Love Letters

“So you two aren’t dating,” Andy said, raising her eyebrows. “Does he go around kissing everybody he’s friends with?”

I laughed. “No. He just wants Roxy to be okay with it before anything happens.”

“How do you know she isn’t okay with it now?” she asked, grabbing a chip from the bowl.

“I think the fact that she was glaring the crap out of him last night explained it,” I replied. “But I’m really ticked off at Ruby. I can’t believe she told Dalton that Trey kissed me. I mean, who the hell does she think she is?”

Andy’s eyes went wide. “Wait . . . Trey hasn’t kissed you before?”

“No, why?” My jaw dropped when I realized what she was saying. “You thought so too?!”

“Well, if I didn’t know any better, then I would have guessed you guys have fooled around on multiple occasions but since I’m friends with both of you, I know that that would have slipped out by now and you would be dating or something,” she said, shaking her head. “But yeah, I figured maybe, you know . . . anyone would have assumed you two have gotten off with each other before.”

“But we haven’t!” I yelled, running my fingers through my hair. “He’s just my friend, okay?”

“Do you think that maybe he likes you, though?” Andy asked, tilting her head to the side and biting her lip. “That would be adorable.”

“It wouldn’t be adorable. He’s practically my brother, Andy,” I said. “That’s like . . . emotional incest.”

She burst out laughing. “You two are in no way related. It doesn’t even count a little but you’ve got it drilled in your head that it’s a bad idea. What if he is your special someone and Dalton is just a huge jerk?”

“Then I’m sure I’ll come to the conclusion that Trey’s meant for me . . . eventually,” I finished quickly when her eyebrows shot up and her whole being came to life. “I’m not interested in him that way and the same goes for him. We’re just friends.”

“You liked him once before,” she pointed out.

“I was like . . . eight.”

“No, you were twelve. So then you liked him twice?”

I bit my lip.

“More than twice?” she asked, her jaw dropping.

“Maybe.”

“How many times?”

“I also liked him when we were in grade nine,” I said quietly, covering my face in my hands.

“No wonder you get so highly sprung whenever he’s around Ruby.”

“I’m not jealous,” I objected.

“What did he get you for your birthday?” she asked, sitting up.

I reached across my desk and grabbed the red, velvet covered book of old poetry from the sixteen hundreds up until now from very famous poets. Trey knew I loved poetry, and I had seen this book in a story based completely on history and artifacts from decades ago, but I never would have guessed he would actually get it for me. It was an amazing gift.

“Holy crap,” Andy said, taking it from me. “Is this what I think it is?” She flipped through it quickly. “This must have cost him a fortune. Some of these look authentic.”

“I know,” I said, smiling. “I thought it was so sweet, though. He knew I had my eye on it when we went in there once but I didn’t put it down as an option for my birthday gift. Not that I don’t like it; I love it. It was just unexpected. I checked my watch. “Now, you have to get out of here before my dad gets home because I’m not allowed friends in the house without his permission and after dinner, I’m going to hang out with Trey.”

Andy smirked at me.

My face went red. “Shut up,” I mumbled, walking out of the room before she had a chance to say anything else.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Dear Anonymous,

Oh, unfair! So you can know who I am but I can’t know who you are? Can you at least give me some hints so I can figure it out myself?

My birthday was actually amazing! Even though I told my friends not to give me a party, they did but I ended up having a fantastic time. Things were awkward with my best friend’s girlfriend, though. She doesn’t like me but it’s only because of who she is dating. Having her there was unexpected because apparently people that wanted to come were invited but I didn’t see any reason for her to. After all, she made it pretty clear that I needed to spend less time with my best friend? But overall, it was great because I got to be with my friends and my family, and now I’m officially sixteen! I got to talk to my mom over the phone and she sent me a gift but I would have preferred seeing her. Although, I understand that with her job and living halfway across the country, that’s a little too much to ask. I get to see her at Christmas so that’s nice.

Are you looking forward to Halloween? Do you have any plans or are you just going to kick it at home and hand out candy to the little hellions? You should come to the haunted house at the school! I’m not sure if it will be any good or not but I’m testing it out anyway.

It’s too bad that the girl you like doesn’t know how you feel. I know what that’s like. Unrequited love sucks, huh? Are you going to tell her by the end of the school year if she doesn’t find out or realize that she loves you too? I think you should, but it’s your choice. Let me know how things progress!

-Unknown.

P.S: Thank you for the birthday wishes!

Dear Unknown,

Sorry! Can’t do that, haha. If I say anything, it’ll be obvious. Although, you should really know by now. You probably do know but you just don’t know that you know. See what I’m saying?

I’m glad to hear that your birthday was a hit! Your friends must love you a lot to go all out like that. Did that guy you like show up? Something must have happened because you were all smiley when you stepped into the classroom. That’s too bad about your best friend’s girlfriend, though. It sounds like she’s jealous of you. Maybe your best friend does have feelings for you and that’s what’s ticking her off so much; because he likes you more than her. Well, I’m sure he’ll tell you if he does.

Christmas, huh? That’s a long time to wait to see your mom but it’s better than not seeing her for a whole other year. That would probably kill me. Well, I’m glad to hear you had a good birthday! And I might end up going to the haunted house, but it’s not like you’ll know anyway, haha.

-Anonymous.

P.S: I’ve promised myself that I will tell her before Christmas.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The week was filled with drama, which was the exact opposite of what I wanted to happen. On Wednesday, Roxy had asked me to hang out with her after school and I had said yes. And then later that day at lunch, Andy asked me the exact same question. Of course, I didn’t want her to know that I was spending more time with Roxy when they hated each other so I lied and said that I had to go to the mall to get a birthday gift for a friend from years ago. Of course, there was no friend so when she asked if she could come, I excused myself to go to the bathroom and waited to get to my locker for an extra three minutes, so as not to run into her and she would just think I walked home already, then eventually leave. I felt horrible for it, but it was the only way to not hurt her. She couldn’t stand Roxy, and I knew what it felt like to have a best friend ditching you to hang out with your rival.

That was another conflict. For another week and a half, Trey kept calling off any time to hang out and spent it with Ruby. Andy, Pax or I would suggest spending time together, all four of us, but he just kept blowing us off to see her. Then, whenever she passed us in the hall, she would smirk or glare like some kind of victorious queen of evil. Pax said he was about ready to kill her. He couldn’t even get his brother to go to a movie with him and his family.

Then finally, on Thursday night, we got ticked off too much and forced him to go out with us. Of course, it was only grocery shopping so it wasn’t all that fun but it was better than nothing. We had talked to him, of course, but it wasn’t the same as seeing him in the flesh. I had told him about the problem with Andy and Roxy, and how I really didn’t know what to do because I didn’t mind being Roxy’s friend, but I didn’t want to hurt Andy by telling her that I had been lying to her for the past week and a bit.

“Well, when are you going to tell her?” Trey asked, grabbing a bag of bagels off the shelf.

“I don’t think I will,” I said, looking down at the list. “I mean, I’m sure I could work the system, just not say anything.”

Trey stopped with his arm hovering beside my head while he reached for a box of waffles, and frowned. “Karlee,” he warned. “She’s your friend. You don’t want to hurt her.”

“But by telling her, I would be,” I said, crossing my arms. “I like Roxy, I really do. But the downside of it is that not only does Andy dislike her, but wherever Roxy goes, she’s followed by a trail of drama and it’s kind of hard to tell her anything when I run the risk of it getting out to someone else.”

“Like how she told Dalton you liked him?” he asked, pushing the cart down the aisle.

“Exactly.”

Pax jumped into the cart suddenly, folded his legs and grinned. “Push me. I’m tired of helping mom look for the right tampons.”

Trey flinched, and then their mom walked up to the cart and hit Pax on the head. “Be quiet,” she said. “And get out of there.” Pax groaned and climbed out of the cart, dragging himself beside me. “Karlee, honey, sometimes I don’t understand how you can put up with these two. They’re a hassle for me as their mother. It makes me want to kill them sometimes and I only see them for about five hours a day. You spend more time with them than I do.”

“Thanks, mom. Love you too,” Trey said, smirking.

“Careful,” she warned, pointing a finger in his face. He chuckled, but kept his mouth shut after that. I laughed at her.

“I’ve gotten used to it,” I said.

She smiled and went on with her shopping.

“So how are things with you and your in-class pen pal?” Trey asked, putting his elbows down on the handle of the cart.

“Not too bad,” I replied. “He’s a really sweet guy, though. I wish I knew who he was.”

“You should ask him.”

“I did. He wouldn’t give me an answer.”

“I guess he just doesn’t want you to know,” he said. “That, or he likes playing games and wants to mess with your head. I wonder if it’s Dalton. Do you think it’s possible?”

“Of course it’s possible, but it’s also possible that it’s any other guy in the class,” I said. “I want it to be Dalton, though. That would just mean he would know really embarrassing things about what I think about him. That would just suck.”

Trey laughed. “Well, then that just means how much you care and if he minded at all, don’t you think he would have said something?”

“True.” I shrugged and grabbed a bag of chips and threw it into the cart. Trey raised his eyebrows at me.

“We’re not allowed—”

“Shh,” I said simply, holding a finger up to my lips. He smiled.

“Anything else boy-wise that you want to talk to me about?” he asked, catching up with Pax, who was groaning about the medication he had to take for his headache. He hated pills.

“Not really,” I said, trying to think of if anything had happened besides what I had already told him. “Oh, wait. Someone left me a note in my locker about a week ago telling me that I looked good in red. Andy thinks it’s my pen pal, since he knows who I am but won’t tell me who he is. I have no idea though.”

Trey paused. “Uhm—”

I put up a hand, assuming he was just going to say something about how it was creepy to leave anonymous notes in other people’s lockers, but I didn’t let him finish. “Anyway, it’s not that big of a deal. I thought it was very sweet, but I kind of wish I knew who it was. Since I don’t, it’s kind of a dead end.”

He nodded. “All right. So you’ve got two mystery guys and one confirmed beau,” he said, counting it out on his fingers as he went along. “Sounds like the exact same thing Chris went through, doesn’t it?” I thought about this. Trey had a very good point; her mystery kisser at the party, her friend over the internet and then Blade. “Wasn’t it exact same guy all three times?”

That was something I didn’t consider. If it was like history repeating itself, that meant that Dalton was the one that left the note in my locker, and my pen pal in English class.

“That would work out for you really well,” Trey pointed out. “You two are practically dating anyway.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“I’m really sorry,” Dalton apologized over the phone on Friday night. “I’m just stuck babysitting Sam’s little hellion he calls a son so I can’t leave and take you to the haunted house at school. If I had a choice in the matter, I would be out of the house before you could even blink.”

I laughed. “It’s okay. I understand,” I replied, grabbing my running shoes from my closet.

“Are you coming to the party tonight though?” he asked. “I’ve already got Roxy over, and I’m sure you can just imagine how awkward it is, seeing as we’re the only ones here. Apparently her friends ditched her and she has to wait alone for another good half an hour. I can’t say I’m surprised; she’s a bitch.” He whispered the last part.

“Need rescuing?” I slipped a shoe on.

“Yes please.”

“On my way now,” I replied, tying up the laces. “I’ll get Trey and Pax when I pass by and we’ll keep you company. Can you manage to not tear each other’s eyes out until we get there?”

“I’ll give it a shot,” he said. “We were civil at your party; I’m sure we can do it again. Although, I can’t guarantee not yelling at her a bit.”

“That’s what I classified as ‘tearing each other’s eyes out’,” I said, chuckling. “What were you thinking I was talking about?”

“I thought you were being literal.”

“Would you have actually done it?”

“Why the hell not,” he said, laughing. “I’ll see you when you get here.”

“Bye Dalton.” I hung up the phone and put my other shoe on, tying the laces and running downstairs. Luckily, Dalton wasn’t big on hosting costume parties so I didn’t have to go out and get a witch outfit or whatever else I could find, but that didn’t stop me from getting a little dressed up. I wasn’t about to turn myself into a full-fledged slut like I knew a lot of people were going to do, but there wasn’t anything wrong with putting on a bit of mascara and lip gloss, and curling my hair.

I grabbed my phone off the kitchen table and gave my dad a kiss on the cheek, telling him I would see him around ten, and left for Trey’s house. The Sun was setting a lot earlier now; it was only quarter after six and any light was hidden behind the trees, causing the sky to turn into a yellow-pink-purple combination. I knocked on Trey and Pax’s door and when it opened, Trey stood in front of me, his jaw set and his eyes sad.

“Hey,” I said. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

“Pax already left,” he said. “Were you waiting for him?”

“I was waiting for both of you,” I replied. “Why didn’t you go with him?”

“I don’t want to go to the party.”

“Why not?”

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Ruby broke up with me.”