Lies

Chapter Twenty-Six

Monica's POV

"What are you reading?" Eddie asks startling me a little.

I turn around to look at him still holding the last letter in my hand and just starred. I had no idea what to say to him.

I parted my lips to say something to him, but nothing came out.

He walks over keeping some distance between us. I can see he's a little hesitant about how I feel about him.

"What is all of this?" He asks in a tone that leads me to believe he already knows.

"It's all the letters I ever wrote you." I say pointing to the large stack of unopened letters. "And these are all the letters you sent me, or at least the ones that got save."

"Why are they all here? Why did you never send them?" He asks. I can hear the pain in his voice.

"It wasn't me, Eddie. It was my parents they took all my letters out of the mailbox before they would send." He looked down at the letters sifting through all of them. "They also took all of yours out of the mailbox, so I never got anything you sent me." I tell him wiping a tear that fell down my cheek.

"So, you were writing to me?"

"Yes Eddie. Twice a week for years." A look of relief washes over his face. He points over to all the open letters I have scattered in front of me.

"What are those?"

"Those are some of the letters you wrote me. It was all that was in the box, but I'm assuming you wrote more than this." I tell him.

"Did you read them?" He asks rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yes Eddie, I read them, and I even found this guy." I say holding up the picture that he had put inside one of the letters.

"Oh my gosh that's embarrassing put that away!" He says lunging for the picture but missing causing him to fall right into my lap. "I'm so sorry." He says scrambling to get up.

"It ok. I'm not upset with you anymore. I'm more confused than anything." I say pulling his arm, so he comes back to my lap.

He doesn't come back to my lap, but he does sit across from me. He sits so close that our knees are touching.

"What are you confused about?"

"Why didn't you just tell me who you were?"

"I was planning on telling you, but I couldn't find the right time to tell you. At first, I thought you might be messing with me and that you did know who I was, but when I realized you didn't know I was just hoping you would remember. You never did remember. Things between us just moved so fast, and I never felt like there was a good time. I was also scared that you would hate me when you found out, and you did. You told me you hated me."

"...I told you I hated you?" I ask timidly

"Yeah, and honestly it broke my heart a little." He says not making any eye contact with me.

I look down to see he's playing with his rings to try and calm himself down. I reach over and grab his hands with my hands and rub his knuckles with my thumbs.

"Eddie I'm so sorry I told you I hate you. I don't hate you. It's quite the opposite." I tell him pulling hands away and tucking my hair behind my ear.

"What do you mean it's the opposite?" He asks slowly.

"Eddie, I love you. I was trying to push my feelings away because I was with Steve. Reading these letters and having time to think made me realize I never should have pushed those feelings away. That's why I got so upset when I saw you hooking up with that girl when I came home." I say finally coming clean to him about how I felt. "I thought my feelings were a little more obvious, but I guess that's not true."