The Time Capsule

Selena

“any other questionsLawrence?” The judge asks.

I shake my head, “no, that is all your honor.” I say and take a seat behind the table. The verdict that day? Not guilty.

I smile leaving the courtroom and out to my car. Another case won, another thing good about the day. Well, the only thing good really. I wouldn’t count Derek asking me out as good. He knows I don’t date with co-workers, or even date in general. I’ve learned that I really need to focus on myself right now, and not other people. At the same time though, I’m thirty and a divorcee. Somewhere in that handbook it’s supposed to say that my time is ticking.

Nonetheless, I said no. He wasn’t about to be the first guy I’ve gone out with in two years. Derek and I were friends though and maybe sometime in the future it would work out. Actually, that’s a lie. It would never work. Having two lawyers in a relationship would just be hell. I can barely stand being at work let alone living with one.

There was a package on my doorstep and I was very curious as to what it was. I never really got much beyond bills and junk mail, so this was quite exciting. I pick it up and unlock the door, stepping inside my large hallway. After slipping off my outer layer, I take a look at the envelope.

It was from my parents, that’s all I really knew about it. I grab my envelope opener and tear it open. It contained a large stack of papers, the top one being a letter from my mom.

Hello dear! We’ve just been cleaning out all the rooms and found some papers around yours that we didn’t know if you’d want to keep or not. So here they are! How is work going? Did you win that most recent case? Selena, you haven’t called us for like two weeks, so please do that when you get the package. Don’t forget we’ll be down the last week of August, so don’t book too many court dates that week.

Love you,

Mom

I smile and set aside the letter. The papers were a big range. Some where homework assignments, others were random awards from high school. But one specifically stuck out to me. It was a plain white page of paper that was obviously old. It was crinkled and slightly browned with age.

It brought me back to middle school, or well, the summer before freshman year at high school. It started out as the best summer of my life…and turned into the worst. But I guess that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

Thinking back I wish he didn’t affect me the way that he did. that I didn’t fall for his stupid charm. But he did and I did and in the end, I was the one left heartbroken. Though the break-up changed the lives of all four of us, not just me and not just him.

The page was simple really, it read ‘When we’re all thirty,’ in big bold letters and then had numbers. I assume Greg added the longitudes and everything since he was the geek of the group. Everyone signed the page and dated it, July 23rd, 1995.

The time capsule is something that I thought I’d never forget. We were all stupid fourteen year olds who thought it would be cool to put something like that in the ground and then open it up when we’re all old. Funny how old to us was thirty. By now I was to be married, have one kid with another on the way, and live on the outskirts of the city. Not a divorcee who lives by herself in some beach house.

I’m sure everyone else has settled down with a family. Well, Amber and Greg. I doubt James is doing anything but one night stands with women. That is and will always be James Watson.

I should know, I was one of his girls. Though I was actually his one and only girlfriend. How he played me, one of his best friends, I have yet to figure out. Though that has surely changed the relationship we’ve had. Not only did he ruin our friendship, he ruined the group. Along with that, he has affected each and every guy I date, not to mention marry. I blame him for all the bad guys I’ve ended up with. He was the one who made me feel so unloved in high school, so rejected.

Now though, I’m finally out of the abusive marriage I was once in. I’m single, and focused on my work. Not what I had in mind sixteen years ago, but life can’t always go as planned.

I take my weeks of paid vacation, figuring this was more important. If anyone in the group was going to remember let alone do something about it, then it would be me. And though I didn’t want to see his face ever again, I knew that James Watson would be the first person I’d contact. Then Amber and at last Greg. Going in a complete circle, hitting all four corners of the country.

I can’t believe it’s been sixteen years. Sixteen years since I’ve last had an actual conversation with any of them. Sixteen years since the best and worst summer of my life. Sixteen years since he screwed up my life.

Sixteen years since we thought we’d be best friends forever.