It had been two years after Althea's death and Ahlai dared not to read the letter that had been sent to her. She had tried to throw it away, rip it apart, shred it, burn it, but apart of her wanted to hold on. Now, it sat unopened in the carry on she brought with her. She shifted through the airport terminal.

Ahlai had felt like an idiot, allowing a person over the internet get to her without truly knowing them, but that letter was a confirmation of reality. It confirmed Althea's feelings without her ever reading it. Still, Althea was a liar. Althea had consistently told her that she would always be there for her, but now she was gone. She was gone and she wouldn't be coming back. Althea was gone. Gone.

Tears fall from her blue eyes as she remembered the text. Althea had wanted to come visit her just as she always promised. Ahlai had been too afraid to accept her visit and turned away the only person who truly understood her, the only person who could bring her out of her sorrow and just comfort her through words alone. She rejected someone so dear and that was her current reason for standing in the Boston Logan International Airport in Massachusetts. She had to make it up to her, return everything that she gave. It was beyond Ahlai of how to do this, but it was now or never.

Ahlai spotted a tall blond man holding a sign with her name on it. See had only seen pictures of William before now. He did not seem so tall in them standing next to Althea in them, but now thinking back to Althea's height, she too was an amazon compared to her. Ahlai walked toward him slowly pacing her steps, her luggage strolling behind her.

William gave her a small smile, she was surprised that he was able to do this much, and was more expecting him to be sullen and still grieving. She, after all, was still in the midst of anguish and the person who was closest to Althea in her everyday life seemed to be doing a lot better than she. However, her first assumption may have been wrong, as she got closer to him, the smile he wore stretched across his face like someone tugging at the edges of his lips. Dark circles decorated his bottom lids. 

"You must be A-l-eh?" He struggled with the pronunciation of her name making her snicker as she held back a laugh so as not to seem rude. Ahlai corrected him with a teeth clenching grin. Her eyes went to the silver band on his left finger. A tinge of jealousy riled up in her as she began to develop a bit of annoyance for him. Her attention immediately snapped back to him when he apologizes for butchering her name. She took notice of his surprise to see her with only one large suitcase and one carry on. Ahlai was a light packer and was not planning to stay too long in this country. After doing what she had to do, she was planning on leaving. 

Ahlai had contacted William in needing help on her travel, in return, he had paid off most of her expenses and offered her a place to stay, convincing her that it would be cheaper than trying to book a hotel, and easier on him to take her to where Althea was buried. She ended up agreeing. She was afraid of travelling to a new country. If not for Will, she would have been lost in this in this aimlessly looking around for Althea's grave without a clue, or would have turned back before leaving the airport. She figured Althea had to have told William about her.

Ahlai followed William allowing him to take her across the city. On the way, he tried to make small talk to make things less awkward, but Ahlai kept her answers short not wanting to do much talking. He brought her to, in her opinion, a pretty large home. She remembers that William was studying to be a surgeon. While she had not talked to Althea in years, but it was safe to assume that both had managed to reach their goals, or their parents really loved them

William showed Ahlai in and gave her a quick tour of the kitchen and where the bathroom was, not giving her time to get a good look at the pictures that littered the living room. It was a three bedroom house apparently as William kept mentioning and that she would be able to have her own room. Ahlai stopped at a particular door with an arrangement of  colored letters spelling out the name 'Elijah.' William  came to a halt when he finds that she stopped following him. "That's Eli's room. He's out with my parents over the weekend so."

Ahlai barely heard his words, too mesmerized by the door. She really had missed a lot since the day she cut Althea off. She missed it all.  "Is that so?" It was all she was able to say at the moment despite wanting to ask so many questions. So many question about everything that happened in those years that she had stopped talking to Althea. Instead, she turned away from the door and asked him where she would be staying.

William took her to her room feeling like a bellhop being evaluated on his services. Ahlai walked in gripping the strings of her carry on bag taking in the guest room. The walls were an off grey with a matching Queen sized bed. William took off to get her suitcase from the car leaving her to herself. She made note to interrogate him later on everything, especially things about him to see what kind of man she left her Althea to. She would disguise it as small talk.

Ahlai walked to the bed and placed her bag on the bed. She took notice of a small black and white desk in the corner. It did not have much on it just a few blank sheets of papers strewn over the top along with several books lined up neatly across. The sight of it took her back to the letter in her bag. She sat down on the edge of the bed and grabbed her bag, unzipping it. The letter from Althea was there plainly and staring her in the face. She turned back to the desk, then back at the letter.

Ahlai contemplated reading it. She closed her eyes and breathed. Clenching her fist until her knuckles were white, she took the letter out of the bag. She opened the envelope and took out the folded sheet inside. As she unfolded it, a charm bracelet fell onto her lap along with many more individual charms. She picked it up seeing the silver object, careful not to let the charms  on her lap fall to the floor. The sight of it made the tears well up in her eyes. Althea had told her about the charm bracelet that her father had given to her, and told her how he would give her a new charm for her birthday. She looked at the letter and finally decided to read it.

Ahlai did not make it to the end without crying. She felt guilty ignoring Althea I her time of need. Now she was left with the last memory of a text message she had sent telling her that she didn't want to speak with her anymore, just before blocking her. She could only imagine how Althea felt at that moment. She cursed herself for being a horrible friend as she read the short note at the end.

P.S. I got you a gift. For every birthday I missed before I met you and every birthday I'll miss later on. I bought as many charms as I could, but I still need to pay rent >.<  <-----That's the current face I'm making. 32 is a good though right?  I just wanted a gift that would mean something for us. My Forever Besto. ^-^<-----Totally grinning right now. Will will be totally jealous. Pfft will will. Okay, I'm done for now.

Ahlai cracked a small smile at that. She moved towards Althea's desk and began to write a out a letter. When she was little her mother would write letters and often burn them so that spirits of the dead could receive them. She never believed in it, nor any of the stuff her mother taught her. However, she held her family traditions close, not being able to throw them away. She wrote away not sleeping a wink that night.