Maps || l.h. au

16 // New Year's Eve, 2014

   Running Incredible was going to be out by the first week of February this year.

   But Luke still has not written back to her. Or maybe, he isn’t going to write back to her anymore — and her mind always told her that it was obviously the case. But her heart didn’t want to believe it.

   It was already the eve of the New Year and even if she had the wonderful choice of going to Times Square to watch the ball drop, she decided to stay inside her lonely apartment instead and tried to drown out the screams and dizzying music from her neighbors by listening to 1989 through her earphones.

   Leah’s parents still haven’t contacted her nor made any sign that they were missing their only daughter. However, she partly didn’t mind because she already had her hands full with living alone and getting a permanent job to pay the bills while waiting for her book to come out. But she did miss them, it was inevitable; they were her parents, after all, and even if they were barely there for her, she still loved them.

   Her apartment was big enough for one person. There was a kitchenette, the bathroom, one bedroom and a small living room. She barely had any furniture to put since she still hasn’t saved enough money; she only had a bed mattress and a few kitchen utensils. She also put a cheap carpet on the floor in the living room so it wouldn’t exactly feel bare whenever she sits on it.

   Feeling a bit restless, she stood up from her seat in the kitchenette (where there was a view of people crowding in the street, getting ready to celebrate the New Year) and went back inside her bedroom. Her mind’s gears were running and she knew she just had to write something down, anything. She searched for a spare notebook in her suitcase and a pen.

   Right after when she found out one of the publishing houses accepted her work, which happened in the midst of November, she went back home to LA and took the belongings that reminded her of herself, rather than keeping hold of the things that reminded her she was still within the grasp of her parents. Neither of her parents was happy with her decision, her father nearly hitting her, but she managed to get as much as she needed and wanted and immediately took the plane to New York.

   Leah finally found a spare notebook and while she was rummaging to look for a pen, she lifted her folded jeans and found the map folded neatly underneath it and a pen inserted within the back pocket of the jeans she was holding. Hesitantly, she took out the map and the pen from the pocket of the jeans. Cautiously, she unfolded the map while her heart was beating madly inside her chest.

   In the middle of the map was a small piece of paper. Reaching for her lamp, she turned it on and read what was written on the paper that held a familiar scrawl.

I know you don’t want me to write to you anymore but I just had to return to you what was yours in the first place. Go the New York Library and ask for your book. Tell them your name; they’ll know what to do. Happy New Year, Leah. I love you.