Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, are coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Scott Hildreth
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Cover art by the one and only Emily Dukat
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KELLI. I don’t think anyone should judge people for what they have done in the past. It’s easy to say that a person, based on their past, is a certain type of person that will be more apt to do certain types of things. I don’t believe that is always the case, I guess it would depend on the circumstances and the person. With Erik, I didn’t care what his past included.
What I cared about was now . Erik Ead is the first man that I have ever loved. I want him to be my last. The thought of not having Erik in my life is crushing.
The bottom of a box had opened and everything inside spilled onto the floor. Heather, when picking everything up, noticed a diary that Erik had kept. She said we sh ould look inside to see what he had done in his past.
“Just put it down, Heather. It’s Erik’s life . It’s his secrets. Put it down,” I demanded.
“I just want to look at it,” she said as she started to open the cover.
I pulled the diary from her hand.
“It’s not yours. Would you want Erik to know everything about you? Are there things you and Teddy do that you don’t want him to know?” I asked, angry.
“Sure, there’s things that aren’t anyone’s business…”
I didn’t let her finish, “Your childhood? Anything from your childhood you’d like to keep a secret?” I asked.
She raised her eyebrows.
“Okay. This isn’t for you to look at. I’m going to put it up,” I said as I turned to walk upstairs.
“You’re going to look at it, aren’t you?” she asked.
I would no more look in Erik’s diary than I would stab him in the back with a knife. Not from fear of him finding out, or from concern of what I may or may not find, but out of respect. We all have a past – every one of us. Our past allows us to be the person we are today, naturally.
Without our past, happening the way it happened, including all of the events - good and bad - we would be different people. I don’t necessarily like all of the events in my past, but I don’t know that I’d change them.
“No, I would never look inside of his things. I respect him, you know that about me,” I said as I turned to go up the stairs.
When I walked back into the kitchen, Heather was playing the drums with silverware on the island.
“Sorry, I got shitty,” I said as I walked in the kitchen.
“No problem,” she said as she looked up from her drum solo.
“What are you doing?’ I asked, laughing.
“I’m ready for them to get back here, I miss Teddy,” she said.
I smiled.
“You’ve never been happier, have you?” I asked.
She shook her head, “Nope. God I love him.”
“Not to just keep on it, but would you look in Teddy’s diary?” I asked.
“Not only hell no, but fuck no. I thought about that while you were walking upstairs,” she answered.
“Why not,” I asked, her immediate hell no surprised me.
“Because I love him,” she said.
“Well, I love Erik,” I said as I made a silly face, bobbing my head from side to side.
“I get it sis