Welcome to our first flash fiction prompt! This week, we will feature a word prompt. Remember that you must write your entire entry in the comments section! This prompt is now CLOSED to new entries.
PROMPT:
(Word prompt reads: I wrote you a letter, but I was too afraid to send it.)
WINNERS:
ENTRY WINNER 1: birdietwrites
With him sitting this close and the lines of communication finally open after being down for so long, I knew that I needed to seize this opportunity to say what I had been wanting to say since the night I broke up with him.
"I'm so sorry, Nate."
He shifted uncomfortably on the front porch step we were sitting on and looked down for a moment.
He didn't stop me, though, so I went on.
"I just need you to know... I never meant to hurt you. Leaving was the hardest thing I have ever done. It would have been so easy to stay with you, but I thought that strength was forcing myself to do things that felt hard. That the voice inside my head second guessing what I had done and the tears I cried for you were signs of weakness that I needed to overcome...I'm not sure if you'll ever understand. You've never felt that same pressure to be more than someone's girlfriend, or made to think that love is a four letter word if you want a career...I'm not excusing what I did. I just needed you to know where my head was...my heart was always with you, though," I admitted quietly.
He took in a deep breath that hitched in his chest, leaving him nodding quietly for a moment until it had cleared.
"Well, that's all in the past now," was all he could say.
"Yeah, it is," I breathed out.
We sat there quietly, letting our hearts and minds adjust to this shift, and breathing in the now clear air between us. It was, quite simply, a relief after keeping those feelings inside for so long.
***
ENTRY WINNER 2: pseudoannie
I watched out the front window as the taxi pulled up outside. I knew he was coming home. His mother had been talking to my mother in hushed tones for days.
He stepped out and looked up at his childhood home. He was the boy next door. Once we were best friends - more than friends, until he left for another life.
He looked older. His face was drawn and his eyes were tired. He glanced at my house as I froze, hoping to blend in with the curtain. Just as quickly he ascended the steps to his front door.
I was restless knowing he was back and just next door. For eight years, I had learned to live without him. I tried to make a life for myself, but hadn't succeeded all that well. After all I was still living at home with my parents. I didn't make enough at the call center to support myself.
My life had no traction. It didn't help that I was in love with the boy next door. I quietly mourned through news of him from his mother over a cup of coffee in my mother's kitchen.
I remembered the buzz around his girlfriends and then the right one. I almost didn't survive all the wedding talk. I was holding my breath during every coffee clatch waiting to hear that he was to become a father.
I never anticipated the day his mother whispered to my mother, "She left him. Said she didn't want to be married. He's devastated."
I felt a feeling I hadn't felt in years - elation. He was sad, but I was happy. What did that say about me?
Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door. A friend should welcome a friend home. When he came to the door, he smiled using only his mouth, not his eyes.
I said, "I wrote you a letter, but was too afraid to send it."
"Why?" he asked.
"Because... Oh forget it. It's good to see you."
"Did you tell me you still love me?" he asked with a furrowed brow and dark penetrating eyes.
I just stared into his eyes as I bit my lip and felt the heat rising into my cheeks.
And he...
***
ENTRY WINNER 3: kellycookson
Millie signs her name and resisting the urge to follow it with a line of scrawled kisses, takes care not to smudge the ink as she folds the letter and places it inside the plain cream envelope.
Should she spritz it with her perfume? That's what they do in old films and romance novels. It's probably too try hard, she thinks, deciding against it. This letter is her wild attempt to win Jake's heart with a romantic gesture - but she doesn't want to overdo it.
She licks the glue strip and seals the envelope. Should I kiss it? Sealed with a kiss? No, that's silly...
Oh God, this is a good idea, isn't it?
She closes her eyes and pictures Jake's face as he picks up the letter from the doormat. He turns the envelope over and slides his thumb along the seal to open it.
She sees his handsome face clearly in her mind, his green eyes widening as he takes in the words. Maybe he reads the letter twice, his beautiful mouth beginning to smile. Perhaps he strides out the house, jumps in his car and drives to her place to declare he feels the same. Stopping off to pick up a bouquet of flowers on the way of course.
Now her imagination is definitely getting carried away.
A more likely scenario is he's highly embarrassed and hides the letter in a drawer, wondering what excuse he can make to get out of their plans to go walking this weekend.
Maybe he shoves it into his wood burning stove and pretends it never happened. The flames erasing all of Millie's heartfelt words and emotions.
No, her beloved Jake could never be so cruel.
But the doubt is creeping into Millie's mind now. What had at first seemed like the best way to reveal the truth to Jake about being in love with him, suddenly feels childish and silly.
She tucks the sealed envelope carefully away inside the pages of her diary and vows to sleep on it for one more night before posting it. One more sleep without Jake knowing her true feelings is bearable. Just one more night.