Love Letters

Christabelle leaned down to me and gave me a tight squeeze. She was off to her third year in University with Blade now, so again, I didn’t have anyone to turn to when I had problems with my dad about boys. And it wasn’t like I was about to call Aiden up and ask him for advice. He had his own life now; he didn’t need his little sister bothering him.

Aiden had graduated from College a number of years ago and he was just starting to settle down from the crazy party life he used to lead. Now, he had a beautiful wife, Joanne, and a gorgeous baby girl he named Emery. I, on the other hand, was a single eleventh grader and my dad couldn’t have been happier. He had harassed Christabelle for years and now that I was old enough to actually be concerned about crushes and dating, he turned the attention to me. Christabelle was right when she said I was going to have one hell of a time dealing with him. I didn’t know how she managed.

“If dad bugs you, give me a call,” she said, pulling back and smiling. “I’ll give you tips on what to say. He gets angry when you act like you didn’t hear him and then he’ll leave you alone.”

I laughed and nodded. “Okay.”

Blade stepped forward and shook my dad’s hand. “Thanks for letting me spend the summer with your family, Mr. Hawthorn.”

My dad smiled. “No problem. Good to see you again, Blade.” Over the past five years, my dad had learned how to be tolerant with Blade and when they actually spent the day together—my dad was laying down some ground rules for dating his daughter and Blade was just taking it all in before guaranteeing him that he wasn’t going to hurt Chris—he began to like him. I didn’t think he felt it necessary to whip out the gun or give Christabelle pepper spray anymore. Blade was a great guy so I didn’t understand why my dad used to be so worried.

When everyone was finished saying goodbye, Aiden gave me a hug and said “good luck”—obviously referring to being on my own against my dad for the next nine months—and climbed into his car with Joanne and Emery.

“Ready to go?” my dad asked, wrapping his arm around Anne’s waist. I nodded and slipped into the backseat, putting on my seatbelt and sunglasses. I rolled down the window when Christabelle walked up to it. She took my hand.

“If you ever need anything, call me okay?” she said. “I know how stressful grade eleven can be and that’s the year dad’s the craziest over.”

“I’m not crazy,” my dad mumbled, starting the engine and looking back at us while he waited.

“That’s funny,” Anne said, patting his hand. “You not being crazy. That’s a good one.”

I smiled and shook my head. “We’ll email,” I said to Chris. “I don’t want to lose contact with you or only call when I need girl advice. You’re my sister, after all.”

She nodded and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Have fun,” she said, backing away and waving. Blade approached her and wrapped his arm around her. She leaned back into him and sent me a smile. I waved back at her and rolled up the window as my dad drove away.

“So Karlee, are you excited about grade eleven?” Anne asked. “It must be nice to know you’re almost done with school. Only two more years and then you get to make your own decisions.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’m looking forward to it,” I said, crossing my legs. “I’ll probably go to College though, so more like six more years. But it’ll be nice to have dad’s hold on me released.”

“Hey now,” my dad said, laughing. “I don’t have control over you.”

I scoffed. “Who are you kidding? You know you do.”

My cell phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out, reading over the text from my friend Trey. I had been friends with him since we were four years old and met in kindergarten after his twin brother, Pax, wrote “I eat dirt” all over his backpack and I was the first to read it. Trey’s face went bright red and he said that he didn’t eat dirt like it would make a difference and after that, we became close friends that spent a lot of time torturing Pax for all of his pranks.

You done at McGill yet? When you get back, we should hang out for a bit.

Sure thing. I’ll have to ask my dad but he probably won’t have a problem with it.

Have you cried yet?

Lol, no. I’d give it a few hours.

You’re different from Pax. When Sarah left, he cried like a baby not even fifteen minutes after.

He was ten, lmfao.

. . . Doesn’t matter. He’s such a girl.

I smiled and closed my phone, looking out the window and thinking about Chris and Blade. She was so happy with him and it made me jealous. She had really hit the jackpot because he was a really amazing guy. I knew the story about how he was the popular hottie that everyone was crazy about and they met over that website with him pretending to be someone else and then she fell for both people. It really was like a fairytale even though she constantly said she didn’t believe in them. They were just perfect for each other.

I always wondered if I was going to find someone like him or at least get a boyfriend any time soon. I hadn’t even kissed a boy yet and Pax was constantly making fun of me for that. At least I had my friend Andy to turn to. If it wasn’t for her, I would surely know absolutely nothing about boys. I would have said yes to every jerk and asshole that had asked me out. Albeit, that was only three guys—one in grade seven, one in grade nine, and one last year—but either way, she helped me out. They screwed girls over and totally weren’t worth it.

I put my elbow on the small window ledge, and my chin in my hand, sighing. My dad had Neil Diamond playing on the radio at a dull roar level, and it was music like that that made me curse myself for not bringing my own music. I had made a pact with Andy to pursue a guy this year and that was what I intended to do, but I was a little nervous that I might end up going after the wrong guy.

I didn’t want to end up with some guy that treated me like crap or thought burping in someone’s face was humorous. I wanted someone charming, someone who respected a girl, someone like Blade. I wanted that fairytale that Christabelle had.

I was taking charge this year. I was going to get my fairytale one way or another.