hey just wanted to see how you were doing? It’s been awhile 🙂 

I hit send. The text is casual. Easy. Nonchalant. No way it could be misinterpreted. Just casually checking up on an old friend. I’m confident he’ll reply. I wait for it to finish sending. Come on. The text changes from blue to green. Hm. Maybe he got a new phone? Maybe he got a new number? He should’ve texted me then. Wouldn’t he let me know if he had a whole new number? Wouldn’t he want to keep in touch?

Maybe I should check up on him just to see how he’s doing. 

hey is this is this the right number? it’s kimmy i’m not sure if my last text sent so I just wanted to be sure 🙂 we should catch up soon! 

There’s no way Will could take that the wrong way. You never did know with him though. 

I get in the car. 

I drive down those familiar back roads to the suburbs of town. The lamplights are low, and the two-lane highway in front of me seems to stretch on forever. I know where I’m going though. Of course I know. 

I wonder if Will’s house still has the same gray brick, the same scratched-up floors his labrador, Molly, destroyed. I wonder if he even still has Molly. Sarah’s allergic. I had warned Will about Sarah. Sarah’s allergic to dogs, dairy, gluten. Will and I loved to get ice cream. We baked chocolate chip cookies and blueberry scones all the time. Sarah can’t do any of those things. 

“Kimmy, it’s not your place anymore, okay?” Will had said.

As I pull up to the familiar ranch style house, my heart beats faster. I smile. It feels like home. It was home. Until Sarah. 

I remember I can’t actually park near the house; I finally settle for the curb one street over. 

I walk along the familiar sidewalk Will and I used to walk Molly on every night after dinner. Just before the sun went down. Molly loved to sniff the red rose bushes in front of the two-story, pink, brick house. I notice the roses aren’t even in front of the house anymore. 

hey i’m in the area. thought i could stop by for a little if youre home 🙂 

I did lie, but it’s for the better. I didn’t want to scare him. I remember the last time.

Sarah had opened the door. Ugh, Sarah. 

“Um, Will?” She sounded so afraid.

“Yeah, I’ll be right there. If it’s the Girl Scouts, I want Thin Mints.” 

Thin Mints? With me, he always liked the peanut butter ones. He didn’t even like mint.  

Sarah just stared at me. 

“Hi. I just wanted to come by and say hi.” I tried to smile convincingly, but Sarah seemed to be inching closer and closer behind the door. What was she so scared of? 

“Is everything okay?” Will’s voice was so close.

 I tried to quit fidgeting. I picked at a hangnail around my thumb and bit my lip. 

“Kimmy?” My name on his lips was like a dream. “Kimmy, what the fuck are you doing here?” 

Sarah reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out her phone. I watched her disappear somewhere behind the doorway. I couldn’t even see the inside of the house. Why wouldn’t Will just let me in?

“Please. Just go home. I don’t want to have to call the cops again. You can’t be here.”

“Come on. I don’t even know why you did that last time. I just wanted to say hi. I didn’t know she’d be here though.” I pointed to Sarah.

I tried to open the door a little more. Will wouldn’t budge. He closed the door entirely behind him.

“You need to get the fuck out of here.”

“Why won’t you even let me inside? What did I even do?”

“Are you kidding? You’re fucking crazy.” Will looked as if he wanted to reach out for me. He balled his fists at side instead. 

I felt tears well up in my eyes. I’d heard that from everyone. I’d never heard it from Will. Will believed me; Will knew me. I wasn’t crazy. I wasn’t crazy. I wasn’t. 

“I’m not crazy” I stared at the sidewalk. 

“The last time you were here, you threw fucking rocks through our windows. Sarah still has the fucking scars where you fucking bit her.”

“She was yelling at me. What was I supposed to do? She was telling me I was crazy.” I looked up at him. “I’m not crazy.”

“Yeah, you’re right. You’re fucking insane.”

I lunged at him. “I’m not crazy.” I was screaming. I couldn’t even see through the tears. I saw the bloody nose before I realized what I had done. 

“Will? Will? Are you okay? I didn’t mean to. I’m so sorry. Please, please. You can’t call the police. I’ll get in trouble. I’m not supposed to be here.” 

He just stared at me with a look of terror on his face. 

My knuckles hurt.

I heard the sound of sirens screaming in the distance. Will was out here with me. Who called them? Sarah. Of course she did. 

 

My palms are sweating a bit. I really, really don’t want it to go how it did last time. The police had just been so rude. They didn’t even let me explain. 

I put on a smile and knock. It feels like a happy knock. Nice and happy and confident and casual. 

A woman opens the door. 

“Hi, is Will home?” 

“Will?” 

“William Casey? He lives here.” I’m confused. Did Will move without telling me? Why would he do that?

“Oh, right. The old owner? Yeah, he moved.” She pauses. “Between you and me? Apparently, he had no choice. He had this crazy ex-girlfriend who kept coming around. He literally had to file a restraining order and everything.”

I laugh. “People sure are crazy.”


Hannah Singletary is from Atlanta, Georgia. She attends Penn State, University Park, and her major is English. She’s minoring in both Spanish and rhetoric. She enjoys creative nonfiction and hopes to work at a publishing house in New York after graduating. Around campus, Hannah is apart of Outcast dance team, Volé Dance Company, and Delta Gamma Sorority.