Twelve

Past.

Before she left that Monday, Nadine had allowed Courtney to write letters to each of her friends before she left, as a goodbye. The letters to her friends had each been at least five pages long, but the one to Duncan was 32 pages. Courtney handed the letters to her mother before she left, and with tears streaming down her face, she got into the taxi which would take her to the boarding school.

Her mother had already told her it was a strict school, and she would only have access to the phones on weekends and only to call parents (which was pointless since they soon moved to join her in the town), so she was going to have to rely on writing to keep in contact with her friends.

Heather and Bridgette wrote back within the first week, but it took Courtney three months of waiting to realise Duncan never would. She wondered if he'd already moved on so quickly, but she couldn't bring herself to ask any questions about it to Heather and Bridgette. The last thing she wanted anyone to think was that she was waiting around for some boy who didn't love her anymore.

Present Day.

She had only stayed one night in her motel and already Courtney felt like returning home. But to what? she thought. An empty house and the reminder that my husband doesn't love me anymore.

It was her fourth day on leave and her first real day in her home town, the first chance she got to look around. She knew the first thing she should have done was to write down her grievances and burn them at her childhood home, but she couldn't bring herself to remember them and to write them down. That would be too real for her.

Instead she decided to wander around the town. She visited a cute little cafe for lunch that hadn't been there when she was in school. She visited the park and asked the locals what was something touristy she could do while there, but really the only tourist attraction was hiking in the nearby mountains, which didn't really appeal to her. It never had when she lived there either.

She hadn't gone there expecting much in the way of shopping, but as she walked up and down the main streets she found a lot more than she was expecting, and the backseat of her car was full of bags by the end of it. It was surprisingly pleasing despite the fact that she normally hated shopping for fun and found it impractical. Or maybe that was just yet another thing her mother had conditioned her to think, and she had never bothered to question it since it seemed so logical at the time.

After wasting the whole day sight-seeing and shopping, Courtney decided it was finally time to do what she had come there to do. She found a pen and piece of paper in the glove box of her car and wrote down the one thing that had constantly nagged at the back of her mind since the day she left: Duncan.

Luckily she had a lighter on her, something her grievance had always taught her to carry around. She burned the piece of paper at the front of her old home, and closed her eyes, hoping it would help her let go of some of the weight she had on her. Nothing happened.

"Are you happy?" she whispered angrily to the sky. "Nothing happened. I'm here, I did what you said, and I still feel exactly the same."

Annoyed at the failure from her task, Courtney went and sat in her car. She needed a drink, but she didn't really know any bars in the area and didn't really feel like being hit on by strangers anyway. There was only one place she could think of to go, but she was almost certain it would have shut since the last time she was there. She decided to go anyway, even if just to see what had happened to the place now.

The other side of town had barely changed, unlike the popular side, which was unusual, since this side was the one that Courtney had thought needed the most improvement. But as she pulled up in front of Lazy Joe's, with the same flashing neon light, she was glad it was the same. She couldn't remember the last time something had felt familiar to her.

Courtney walked in to the familiar 50's-themed diner and breathed in the air. It was just as she remembered it. She looked around the place, noticing that the wall still had many pictures of her and Duncan from when they were dating and had gone there almost every day after school. She smiled at the one of them at the dance, the first picture Joe had ever taken of them together. Still looking around, she sat down at the same booth her and Duncan had sat at so many times before.

A waitress soon walked over to Courtney to take her order. It didn't take long, since as usual the place was almost empty. Courtney was surprised it had managed to stay open for so long, but she supposed Joe always had his regulars to keep him open.

"Where's Joe?" Courtney asked the waitress. He was always there every night waiting tables, and she couldn't see him anywhere.

"How long has it been since you came here?" the waitress wondered, furrowing her brow in concern. "Joe died two years ago. He had a heart attack and left this place to one of his favourite waitresses. Her son owns the place now."

Courtney's face fell when she heard this. She stared down at the table wide-eyed, realising that she must have missed so much in the years that she'd been away. She'd gone and had this successful life and she'd forgotten that everyone here had had their own life.

"So can I get you something?" the waitress asked. Courtney furrowed her brow, still thinking about everything that had happened.

"Just a coffee thanks," she replied, looking up and smiling at the waitress. It was at that moment that the waitress seemed to recognise her.

"Oh my god," she whispered. "You're that girl!"

"Excuse me?" Courtney asked, affronted. The waitress was practically bouncing up and down with excitement.

"The girl whose pictures are all over the wall!" She ran out the back excitedly, and Courtney hoped this didn't mean too much of a delay on that coffee. She was really needing it right now.

A minute later the waitress ran back out, followed by a man. It didn't take long for Courtney to recognise him. The green was gone from his hair and it was no longer styled into a mohawk, but there was no way she could forget his face. As he saw her, she could see him go into shock. She knew he couldn't believe she was back here, after all this time had passed.

"Courtney?" Duncan asked. She nodded slowly, just as shocked as he was.