. I wasn’t.

I couldn’t.

Lily knew about him.

Before the accident.

She met him? She talked to him?

My phone buzzed. Caleb.

I answered without thinking.

“Did you know her?” I whispered.

Long pause.

“Yes,” he said. “We had English together. She… she told me to find you.

The day before she died. She said ‘if anything happens, take care of my sister.’

That’s why I was at the curb, Maya.

That’s why I kept coming back.”

The floor tilted.

Everything I thought I knew for 4 years was wrong.

He wasn’t a stranger who cried in the rain.

He was Lily’s last request.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

“Because you looked at me like I was the reason the world hurt,” he said. “And I was too much of a coward to tell you I was sent by her.”

Another buzz.

Not Caleb.

Addison.

A new i********: story.

Her. In my coffee shop.

Caption: “Some girls wait 4 years. Some girls move on. #sorrynotsorry”

And a photo of Caleb’s hoodie. On her chair.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Chapter 7: The Hoodie