Charlie

It has been three years since Charlie messed things up with Justine. There wasn’t a second in the day he didn’t regret the decisions he made when he broke her heart. Justine was the girl of his dreams. It took him a while to figure it out, but when he did it killed him inside knowing she would never forgive him but he was willing to try.

Charlie had one more day left in town before he would get sent back to Egypt for his Army duties. He just had to find Justine and see how she was doing. He goes around town asking everyone if they knew where she was staying. No one was telling him anything, he was running out of hope until he sees someone he recognized. Jada was Justine’s best friend; she had to know where she was at.

“Jada! Jada! Do you remember me? I need your help,” cried Charlie. Jada walks towards Charlie and asks what he needs help with. Charlie explains everything to Jada and tells her how he really needs to talk to Justine.

“If you really wanted to make things right… why did it take you three years to attempt to make things better,” asked Jada.

“I didn’t want to wait this long, I just had too much going on at the time, I didn’t know how to handle it,” said Charlie.

“Why did you do it Charlie? Justine gave you everything you could ask for… she was nothing but good to you and you just messed things all up to have a good time. I hope you are ashamed of yourself. She thought about you every single day hoping you would come back, but you didn’t. Why should I tell you where she is at? So you can break her heart again… maybe she doesn’t want to see you anymore,” said Jada.

“Please Jada, I know I messed up but I need to see her. This means a lot to me and I only have today to make things right,” cried Charlie.

“Fine I will tell you… she is staying at her father’s house.”

“Okay thank you so much Jada I appreciate it a lot, I promise I won’t let her down again,” said Charlie. Jada offers to drop Charlie off but he refuses, he wants to do this on his own. Several minutes pass by and he finally makes it to her father’s house. It is exactly the same as he remembers. He walks to the front door and when he gets there he is looking through the window and notices that Justine is cooking dinner. She is as beautiful as ever and it brings a smile to his face. Trying to ring the doorbell he hesitates. Not sure if it will be a good idea but he is willing to try. His sweaty hand reaches for the doorbell one more time and this time he actually pushes it. He waits patiently for someone to open the door and then the door slowly opens and it is Justine. Her face gets pale as a ghost and she drops the plate she had in her hand.

“Hello Justine… it’s been a long time,” said Charlie. Justine is just staring at him and can’t help but get tears in her eyes.

“Please don’t cry Justine I’m not here to make you upset,” said Charlie as he tries to give her a hug. Justine pulls away from Charlie and accidentally trips over a little boy that was standing behind her. Charlie stares at the little boy trying to figure out if what he is looking at is really there.

“Justine… is that...”

“Yes Charlie he is yours… I tried to tell you before you left but did you ever give me the chance, you completely cut me off.” Justine picks up the little boy and gives him a kiss on the cheek. She puts him back down and tells him to go back to the dining room to get ready for dinner. The little boy goes running off and leaves Justine and Charlie alone. Charlie stares at Justine in her eyes and can’t help but smile.

“Why are you smiling,” asked Justine.

“Because you are so gorgeous I can’t help but smile.”

Justine forgot how charming Charlie could be but she didn’t want to fall for it, she had enough of him thinking he can just show up and expects things to get better.

“Charlie I don’t know why you came but I will not fall for anything you say again. I have been through this too many times, I learned my lesson and it turns out I don’t need you anymore. I am perfectly fine without you. I did everything on my own, don’t think you can just come back and have things your way. We do not need you. Little Aidan and I are happy,” said Justine. What Justine just said broke Charlie’s heart, he had nothing to say. Did she really mean that he thought?

“I’m sorry you had plenty of chances to make things better sooner but you didn’t. I gave you everything and you threw it all away for what, you are left with nothing… was it all worth it? I promised you I wouldn’t give up on you but I did… I was tired of losing hope. I waited for you to come back but you never did. And now when I am finally over it you think it is ok,” said Justine.

“I tried Justine… it just killed me knowing what I did to you,”

“Well you shouldn’t have, I really wanted to be with you but now I realize I am doing so much better without you,” said Justine. She gives her goodbyes and wishes Charlie the best. Charlie walks away and it feels like his heart has been torn out but he couldn’t do anything about it, he messed things up and now he had to live with the consequences.