Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
That fact alone made my heart skip.
On her dresser drawer was a collection of professional cameras. Some looked antique.
I fiddled with my hands, still tugging on the sleeve of my coat. As I turned to look at Anna, she was already staring at me.
“You can have a seat,” she said, gesturing toward the bed.
I sat.
She moved in closer.
We stared at one another for a while before I built up enough courage to talk. Right as I parted my mouth to speak, Anna had, too. We tripped over our words, nervously laughed, and I cleared my throat. “You first.”
“Sorry, Willow. It’s just… I’m confused as to why you’re here,” Anna said, resting her hands in her lap.
“I wanted to check in on you. To see how you’ve been.”
It sounded idiotic, but it was true.
She lowered her eyebrows. “I’m sorry, this all just feels very random.” She turned her stare from me and glanced toward her window. “It’s been years.”
“I know.” I nodded. My heart pounded against my chest. “But I’ve thought about you every single day for all these years and—”
“You left,” she blurted out. When she turned back toward me, her eyes flashed with a heaviness that almost broke my heart. “Years ago. You left me and Honey Creek and never looked back, Willow. When you did visit your family, you never attempted to see me. So why now?”
“That’s not true,” I urged, shaking my head. “I tried to see you repeatedly.”
“No, you didn’t.” She smiled, but it felt so heartbreakingly sad. “I was in the hospital for months after the accident, Willow.”
“I know. I was there every day.”
She shook her head. “No. You weren’t.”
Her words perplexed me. Why would she say that? I sat in that hospital waiting room for days, weeks on end, waiting to see her. Waiting to hear that she was all right. Waiting for a chance to apologize for everything I’d done.
“Anna… I was there. I waited in the waiting room all day and night for months.”
Her eyes narrowed with confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“I was there,” I expressed, placing my hands against my chest, over my heart that pounded a million miles per hour. Tears flooded my stare. “I wanted nothing more than to talk to you. To make sure you were all right. To be there for you. But your mom would come out into the waiting room and tell me that it wasn’t a good day. That’s what she said at first. Then it was how you refused to see me. Then how you wanted nothing to do with me because I ruined your life.”
Anna’s eyes flashed with realization. “What? My mom said that?”
I sniffled and placed my hands in my lap. “Yeah. So after some time, she convinced me that my existence in your life was a burden to you. And that I’d already stolen so much from your life, from your future, that it would be best if I stayed away. That’s why I left Honey Creek. I didn’t want to hurt you anymore.”
“What? No… Willow…” She shook her head, and tears fell from her eyes. The moment her teardrops kissed her cheeks, my own fell, too. She sniffled and continued shaking her head. “She told me you left without a word. She said you never showed up and that I should just move on. So that’s what I did. Why would she do that? Why would she…?” Anna looked away and shut her eyes as she tried to gather her emotions. When she looked back at me, her brown eyes were soaked with pain. “You were my best friend. I needed you back then. You were my person.”
“And you were mine, Anna. I just thought… I mean, the accident… I caused it to happen, and your mom made it clear how it was so unfair how I stole so much of your life from you and—”
“Stole my life from me?” she asked, baffled. “What do you mean?”
“Your dreams, Anna. You had dreams of so much, and I took that from you.”
“No offense, Willow, but you don’t have that power over my life. And you weren’t the drunk drivers that night. Carter and Eric were. They hit us, not the other way around. It wasn’t your fault.”
It wasn’t your fault.
How could she say that?
How could she say it wasn’t my fault?
“But I…” My mind tried to make sense of the words she was saying. I’d spent the past years blaming myself. So I had a million thoughts in my head, screaming the complete opposite of what Anna was telling me. “If we hadn’t gone to the party that night, you would’ve never been in that situation. And I spilled the water, and well, I—”
“Oh my gosh,” she murmured. Anna moved in closer to me. Her voice was a whisper. “Have you been blaming yourself all these years? You think you ruined my life?”