The Letter (standard:drama, 5178 words)
Author: Anonymous	Added: Oct 20 2002	Views/Reads: 3568/2363	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A teenagers struggle with the lose of his love.

THE LETTER 

The letter laid there on the coffee table daring me to open it.  I just
couldn’t bring myself to do pick it up.  I recognized the handwriting 
on the front of the letter and that frightened me.  I had cried enough 
over the past six days and did not think that I could handle another 
running of the waterworks.  So I just stood there, staring down at the 
letter.  Fear began to swell up inside of me and I could feel the first 
trickle of a tear rolling down the side of my cheek.  The letter was 
pulling at me, demanding me to open it and read the words that it held 
just for me.  I stood there just looking down at the letter.  I was 
afraid to pick it up.  I was afraid of what it had in store for me.  I 
noticed something that caught my eye and felt myself reaching down for 
the letter.  The postmark.  It was sent two days ago.  How could that 
be?   I had to get a closer look just to make sure I was reading it 
correctly.  I was.  This realization made the envelope start to burn in 
my hands.  I had to get rid of it.  I could not hold it any longer.  I 
dropped the letter on the floor and walked out the door, leaving the 
letter there for when I returned. 

I walked down to the 7-11 at the corner and used my fake ID to buy a
twelve pack of Coors Light.  The walk did little to help me forget 
about the letter, and during the walk back the tears began to flow 
again.  I was glad I decided to walk instead of drive.  I opened my 
first can of beer on the walk home, not worrying about what would 
happen to me if the police decided to drive by.  I needed that drink 
and I needed it right then.  The beer helped ease the tears so I opened 
the second can and downed it as quickly as I did the first.  I made it 
home without interruption from the local police and sat down on my 
front porch swing.  I sat there drinking and thinking, drinking and 
thinking.  Today I was supposed to receive my high school diploma but I 
just could not bring myself to go to the ceremony.  I just couldn’t be 
around all of those people feeling sorry for me.  On one of the biggest 
days of my young life I was sitting on a porch all alone getting myself 
drunk, some graduation day.    I sat on that swing and finished off my 
twelve pack, rocking myself to sleep.  I had completely forgotten about 
the letter, which was exactly what I was hoping to do. 

She was sitting next to me and I couldn’t understand why she would not
talk to me.  I kept asking her how she was doing and she kept turning 
away from me.  Then she turned and started shaking me.  She kept 
saying, don’t you see Stevie it just won’t work.  Then she was calling 
me Steven, which she never did.  She was shaking me and calling me 
Steven.  Why was she calling me Steven?  I began to see why as she 
changed right before my eyes.  She was replaced by my sister, I was 
only dreaming of her.  My sister was shaking me, trying to wake me up 
and get me in the house.  The afternoon that I started drinking in had 
turned into a chilly evening with the sun disappearing behind the 
buildings at the end of the street.  She had the letter in her hand 
asking me if I had seen it.  I took the letter from her and it started 
to burn in my hands again.  I stuck the letter into my back pocket as I 
got up and headed into the house.  I walked straight up the stairs and 
into my room.  I had had enough of this day and wanted nothing more 
than to sleep the twelve beers away.  I was going to regret drinking 
them all in the morning but I was looking forward to that.  That may 
just take away the pain of starting another day. 

I awakened at 6am with a terrible headache and a nasty taste in my
mouth.  I walked into the bathroom and dry swallowed two aspirin.  I 
stood there and peered into the mirror wondering how I was going to get 
through this day.  My eyes were bloodshot and I knew I couldn’t go to 
her parents looking the way I did.  I decided to hop in the shower and 
hope that it would help with the way I looked.  I always cleaned up 
well so maybe it would help.  I stayed in the shower for fifteen 
minutes letting the hot water wash over me, letting the hot water wash 
away my pain.  I felt better after the shower but I still had that 
nasty taste of alcohol in my mouth.  I brushed my teeth and rinsed with 
mouthwash just to get the grit out of there.  It seemed to work as the 
taste slowly left.  I walked back to my room and started to get dressed 
when I saw the letter sticking out of my jeans pocket.  I picked it out 
of my pocket and sat on my bed contemplating about opening it or just 
throwing it away.  I ended up setting it on my dresser next to the 
radio that I decided to turn on.  I heard Billy Idol screaming about it 
being a nice day to start again but I didn’t agree with him.  What did 
he know about the day?  What did he care about the day?  I turned off 


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