Shoebox Full of Wooden Letters

“Let’s do something,” Kyle mumbled leaning against me. “We’ve been watching television for over and hour now Oli.”

I nodded slightly. “Let’s play Scrabble,” I said smiling slightly.

“That’s a bor-“ I stopped Kyle before he could say that the game was boring.

“Let me finish,” I said holding my pale boney index finger to his lips. “Now, my Scrabble is different from the normal game. You can only put down words that describe you or the other person that you are play with, which is me. Then, you have to explain why you put down that word; it could even be as simple as it being your favorite color or something like that.”

Kyle nodded. “Okay, I’ll try it.” He agreed. “Maybe I’ll learn some new things about you Oliver.”

I smiled and stood up off the couch. “I’ll be right back,” I told Kyle as I raced upstairs to my room.

As I opened my closet I grabbed the semi-new Scrabble board. Then I reached up to the top of my closet pulling down the shoebox that was filled with wooden Scrabble letters. Shaking it slightly I smiled as the noise of the wooden letters hit each other.

I’d acquired lots of game letters. We went through a lot of Scrabble boards, my older brother never had much luck when he use to play and use to throw the board, we went through a lot of them because of him, and so yeah… the letters survived the boards never did. Though, my version of Scrabble required more letters so these extra letters were good.

I moved down the stairs again and quickly into the living room where Kyle waited for me.

“Okay, so you play this version a little differently than the normal version. Instead of the seven letters you get to spell out words, in mine you get fourteen since it’s more complicated to come up with words when they have to have words to describe you our the other people you are playing with.

Kyle nodded, “I think I understand what’s going on.”

I nodded back to him placing the Scrabble board on the coffee table and then tossing pillows onto the floor so we could sit on them when we play Scrabble. Then I sat the shoebox of letters down and smiled.

Kyle looked at me astounded at how many letters I had, but he didn’t say anything and I just giggled slightly.

“Draw fourteen letters, no peeking, and put them on your little stands,” I smiled starting to take my own letters out of the box.

i, m, g, l, a, s, y, f, u, e, b, n, o, s

Well, I knew my first word.

“Oh, one more thing. You don’t play for points, you play just to learn about others,” I smiled at the other male.

Kyle nodded looking at his letters. I suspect that he was trying to figure out what he was going to put down.

“I’ll go first,” I spoke up laying down my letters.

g-a-y

“That one is a little obvious. I’m gay. I like boys, and I’m proud of it!” I laughed as I said it drawing three more letters to fill the empty spaces on my little stand things.

i, m, l, s, f, u, e, b, n, o, s, r, d, i

Kyle watched me and then looked at his letters again. He used the ‘a’ in my word to help spell out his.

c-a-k-e

I giggled as he put that down.

Kyle smiled wide before speaking. “What can I say? I like cake,” he said shrugging a little bit.

“I know. You really like chocolate cake which is why I never can bring cupcakes I make with me to school, because you always take them from me, and eat them.”

He just shrugged and looked at me after drawing three more letters from the shoebox.

r-e-d

“Red is my second favorite color next to sea green, and it is also your least favorite color,” I explained softly.

i, m, l, s, f, u, b, n, o, s, h, i, e, r

Three more letters

s-e-x-y

Kyle busted up laughing. “That word is for the both of us,” he laughed making me laugh also.

I looked at the word sexy then looked at Kyle. I couldn’t help but agree that he fit with that word. I’d already said that I was gay, Kyle was bi, I knew that, but I was 100% that he didn’t know that I had a crush on him.

s-h-o-e-s

“I’ve got like twenty pairs of shoes, but only wear like two pairs of them.” I shrugged a little bit.

“Yeah, I wish you didn’t have such small feet, or I’d be stealing your shoes all the time they are pretty freaking amazing.” He laughed thinking about it.

“Oh, I’m so sorry that I have abnormally small feet for a guy,” I said laughing.

“You should be.” He spoke making me roll my eyes.

i, m, l, f, u, b, n, i, r, y, e , u, v, w

More letters, and I was getting closer to what I wanted to spell out to Kyle now, but I didn’t know how soon it was going to work out. Also, I wasn’t exactly sure I wanted to tell him this.

u-m-b-r-e-l-l-a

“Weird word much?” I asked him raising an eyebrow.

“What, they are amazing. You can take adorable pictures with umbrellas; they keep the rain off you, though I’m not sure why people use them for that because rain is fun. Plus, that song ‘Umbrella’ by Rihanna. Yeah, it’s pretty amazing too.” Kyle explained to me making his point.

“Okay, okay I understand now love,” I laughed a little bit.

f-i-e-r-y

“That you are,” Kyle said as I laid down the letters of that word.

“So are you.” I said smiling at him.

He just shrugged slightly. “True, true.” He agreed.

m, l, u, b, n, i, u, v, w, u, s, e, s, y

I took a deep breath. Almost all my letters for what I wanted to say was there, one more time and I was pretty sure that I’d get it.

t-h-u-n-d-e-r

“I scared to death of it,” he said blushing slightly.

I grinned reaching over and touching his flushed cheek with a grin. “Is that you call me every time that it storms?”

Kyle nodded. “You keep me occupied,” he said.

I smiled. “You’re adorable,” I spoke softly to him.

He giggled a little bit as he dug his hand into the box drawing more letters from it.

m-e-s-s-y

“Let’s face it,” I started. “I eat like kindergartner.”

“Especially when you eat spaghetti,” Kyle said.

“Yes, I probably get more on my face that I get in my mouth.” I laughed knowing that it was 100% true.

l, u, b, n, i, u, v, w, u, o, e, o, y

All the letters were there.

d-r-u-m-s

“I am the most fantabulous drum player ever.” Kyle joked a little bit as he said it.

“Sure ya are Kyle,” I laughed.

Kyle frowned a fake frown at me. “Shut your face Oli.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” I said causing the both of us to laugh a little bit.

Kyle began drawing more letters, and I started to lay down the biggest secret I had all jumbled up inside of me.

i-l-o-v-e-y-o-u

I placed all the letters down then looked at Kyle who was staring at them.

It was silence which was what I was worried about. Carefully I stood up off the floor walking away from the coffee table. I’d just made a huge fool of myself in front of Kyle. As I walked away a few tears started forming in my eyes as I heard a little bit of rustling in that shoebox. Hundreds of wooden letters hitting against each other. What in the world was he looking for?

“Oliver!” Kyle called.

I stopped blinking back more tears. “What?”

“Please come here,” he said softly.

I began walking back. “What Kyle? I just screwed up what?”

Kyle shook his head. “Look,” he muttered pointing to where I’d put down I love you.

I gasped at what Kyle had decided to add.

i-l-o-v-e-y-o-u-t-o-o

“You… I, you… what?” I stuttered.

Kyle giggled a little bit at me before speaking. “I love you too.”

I bit down on my lip turning to face him. Carefully I reached forward taking Kyle’s hand and pulling him to me. I stared at him for a moment before kissing his amazing lips.

As I pulled back Kyle grinned.

“Who knew,” he said.

“Hmm?” I asked tilting my head to the side wondering what he meant.

“Who knew that Scrabble could be so amazing,” he replied kissing me again.