Short Stories

Returned Love

Once upon a time there lived two people, their names were Hailie Dawson and Logan Mark. These two people first met each other on their first day of high school and after a short while, they began dating. For three and a half years Hailie and Logan stayed together, until one fateful day, just before summer break, something happened.

Logan walked up to Hailie on the night of June 28th with a heart that was breaking and words he wished he didn’t have to say.  Until she looked up into his brown eyes, Hailie had felt happy and light and, then her mood changed dramatically to nervous and the fearful. “What’s wrong?” she asked him, speaking in a soft, quiet tone.

Hailie looked up and Logan with glimmer of hope in her eyes, a look and that made him sigh. “I have to tell you something and you can’t interrupt me until I’m done, okay?” heat older and she nodded.  Logan took a deep breath, and then continued. “We’ve been together now for a little over three and a half years, and it’s been easy for us to be together, since we live so close to each other.  And but, we’re going away to university next year and we’ll be living on either sides of the country for a while and we won’t see each other very much.” Logan paused and looked into the Hailie’s green eyes which looked sad but curiously into his. “And I don’t think I can do a long distance relationship right now in my life.” He took a deep breath and then ripped the band aid. “I think we should break up!”

At the exact second he had said those few words, Hailie’s jaw dropped.  Why couldn’t they do a long distance relationship?  Plenty of people had and they were fine, what was different about them?  Yes, they were young, but Hailie loved Logan and she didn’t want to give that up.

Tears streaked down Hailie’s cheeks as she looked at Logan.  Suddenly, all she wanted to do was slap him across the face as hard as she could because she believed he deserved the exact same pain her heart had received, only physically.  Welling up with emotion, Hailie decided to just leave, leave the fool who broke her heart sitting where he was.  So Hailie did just that, wanting never to see Logan Marks’ face ever again.

Five years later, Hailie saw a face she hadn’t seen in a long time while she stood in line to pay for her families Christmas gifts.  Standing right behind her in line, was Logan Marks.  She hadn’t known he’d moved back to town, or at least she hadn’t heard anything.

Doing the courteous thing, Hailie turned around and said hello. “Logan, I didn’t know you were back in town,” she said, with as much cheer as she could muster for the man who had broken her heart so many years ago. Logan stared in shock at Hailie, he had almost not recognized her, what with her blond hair being so long.

“Hailie, you look good,” he told her, genuinely meaning it.  For a moment he stared into her eyes, and then he looked away, almost embarrassed to have it noticed. “So, how are you?”

Hailie smiled lightly at him, trying to put the past as far behind are as she could. “I’m good,” she said, brushing her hair behind her ears. “You know, if you’re not busy later, I’m taking my nieces down to the rink, you could join us if you want.” Her suggestion seemed quite a good idea to Logan.

“Yea, I’ll see you there,” he said, smiling at the woman he had loved for so long, as she took the receipt from the cashier woman and walked out of the store with bags in her hands.

She could smell the freshness of the rink, it was so elegant a smell it so bitterly cold. Hailie Dawson tied up her six year old niece’s skates while her eight year old niece tied of her own. Phoebe was a very proud eight year old, t to be tying up her own skates for once, while Chloe just wanted hers to be tied for her. When Hailie let the two girls go skating by themselves for a few minutes, she tied up her skates and looked for Logan’s familiar light brown head. After a few minutes of searching, she gave up and decided that she should go watch over her nieces on the rink.