"Beep Beep Beep!", went Travis' alarm clock. With a lazy wave of his hand, he hit the snooze button, just eager to sleep a little bit more. He didn't recall why he had even set his alarm last night, considering that it was Saturday, and he did not work weekends. Trying to fall back asleep, yet failing at it, Travis finally gave up and just sat up in his bed, still in a drowsy state. He looked to his right, looking for his faithful girlfriend, Emily, who usually was still sleeping before he woke up. The sheets on her side of the bed were undisturbed, and the small dresser where she had set some of her own things was completely barren of any sign that she had been there at all. It looked like it had when they both had moved into the apartment a year ago. Travis froze at this strange sight. "What could possibly have happened?", thought Travis. With a confused look on his face, he looked around the room. The room seemed more empty than usual. While it was true that both he and Emily didn't have much in their bedroom, it now seemed like there was even less. "Emily?" he called out the bedroom door, awaiting a response. But no response came. All was silent. "I've got to still be dreaming or something." he said to himself, hoping that he was right. Travis slowly got up off the bed, standing there in his pajamas, which consisted of a pair of shorts, and a old shirt that he barely wore in public due to its rough condition. He scratched his head of shaggy brown hair, and rubbed his dark brown eyes. He walked slowly out of the bedroom, still a bit sleepy. He glanced around the rest of the apartment. He realized something wasn't right. All of Emily's things were gone. Not a single thing left that he knew belonged to his beloved girlfriend. Travis froze, still trying to comprehend the scene in front of him.
At that moment, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. It was a piece of paper, sitting on the kitchen counter. It clearly was only a half piece of paper, considering the rip marks on the one edge of the paper. He walked over to the counter, and picked up the paper. It had something written on it in neat handwriting. Looking closer, he realized it had Emily's handwriting on it. He began reading. "Dear Travis," it said, "I can no longer be with you. As much as it hurts me to say this, I don't love you anymore, at least not like the way I used to. I know this will be hard for you to hear, and I can't begin to imagine how painful this will be for you. The spark in our relationship went out much farther back than you, or even I, ever thought it would. I did my best to make it work, and I have no doubt in my mind that you tried as well. Things just didn't work out the way we thought they would. There were nights that I just laid in our bed together, with you already passed out, thinking about us. I thought about our future together, and if we had gotten married and had kids, as well as us growing old together. But of course, reality hit me. We are both on two completely different paths in life. I wanted us to work, truly I did, but looking towards the future, I can't have a relationship in this career I am currently pursuing. I need to focus on my work, and I hope you can understand that. There were times, I will admit, that I wanted to forget that, and just stay with you. Unfortunately, we can't all just live out our dreams exactly the way we want them to. Our love and our relationship was important to me, but we both have to move on from this. I have already, and I hope you are able to as well. I won't forget the comfort and love that you gave to me, and I hope that you will not forget mine. These two years that we spent together were some of the best times of my life, but we can no longer live in the past. The past fades slowly, and the future comes quick. Those are words that I have recently come to live by. I hope you live a happy and successful life. Maybe someday we will meet again. But for now, this is the end. I have changed my number, and have left for New York. I will pursue my career there, looking for my dream job. Who knows exactly if I will find it or not? I wish you the best of luck in your future. Goodbye my love, for you are one person in my life who I will never truly forget. Love, Emily." Travis read the letter through multiple times, still having trouble comprehending this situation he was now placed in. He was alone, all alone, in the apartment where he had shared so many memories with Emily. He pulled out his phone, and called her number, still thinking that there was no possible way for this to be real. "The number you are trying to reach has been disconnected. Please hang up and try again.", said the recorded voice on Emily's line. "This can't be real.", he said to himself. He threw his phone down on the couch, and sat down beside it. Travis buried his face in his hands, thinking hard about what the letter had said. After a few minutes of deep thought, he stood up again. He walked over to the window in his apartment, and looked out to the city. His apartment was high up, so he had quite a view of the city. Looking down, he saw lights. Lights of cars in the streets, of streetlights on the corners, and the neon signs of entrances to restaurants or other businesses. He wondered if Emily was down there, just walking around, trying to find herself. When did she leave last night? Did I just miss her? Can I still catch up with her? , he thought to himself. He sighed, knowing it would be no use. She was out of his life for good now, and there was nothing he could do to change that. Turning away from the window, he sulked over to the fridge, and pulled out three beers. Closing it, he looked up on the fridge. His heart sank. Emily had forgotten something before she had left. It was a picture of the two of them held on the fridge by a magnet backed frame, happy as can be, with Travis kissing her on the cheek. He pulled the picture and the frame off the fridge, and tossed it across the room. The frame hit the wall and broke, causing the photo to fall onto the floor, face-up. Travis dragged himself over to the couch, and sat down, opened one of his beers with a bottle opener, and took a swig. The taste was as familiar as it had been to him before, when he was still with Emily, when they had shared their drinks. With Emily gone, it was his only method of comforting himself. He took another drink, savoring the taste. This was now his life of loneliness. It would not be easy to find someone like Emily again, and he knew this, from the bottom of his lonely heart. Taking another drink, this one longer than the last two, he buried his face in his hands, and cried. He cried, while taking times in between to take another drink of his only way to cope. He soon finished his first bottle, and without hesitation, he popped open another one. He dug into his pocket, looking for his phone, but found something else. It was a small box, designed to hold jewelry. He opened the lid, and there it sat. The engagement ring he had been planning to give her on their next date. With tears rolling down his face, he let the box fall out of his hand to the floor, landing on its side. He took a huge swig of his new beer, and let it clang down hard on the table, when he put it back down. After he finished his second bottle, he popped open his third. Looking at it, he said through sobbing, "Two down, many more to go.", and took a drink.
