Love Letters

For the next few weeks, things got better and better with Anonymous, as well as Dalton. The only problem with that relationship was that every time we made plans, just the two of us, Ruby somehow found out about it and requested time alone with him. It was like he was her babysitter and even though sometimes he could turn her down, other times she would get all "emotional" and then he had to turn me down. It was like she was trying to ruin every relationship I had with a guy because when I asked Trey to hang out, she always seemed to have asked him already. I hadn't hung out with him or had an in-person conversation that lasted longer than ten minutes, ever since the talk in his bedroom. I hadn’t seen him in weeks.

"This sucks," I grumbled, wrapping my arms around my pillow on Saturday afternoon. "We hardly ever see each other anymore."

Dalton laid beside me, working on some homework for his math class. He looked up when I spoke and put his head down on the comforter. "I'm really sorry," he said. "I swear, I won't ditch you again. You're my girlfriend and that's what Ruby has Trey for, you know? She needs to learn how to turn to him from now on."

I wanted to ask him what he said on the tape to make Trey so frustrated, but I didn't bother. What Trey had said really got to me and it wasn't my business, so I was just going to drop it.

Dalton pushed hair back away from my face. "You're not angry at me, are you?" he asked.

"No, it's not your fault that she needs your constant attention," I said. He smiled.

“Well, I’ve been kind of stupid for actually going with her,” he said, shaking his head. “I won’t do it anymore. I feel really bad for Trey. He must think I’m, like . . . stealing his girlfriend away from him. Oh well, I’ll apologize to him too.” He kissed me quickly and then rolled over onto his back, staring at the ceiling. “So you need to give me some ideas for your Christmas gift.”

“Christmas is almost a month away though,” I said. “You don’t have to get me anything.”

“I want to. And a card isn’t a gift. That’s just something to settle for when you can’t think of anything or just don’t want to give that person something with real pizzazz.”

“It doesn’t have to be anything glamorous,” I laughed. “Just a gift card is fine.”

He frowned. “That’s so impersonal.”

“Well would you rather get me an impersonal gift that I asked for or something that I might end up hating?”

He paused. “Touché.”

I nodded and propped myself up on my stomach by my elbows. “What about you? What do you want for Christmas?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he replied and shot me a smile. “I don’t like it when people get me gifts.”

“But—”

He cut me off by kissing me hard on the mouth. I laughed against him and gave a light push against his chest. “Is your dad home?” he asked. I shook my head.

“That’s why I haven’t been yelled at for my door being closed,” I replied, nodding to it. “If he was here, he’d be all over our asses about it.”

“You just put a really disturbing image into my head,” he groaned, and rubbed his eyes. He put his hand on the back of my neck and leaned over me, kissing me again. One thing I had noticed about Dalton was that he was a very physical being. He was good with talking, of course, but he seemed to like the idea of doing other things more. I was pretty sure he was aware that I wasn’t one hundred percent comfortable doing this kind of stuff, and he didn’t exactly force himself on me since I didn’t object, but after a while, I had to tell him to stop. I didn’t know if he was like this with Roxy either, but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy it . . . but only up to a certain point.

It was a good thirty minutes later that I realized our lips were still attached but when I felt his hips press against mine and his hands snake down to my pant line, my eyes shot opened and I put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a light nudge to stop.

“You okay?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Do you want me to stop?” he asked seriously.

“Uhm . . .”

“You’re a . . .” He stopped for a second and cleared his throat, not sure what to say.

“Yeah,” I said quickly, because I knew what he was getting at. “You’re not?”

“I am,” he replied. “I just wasn’t sure about you. I don’t want to pressure you or anything, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to.”

“Oh.” Now I was uncomfortable. His eyes went wide and he put a hand up.

“Wait, that came out wrong,” he said. “What I mean is . . . well . . . every teenage guy our age wants to, you know? I didn’t mean to say that that’s what I expect from this relationship.”

I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding. Suddenly, the door slammed from downstairs and I sat up. “Oh crap. That’s my dad,” I said, looking at my alarm clock. “He’s home an hour early.”

“Shit,” Dalton swore, standing up and swinging the door opened. I stared at him from the bed, curious. “For good measure,” he replied with a shrug. I grabbed my math textbook and opened it, pretending to be engrossed in the seven different parabolas laid out in front of me. My dad stepped upstairs and glanced in the room, but had to glare at Dalton before he spoke.

“What’re you guys up to?” he asked.

“Studying,” I replied, holding up the textbook. “You’re home early.”

“I wanted to check on you,” he said, eyeing us both up suspiciously. “Aren’t you going to Roxy’s house tonight for some sleepover or something?”

“Not for another two hours,” I replied.

“Speaking of which, I kind of lost track of the time,” Dalton said awkwardly, shoving his binder in his backpack beside my bed. “I should probably get going before I get yelled at.”

“By my dad?” I asked, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye. He put his hands up and left the room.

“By my mom,” Dalton replied, laughing.

“But—”

He leaned across the bed and kissed me one last time. “I’ll call you,” he said quickly, swung his backpack on and raced out of the room.



“I’m bored with this game,” Roxy sighed, flipping through the channels on the television in her bedroom while her other friends sat on the ground playing Truth or Dare for mild amusement and the two of us hung out on her bed, eating popcorn out of a bowl and trying to find something else to watch other than The Wiggles.

Unfortunately there was very little to watch at this time, so we forced ourselves to get through it, ignoring the other girls sitting on her floor. That was, until the show ended and then they got our attention.

“Karlee, it’s your turn,” one of them said. “Truth or dare?”

I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. You choose for me.”

“Give her a dare,” Ruby said, and smirked. She opened her mouth to drop one on me, but she got cut off.

“I dare you to kiss Trey!”

My jaw dropped, as did Ruby’s and Roxy’s.

“What?! I can’t do that!” I declined loudly, shaking my head.

“Too late! It’s finalized! You have to and you only get two weeks to do it or you’ll have to face the consequences,” a girl said, giggling.

“And what are the consequences?” I asked shakily.

“You don’t want to know,” she replied.

“And you have to kiss him on the mouth,” another girl added. I glanced at Roxy for some help but she was still to flabbergasted to say anything. Then when she finally managed to compose herself, she looked at me sympathetically and shook her head.

“Once a dare’s set, you can’t turn it down,” she apologized.

My knees went weak.

What now?



“You’ve got to kiss Trey?” Andy asked, gaping at me as I worked on my locker combination. I nodded and opened it.

“I can’t do it,” I objected.

“Well you’ve kissed him on the cheek before,” she said. “Can’t you just do it again?”

“Has to be the mouth,” I replied, my face flushed deep red. I noticed another note sitting at the bottom of my locker and I picked it up.

"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true".

My eyes went wide.

“Are you okay?” Andy asked, glancing over my shoulder. “Did the guy leave you another note?”

“Yeah,” I said, handing it to her. She read it over and then looked back up at me.

"I don't understand. What is this?" she asked.

"It's a quote from The Scarlet Letter. You know that's my favourite book."

"Yes, of course. All of your friends do. So what deos it mean?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. It looks like symbolism to me," I said.

She smirked. "I think you've spent too much time analyzing literature in English class."

"No, I'm serious. Come on. Read it over." She looked at the note again, her eyes sweeping each word extra carefully this time around. "Doesn't it sound like this guy is trying to hint at another identity? It's like he's saying he knows me, but not just through these letters. I know this guy, Andy. I know I do."

Andy paused and looked over her shoulder to Trey, who was standing down the hall talking with Pax and Roxy. Was this Trey’s doing? Had Roxy tipped him off for some type of practical joke or was she the one that did it, and put the note in there to spur me on to kiss Trey, since I had told her he was the only one willing to read the book after I had suggested it?

“This is really misleading,” Andy said, looking back at it. “I'm so confused. Only you or Trey could ever quote that book word for word. No one else cares enough.”

“I know. That's what I'm saying, but if it’s someone else and they’re just teasing me, it’s very unfair,” I argued, grabbing my binder and slamming my locker shut.

“Well do you think it is?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, “but I’m going to find out.”



“Here’s your last project of the term,” Mrs. Hull said, sitting back on her desk and crossing her arms. “You’ve each been given a box on top of your desk. Pretty roomy, right? Well for the next few weeks until Christmas break, you’re going to brainstorm things that are the most important to you, what matters the most, and put them in this box. If it’s a blanket from your birth, great. If it’s a picture of your childhood friend, awesome. Put it in and you’re going to write an essay about why you put them in.”

“What’s the point of this project?” a boy across the room asked. “It doesn’t have anything to do with our novel study or the English curriculum.”

“Yes it does,” she argued. “Throughout the book, Holden’s trying to understand why he is the way he is, what things have affected the things he does and how he acts. Well, by making this ‘box of memories’ we’ll call it, you’re condensing your life into its important attributes and it will hopefully give you an idea of why you’ve each ended up being the people you are. If you don’t want to do it, then fine but I can’t guarantee you’ll pass the course. It’s with fifteen percent of your finally mark and I’ll give you a big fat zero if you refuse to cooperate.”

The boy shut up immediately.

She nodded. “Good. Now get to brainstorming. You have the period to do so and then I’ll pass out your letters.”

The classroom was filled with chatter now as people discussed their ideas. I turned to Trey and slammed my hand on his desk. He jumped and looked over at me.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“That depends. Are you the one that left that note in my locker?” I asked, frowning. He looked confused.

“I didn’t do anything,” he objected. “What note are you talking about?”

“Someone left me a quote from The Scarlet Letter and there are only a select few people that actually know just how much I love it,” I said. “You didn’t write it?”

He shook his head. “Did you ever consider that it was your boyfriend?” he asked, raising his eyebrows and nodding to Dalton.

“No, because I hadn’t told him about it,” I said. Trey shrugged.

“Well then I guess you’ve got a secret admirer,” he replied, turning back around.

“I’m not finished with you yet,” I said, tapping my finger impatiently on his binder. I wanted to ask him what had made him so busy that he couldn’t give Andy or me a call, or even spend time with his own brother. “Why haven’t you hung out with us lately? We’ve given you like five billion offers and you’ve turned us down every time. I understand that you’re trying to make your girlfriend happy and everything, but this whole ‘ditching your friends’ thing is getting old. I was on your side. They were upset with you and they still are and I defended you but I’m getting kind of tired of saving your butt.”

He looked stunned, and then his eyes flicked over to Dalton. I practically hissed at him. “I get that you don’t like him but we’ve invited you to spend time with us even when he wasn’t around,” I seethed angrily. “Are you ever going to hang out with your friends again?”

“I’m trying to make Ruby happy,” Trey replied, lowering his voice so this didn’t turn into an argument that everyone in the class was listening into. “I don’t want to screw this up again. She means a lot to me and I’m not willing to mess up our relationship when my spending time with her could be the last thing that keeps us together.”

I wanted to scream at him. How could he be crazy about someone who was so evil and making it obvious that she wanted to ruin the lives of all of his friends? She had crushed him, after all. I didn’t understand how he could go running back to her after that. When I didn’t reply immediately and just continued to stare at him with fire in my eyes, he sighed and shook his head.

“Look . . . there’s this exhibit that I really want to go to on Friday at the museum downtown,” Trey said, turning in his chair to face me full-on. “It’s based on old European artifacts from thousands of years ago and it’s only on for one night. I was going to take Ruby but I doubt she would be interested and she’d probably just end up getting frustrated and leaving in the middle of it. I’d really like it if you came with me.”

“Really?”

He nodded. I didn’t particularly take an interest in old pieces of history but if it meant finally spending some time with Trey, then I was up for anything.

“I’d love to,” I said enthusiastically, nodding my head like a bobble head. He smiled.

“Awesome. And wear a dress. It’s formal,” he said, winking. I laughed and turned back to my work, making a list of things to put in my box.

At least I would get to see my best friend again, but one thing I had forgotten for those few moments was that in two week's time, I had to cheat on my boyfriend, and kiss the best guy I had ever known.