Serendipitous: Liam's Story

Running Away

It took a couple days before Jolie could finally breathe easier.  She had to convince herself over and over that what she did was the right thing no matter how much her heart hurt when she thought about the cruel way she left him.

Jolie gripped the jumper in her hands tighter.  She gulped as she closed her eyes and saw the memory of him.  He was smiling at her as the breeze off the Thames played with his wild brown locks, a twinkle in his hazel eyes, sharing stories about his own childhood, wearing the same jumper she now held in her arms.

She slowly let go, letting the jumper languidly fall into the cardboard box below that was already littered with pictures of her time in London.  The jumper covered the smiling face of a couple posing together as comfortable as ever with each other in front of a little chocolate shop in the city of Chelsea.  The boy had his arms wrapped around the girl, barely any space between them. Two smiles, big enough to light the Rockefeller Christmas tree graced their faces. 

Jolie walked over to her windowsill, heading towards the five bobble heads that decorated the space.  She lightly grasped them, slowly putting each one in the same cardboard box, but paused at the last one and undeniably her favorite.

Jolie held a hand over her mouth as she stared at it, she closed her eyes, slowly letting a breath out before she gently placed it into the box with the rest. 

“Goodbye Liam,” Jolie whispered as she closed the box up. She had to let him go, he was never hers to start with. 

~~~

December 3, 2012 Madison Square Garden

Jolie looked at herself in the mirror as she tried to find the perfect outfit.

Lena had already helped her do her hair, putting her long brown almost black hair into messy but classy side bun, one that she knew before the end of the night she would most definitely let back down.  Her makeup had been lightly applied, the only thing that was really worked on had been her eyes as Hope had wanted to do her makeup. Hope had spent almost fifteen minutes trying to give her a grey and silver smokey eye look, causing her green eyes to pop.  The two, Lena and Hope were determined to make her look as pretty as possible for tonight.

Because tonight was their three month anniversary, her and James.  Three months…

Jolie went into her closet, skipping all the clothes to get to the back.

She pulled out the green dress she bought in London, convincing herself that it no longer held more meaning to her than just a pretty dress that she spent too much money on and needed to wear more than once to at least get the value from it. 

She tried to ignore the heavy feeling in her heart  as she slipped it on, reaching behind to button the back.  A brief image of her first kiss, in the rain, flashed but she quickly pushed it back, pushed it into the cardboard box under her bed, along with other memories she was determined to forget.

She clenched her lips almost tasting the light pink lip gloss that had been applied on her lips. 

Determined to not let anything ruin the night, Jolie quickly pulled her flesh colored thigh high tights on, then slipped on a pair of knee high black boots with a three inch heels.  She winced when she zipped her boots up too fast and managed to almost snag flesh as she tried to erase away the image of a  boyish grin that was not her boyfriend’s.

“Jolie, James’ here!” Lena said peeking her head in, a smile on her lips.  She eyed Jolie with an approving look. “You look great!”

Jolie smiled back at her, grabbing her black trench coat before going out to meet James.