Love Letters

“Okay, one thing I wasn’t clear on the other day is that only one person out of the two pen pals is going to be writing a letter,” Mrs. Hull said. “I mean, of course you’ll all be writing letters but on one day, the girl will and then the next day, the guy will. Understand?”

“Are you playing matchmaker or something?” Dalton asked, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. She shrugged.

“Maybe I am,” she said. “We’ve got an even amount of girls and boys in the class so maybe it’s just dumb luck. I don’t know, but it’s my classroom so you’ll be following my rules.” She walked around the room and handed the boys a black envelope and they all opened it once the received it, reading over the letter. “Now, these are the letters that I left you yesterday but I was explaining everything to you then so you didn’t get a chance to write. Now you will, so get to work.”

Roxanne Porter leaned across the aisle and tapped my hand. I looked over at her.

“What are we supposed to do while we wait for them to finish?” she asked.

“You could go crawl up your own ass and die,” someone behind me sneered.

“Shut up, Dalton,” she hissed, sending him a glare. He looked up at her, confused, and put his arms out.

“I didn’t say anything.”

She rolled her eyes and looked back at me. “It’s Karlee, right?” she asked. “You were in my calculus class last year. And we were on the soccer team together too, right?” I nodded.

“Yeah, but we've actually been in the same school since grade two,” I said, laughing. “I didn’t think you knew me.”

Her jaw dropped. "Oh God. I'm a horrible person. I am so sorry,” she said.

"It's okay."

"Are you trying out this year?”

“Possibly,” I replied. “My dad kind of wants me to focus on my studies this time around. He thought that soccer slowed me down. Apparently an eighty-five percent isn’t acceptable.”

Roxanne laughed. “Tough ship he runs,” she said. “But you were one of the best players on the team. You should definitely try out. So what do you think about this pen pal project that Mrs. Hull’s got going on? I bet it’s a plan to get people to date each other in the class. It probably doesn’t have anything at all to do with stopping any bullying.”

“That’s probably it,” I agreed.

“Anyone specific that you’d like to be exchanging letters?” she asked, winking.

“Uhm . . .” I shifted in my chair and looked at Dalton out of the corner of my eye. He was staring at me, just staring, watching, like he had been listening the entire time because he actually wanted to know. I shook my head. “No, no one in particular.”

Roxy smiled. “I’m excited to get our letters,” she said. “Although, I would really like it if some guys in the class knew how to write neatly. It’s just all over the place.”

I laughed. “Yeah, that’s true. The one I read yesterday wasn’t too bad. I don’t think I’ll have any problem understand it.”

“You’re lucky.” She frowned now. “The guy I’m writing to is obviously very poetic and everything but when it comes to the quality of his writing . . .” She shook her head. “It’d be better if I could actually read it.”

“Maybe that means you can’t read,” Dalton said. She looked at him and glared.

“Shut up.”

"Good one."

“I take it the breakup didn’t go over well,” I whispered.

“Nope,” she said loudly, enough that Dalton would hear her and purposely listen to what she was saying about them. “Because he’s a jackass.”

“I’m not a jackass,” he mumbled, sitting up straighter and crossing his arms on the desk. “I caught you kissing Dylan. Why would I want to stay with you after that?”

She scoffed. “You’ve got to be shitting me,” she said. “You didn’t give me any attention. You spent too much time with your friends and hardly ever hung out with me. I’m sorry if I liked being appreciated once in a while. Dylan likes me, which is more than I can say for you.”

Dalton rolled his eyes. “Whatever,” he growled and continued to right out his letter.

“Wow,” I breathed. “Definitely didn’t go over well.” I was surprised that Roxy had even started conversation with me and even more surprised to hear her side and Dalton’s side of why they broke up. If every class was going to be like this one, it was going to be one hell of a semester.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“I’m on Dalton’s side,” Trey said, changing the channel on the television. He was sitting on my pillows and leaning against the headboard of my bed while I lay beside him on my stomach, working on my math homework. Trey never did his homework and sometimes, I was too tired to fight with him about it that I actually ended up doing it for him. That was how bad it was.

“You are?” I asked. “I thought you hated him.”

“Why? Just because he stole my spot on the football team and made me get kicked off? Nah,” he said. I looked over my shoulder at him and raised my eyebrows. “I just think that if a girl cheats on someone, no matter what the situation, she’s not exactly deemed girlfriend material. Same goes for a guy.”

“Well obviously. No guy should be deemed ‘girlfriend’ in the first place,” I said. Trey kicked my butt and I yelped. “Was that really necessary?”

“Point is,” he began obviously, “he didn’t really do anything wrong. There are lots of guys out there that spend more time with their friends than with their girlfriend. Maybe she was just clingy and he needed space. Either way, she cheated on him so I can’t think much good of her.”

“She seems nice,” I said.

“Yeah, well nice only gets you so far.” He shifted so he was lying on his stomach beside me. “You and Dalton talked a fair amount in class today,” he pointed out. I shrugged.

“He asked me if I had a pencil sharpener and then made a couple of comments about my case and organization skills. No big deal,” I replied, biting the end of my pen while I thought over the math problem in front of me. “Why, were you watching?” I looked over at him and smirked.

He scoffed. “Not at all. I just happen to know that you’ve liked him for a really long time.”

I scoffed as well. “I don’t like him,” I objected.

Trey glared. “Karlee.”

“Trey,” I mocked.

“Whatever. You can spurn and give me the cold shoulder all you want but I don’t believe you,” he said, sitting up. “I ordered a video camera down at Eaton so I need to pick it up. They called me earlier today and said it was ready for me. Want to come?”

“Sure. I have to leave my dad a note, though. How long do you expect we’ll be gone?” I asked, closing my binder and getting off my bed.

“Well we’ve got to take the subway, walk through the mall, wait for the people to actually find the camera and then do that all over again coming home so I’d say about an hour and a half,” he replied, shoving his sleeves up his arms and then stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Do you think he’d let you out for that long?”

“Probably,” I replied. I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from my desk and wrote a quick note to my dad, explaining where I was and that I would have my phone on in case he needed to reach me somewhere. I went downstairs and left the note on the kitchen table, slipped on my shoes and waited for Trey to tie his up. “What do you even have to get the video camera for?”

“My directory course,” he replied, handing me my key. “You left it on the counter. The teacher for that class sucks, though. He pretty much just gave us a topic and said ‘go at it’. I’m thinking about transferring out if he doesn’t teach us anything within a couple weeks. It’s just pointless to be in that course if we only have ourselves to rely on.” He gave me a shove out the door once I had opened it, and followed me outside.

“Well then picking up a two hundred dollar digital camcorder is kind of pointless, isn’t it?”

“Four hundred and fifty,” he corrected. I whistled and shook my head. “And yeah, sort of, but I love making videos and this way, I can record your birthday.” He grinned and bumped his hip against mine.

“My birthday isn’t for another month and a half,” I replied, locking the door and walking down the driveway to the sidewalk with Trey catching up next to me. “You won’t be getting much use out of it if you’re only waiting to use it for that.”

“Well I’ll make other uses for it,” he replied. “But I ordered it months before school started. There’s nothing wrong with being prepared.”

“Yes, but there is something wrong with buying the video camera specifically for that class and then deciding to drop out only a few weeks in,” I said. “If he’s not teaching you much, then it’ll be an easy credit, won’t it?”

“I guess,” he said, shrugging. “But I’d rather learn.”

“You, who never does his homework,” I said, laughing. “That doesn’t fit.”

He waved a hand in the air. “Judge all you want,” he said. “I may not do my work but that doesn’t mean I don’t know anything. There’s a lot more up here than you think.” He tapped his head and smiled at me.

“Mhm,” I said doubtfully, giving him a shove. “So tell me about you and Ruby.”

“Like what?”

“How are you two doing?” I asked. “Do you two plan on hanging out together soon? I haven’t seen her around for a while.”

“Well that’s because you two are barely friends,” he said, laughing. “What do you expect? She’s in that clique, like Roxanne and Dalton.”

“So are you,” I said. “Well, sort of.”

“I’m in it by relation,” he said, shaking his head. “If it weren’t for Ruby, I wouldn’t be talking to even half of those people. They don’t like me anyways.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t swear as much as they do, I wear shirts that button all the way up and I actually respect women,” he replied. “You know what they’re like.”

“Fair enough,” I said, nodding. “If you don’t like hanging out with them at lunch, then sit with Andy, Pax and I.”

“I would but I don’t think Ruby likes it when I leave her alone at lunch.”

“You’re hardly leaving her alone. She’s got like . . . fifty best friends,” I said.

“I know, but it’s a sensitive issue, apparently.”

“All right, well then bring her too.”

Trey looked down at me, his eyebrows furrowed. “And what makes you think that she likes hanging out with you guys? She’s called you nerds on more than one occasion.”

Since Trey never lied to me and always told me when someone insulted me or made fun of who I hung out with, I didn’t doubt that Ruby had said what she did and my original impression of her went flying out the window before I even had a chance to think it over.

“Awesome,” I said. “I guess she’s not very flexible.”

Trey smirked. “In what way?”

I slapped him on the arm. “Trey!”

“I’m kidding,” he said.

“You make me wonder sometimes.”

He laughed. “Don’t worry. We haven’t gone that far yet.”

I put up a hand and shook my head. “Well I don't want to know how far you two have gone,” I said, grabbing his arms and turning him so that he knew we were at the subway station. He walked down the stairs with me walking beside him and we waited in line to get our passes.

“Is it you or Andy that doesn’t like subways?” he asked.

“Andy,” I replied. “It’s probably only because when she was five and she went to grab her dad’s hand, she grabbed some random guy’s instead and freaked out.”

“Okay, so you don’t need to hold my hand, I take it.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “No, I do not.”

“All right, we’re good then,” he said. After we had paid, stepped onto the subway platform and waited for it to arrive, it quickly sped by, whipping me in the face with my own hair. I frowned and moved it out of the way. Trey smirked.

“I hate it when that happens,” I mumbled.

“Go on,” he said, taking both of my shoulders and giving me a push on. I sat down and looked out the window as the doors closed and the subway pulled away, gradually speeding up and making a loud screeching noise every time it turned a corner. Trey was sitting beside me with one leg crossed over the other and his arms up on the back of the seat.

“Karlee,” he said, giving me a nudge. I turned to him and he nodded across the car. “Isn’t that your friend?”

I looked over at who he was talking about and saw Dalton sitting there, slouched over a book with his eyes attached to every word. He must have sensed that I was watching him because he looked up and when he caught sight of me, he smiled.

“Hey,” he said. He looked at Trey and gave him a nod that was returned quickly, but the smile disappeared. “Weston.”

“Tanner,” Trey said.

“How you doing?” Dalton asked me, closing his book and slipping it into his bag on the seat beside him.

“Good,” I replied. “You take the subway home?”

“Not usually,” he said. “I’m visiting my dad. He lives across town and I don’t get to see him too often so I’m taking the trip over.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” I said.

“Mhm. So what are you guys doing today?” he asked, leaning back and folding his arms over his chest.

“We’re just picking something up at the mall,” Trey said.

Dalton gave a slow nod. “Sounds like fun.” He looked back at me again. “Hey Karlee, what other classes do you have this semester?”

“Oh, uhm . . .” The only other time I had had a full conversation with Dalton was yesterday in the hall and now, I couldn’t even remember what classes I had. I was too focuses on his eyes, the deep hazel orbs. Trey kicked my foot as a reminder that I was still in the midst of a conversation. “Chemistry, math, philosophy and then English,” I said quickly. “What about you?”

“I’ve got co-op the first two periods, then math and English,” he replied, and shot me one killer smile. “It sucks that we don’t have more classes together.”

I swallowed hard. “Yeah, it does.”

He looked up when the breaks came on and the subway slowed down. “Well, this is my stop,” he said, standing up and grabbing his bag, hoisting it onto his back. The cars came to a complete stop and the doors opened, sending people on a stampede to get out first. “I’ll see you later, guys,” he said, getting off as well. An elderly couple replaced where he had been sitting and I looked back at Trey, who raised his eyebrows at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said, snickering and looking away. “I just wouldn’t be surprised if you two end up dating by the end of first semester.”

“What?” I repeated, only this time with a different tone to make it obvious that it was being used for another reason. “No way. He probably does this with lots of girls.”

“Well I sit with him at lunch,” he said. “Did last year and still do and even though he doesn’t really like me all that much, we still talk. But he seemed to be flirting with you and I’ve only ever seen him do that with Roxanne.” He looked back in front of him at the couple as they argued quietly over who got the last piece of the chocolate bar they had bought.

“Pfft, no way,” I exclaimed doubtfully.

Trey turned to me for a moment and smiled. “Would I lie to you?”