A Night With The Queen

Part XV

Jaimee Reed sighed and looked at her watch for the hundredth time that hour.

06:40 p.m

Time just couldn't go any slower for a heart that longs for love.

Jaimee had been sitting on her chair for the past couple of hours. She is waiting for someone  special in a very special room -- on a very special place. Her gaze drifted down on the desk and slowly, a bittersweet smile came upon her lips.

09-10-15

The writing had faded and barely left a tiny shadow of what was once a bright, bold black. It is slowly fading, leaving nothing but the soft memories that haunts Jaimee in her dreams. It brings a soft ache in her chest and a slight hitch on her breath.

Nothing much had changed on this room...

Jaimee looked around and took in her surroundings. Chairs and desks neatly organized into rows and columns, dirtied whiteboard, and the faint smell of markers that lingers still.

A long, creaky sound brought Jaimee back to the present as her head turned to direction of the door.

All those years faded away as Jaimee saw Lisa standing on the doorway. Suddenly, it's as if she was once again the sobbing, confused senior who struggled to please everyone.

Lisa felt her hands begin to get clammy. She didn't know why she came to see Jaimee. She swore she would never put herself in a vulnerable position before the Queen. But once she read the card, she knew she had to.

"You're early," breathlessly, Jaimee muttered. It was the first thing that came to her mind that she can actually say. Oh how pathetic would she be if she started mumbling 'I love you's and 'I miss you's. So she continued, "-But you came."

Lisa just stared the the taller blonde. She entered the room and walked closer to Jaimee --with a good 2-feet distance between them.

"You have 15 minutes," said Lisa coldly, "Use it wisely."

Jaimee visibly gulped. She had practiced what she was going to say to Lisa. She did. But once she caught glimpse of Lisa's dark brown eyes, her brain just went haywire.

"I-I... Uh. I want to-... I'm sorry," Jaimee somehow mumbled. "F-first of all, I want to apologize. For every wrong I have done."

Lisa averted her gaze and scoffed, as if telling Jaimee that 'You should be!'

Jaimee continued. "But I want you to know that I love you, Lisa Anderson-Hallin. I've loved you for quite some time now," she let a nervous chuckle out. "All these years, you've been in my heart. Only you."

Lisa was about to say something when Jaimee lifted a hand up and put a finger on Lisa's lips. It hurt her to think that those lips doesn't belong to her -- not anymore.

"Hear me out first. I studied in Julliard, Lisa. My parents paid for my first semester, but the rest I had to work to afford. I kept three jobs to support myself because I also didn't have much of an allowance -- with mother cutting 90% of it and freezing all my bank accounts," Jaimee explained, her eyes searching for a sliver of something in Lisa's eyes.

"And no, although my father wanted to rule against my mother's decision, I told him to let me handle things. I wanted to prove that I'm serious about you. And I wanted to prove myself to you too. And so I applied for scholarships, worked, and after four and a half years, I graduated. I was so happy, Lisa," Jaimee's eyes brimmed with tears. However, Lisa felt like every word that Jaimee uttered added to her guilt.

"I'm sorry I didn't write. Or contact you. I tried, Lisa. I did. But every time I try to pick up a pen, I break down. Because as much as the memory of you gives me strength, it's also the reason that I am weak," Jaimee wiped her tears away and put a small smile on her face. "It's quite amusing, isn't it?"