Dear Jane Doe

Her Pov.

The first thing I noticed was that dark clouds rimmed the horizon in an ominous sort of way. I just knew they would follow through with their threat of rain and, near the end of school, I was right.

I watched it dance beautifully outside of the classroom window with mild interest. Rain held so many spellbinding powers and I simply loved the way it flew delicately through the air to make an orchestra of noise on roofs. The lesson wasn’t nearly as interesting as the picture of outside being pelted with it.

I always believed beautiful things happened under the coveting hand of rain.

Still though, no amount of exciting weather could get Alec Bradshaw off my mind. It was infuriating how he could pop up at any time no matter how hard I pushed those thoughts away. He’d punched my cousin for no apparent reason, he’d crushed my feelings previous to that and showed no sign of changing his ways as Jo predicted. Maybe Alec Bradshaw was really just a jerk to the core.

Bells erupted throughout the small facility telling all of us that freedom had been granted. It was finally 3 and I felt no better for it. Not even the promise of my admirer’s letters could cheer me up from such a foul mood.

To my immense surprise, Jo was waiting outside in his car. He beeped loudly as if I hadn’t seen him and gestured for me to get quickly into the car with him. The rain ran down and against my face but it felt strangely refreshing, yet I knew walking home in it wouldn’t be so pleasant, so opened the door to jump inside.

“How’s your face?” I finally managed to break through the awkward silence which had descended upon us.

He chuckled at my question before shrugging “it’s pretty good actually considering Alec has one mean ass right fist on him.” I shrank back into the seat with disgust, remembering how horrible that entire evening had been.

“Aren’t you mad at him?”

“Nah, Alec’s too loveable to be mad at. He really is a decent guy… don’t give me that look, if you only gave him a chance.”

“How many more chances does he need to fuck up?” I retorted coldly.

“You know we went back to your house that night, after the party” Jo informed me, choosing to ignore my acid tone.

“Why?” I asked dumfounded.

“Alec really wanted to apologise. He felt awful about upsetting you so much but you weren’t at home… just where were you actually?” I thought back to that night and how I’d run off to my lane. I always went there when I felt bad; it was like my own personal haven despite it being a community walkway. It held even more power and lustre at night anyway.

“Nowhere” I sniffed the air defiantly, curiously poking around his glove compartment.

“Shit that reminds me” Jo spared me a glance quickly from the road, snapping it back when an echo of horns blared out at him. “Alec left me something to give to you; it’s behind my stack of CDs I think.”

Snorting amusedly at his comical collection of music, I rooted deeper for something but found only a folded dirtied napkin. “Ew Jo what the hell have you done with this one?” I stared incredulously at the brown-ish thing.

“Crap. I forgot Alec had written something on it so used it to wipe some shit off my windshield. Just open it up for God’s sake and stop giving me that disgusted look. It’s not like I raped someone with it or anything!”

Cautiously, my fingers opened up the napkin to read the one scrawled word indented deep into the papery material.

Sorry.

I was struck dumb for a few moments. It was him. Fuck, Alec Bradshaw was him. Alec Bradshaw was him and I was so happy about it that it scared me shitless.

Without a word or even a glance at Jo, I threw open the car door. Luckily we were stopped at a red light but I probably would have done it even if we were moving. His screams of protest were silenced as I shut the door forcefully and ran back the way we’d come. I

It didn’t even really matter that I was running on the edge of the road, as there was no pavement, because it was better than just waiting around for fate to come.

I knew now. I didn’t want to wait any longer.

Bewildered faces peered at me curiously as I bolted passed their cars. My hair clung to my face as rain washed away all fear. It was amazing to know exactly where you’re going and not have to direct your feet, to just let your mind go over the fact that Alec Bradshaw was that guy.

I’d noticed it as soon as I’d read his napkin note which was currently being squished tightly in my ball of a fist. It was the exact same handwriting as my admirer’s. The guy I was in love with was the guy that loved me! It was almost too good to be true. I had to know, I had to get to my lane before something happened… what I wasn’t aware of but I just knew there was a deadline. Me legs doubled their speed at heeding this disturbing news.

I ran from all the doubt and ran toward everything that could be.

My feet flew across the slippery pavement. There was beauty surrounding me wherever I looked and now I could finally touch it as I’d always wished to. I loved him, I loved him when I first saw him, I loved him when he was rude and I loved him when he was drunk and I even fucking loved him when he punched Jo. He was too charmingly gorgeously perfect for me to remain resistant against.

I knew he was there before I saw him. I sprinted down my lane so fast, too fast, that my feet lost control and I slipped hard on my ass. “Alec Bradshaw” I yelled out “Alec fucking Bradshaw!”