PS- I Love You

Dear Holden Caulfield,
I must say I dearly respect you because of your name. The Catcher in the Rye happens to be one of my-

The paper was torn out of my hands by Jase. He started reading it aloud.

"Hey! Give that bad, you asshole!" I made a grab for the letter but he swept it out of my reach. So I jumped at him, slamming him against the lockers and elbowing him in the side. He groaned and loosened his grip so I could get it back. I quickly stuffed it in my backpack so I wouldn't have to go through that again, since Jase was sure to try again. He always took stuff away from me to tease me. It was our little game.

"You didn't have to hit that hard," he complained now and I huffed.

"You didn't have to take my letter." With that we made our way out of the school and toward our homes. I had had English as my last class and the teacher had handed out the letters only a minute before the bell rang. I hadn't had time to read it yet and my hands were itching to take it out. It had had an interesting beginning. I smiled. Now I knew that I had a pen-pal with a good taste. In books that is.

Jase was saying something about me coming straight to his and playing some new game on his X-Box together but I wasn't really listening. I wanted to read the letter and I had to come up with something to write back. I wasn't good at writing letters so I knew it would take a while. But I had to finish it today. We had to give the letter to our teacher before school started. What an asshole of a teacher. Made us get up and come to school earlier.

"Sorry, Jase. I promised my mother to spend a day with Kailie," I told him. I had. But that day wouldn't be today. I would just let Jase think that. I somehow didn't want to tell him that I was going to sit and write the letter the whole day. It was embarrassing. He groaned.

"Can't you spend the day with her after tomorrow, when I have training?" he whined.

"Sorry, no can do." That had actually been my plan but he didn't have to know that. We had reached my house now and I started walking up the driveway, hoping to get away from Jase quickly.

"You need to stop promising such stupid things!" he called after me, continuing to walk down the street toward his own home. I just grinned and waved at him before opening the door and going in.

"Caleb!" I jumped as my mother suddenly appeared in front of me. Where had she come from so suddenly? I closed the door behind me slowly as she crossed her arms in front of me.

"What did I tell you yesterday?" she demanded, ignoring Kailie when she came scampering up, pulling at her sleeve.

"Hey, Cay," she greeted me before continuing to call: "Mommy, mommy!" I scratched the back of my neck, trying desperately to remember what she was talking about. I was in trouble I knew that. Probably because I hadn't done something she had told me to.

"Uh…umm, I forgot…" I mumbled, looking at the floor.

"I told you to clean your room! I can't believe I still have to remind you ten time to do that until you actually make a move. You should be old enough to realize it yourself. Even Kailie, who is 7 years younger than you takes better care of her stuff. You complain to me about not washing your favorite shirts but I can't even get into your room to take them. When are you going to become at least a bit more responsible?" my mother ranted, while I stood there helplessly.

"I'm a teen, mom. What do you expect?" was all I had to offer as an answer, which intensified her glare.

"Well, let's see if grounding you for a week might help," she said and turned to Kailie, walking away. My mouth fell open. "What?" I called after her but the two of them just disappeared. I'm grounded? For a week? Just because I didn't clean my room?!

I kicked off my shoes and stormed up the stairs in a huff. My room was all the way at the end of the hallway so when I slammed my door shut I doubt they heard it. In a way mom was right though. My room was just a plain mess. But that was just because Jase and I had done this movie marathon thing last week and our pillow fight ended up going a bit out of hand. Yeah, there's my excuse. Something that happened a week ago… I guess I had no right to complain.

But that didn't mean I had to start cleaning up right away. I felt like finishing reading the letter first. So I got it out of my backpack and threw that into the corner before letting myself fall on my bed. The letter made me grin. So, now I knew that my pen pal was in the grade above me and was a guy. I also knew that he liked to read. Because which guy who didn't read knew about The Catcher In The Rye?

Anyway, this promised to be interesting. I grabbed the nearest paper and pen and started writing back.

Dear Indigo Montoya,
I agree with you, this project is very intresting. And its come in handy since I'm grounded. Isn't it awful how parents can be so -

I paused. What should I write? So mean? So selfish? So controlling? What if his parents weren't that way? Then he would immediately disagree and think I'm a rebelling punk or something. Which wasn't that wrong actually… I decided to just keep on writing. If he didn't like me, that was his problem. He still had to write to me or get a bad grade for this project. And I wasn't going to pretend being someone else just for some other person I didn't even know.

-cruel? All I did is not clean up my room.

(I left out the fact that I didn't clean it for a week though. He doesn't have to know I'm that messy.)

Plus my mother compared me with my little sister right away. She's an annoying little brat. Always has to be the center of attention. Not that that's always a bad thing. I enjoy making a fuss in school sometimes. Yeah, I am kind of a rebel. But where would the fun be without rebellion? Anyway, you can't just let people walk all over you and bow your head like a dog. If I would've done that I would've become a victim of bullying cause people are still very unaccepting

(I know that this is not a real word, my teachers keep reminding me, but that's exactly why I was using it

) if your orientation is anything other than straight. I'm bi and proud of it. I've made that clear to everyone that tried to mess with me and it has worked. I'm a known rebel in my grade. I hope that doesn't tell you who I am straight away. That would ruin the fun of mystery. But you shouldn't know me. The schools to big for that. I sound very selfish don't I? Most of my sentences start with an I. Oh, well, this letter is as random as it gets. And I'll keep it that way. Once again: Where would the fun be otherwise? Life would be boring without fun. Isn't that what life is about? Enjoying yourself? Wait, this is getting to complicated for me. Philosophy is not my thing. Free time is. What do you do in your free time? I like to hang out at the skate park with Jase. He's my best mate. He's more into video games than skateboarding though so I always beat him in skating. He's also the reason why I got grounded. My room wouldn't have gotten this messy if-

"Caden?" My door opened and I looked up to see my mom peeking in. "What are you doing?" she asked suspiciously. "It's too quiet."

"Homework," I replied with a sweet smile, making my mother even more confused. She just closed the door and walked away with that weird expression glued to her face. I couldn't help but grin. She had probably though I had snuck out again. I tended to do that sometimes. I got bored easily.

-he hadn't come over. But where would the fun be without meeting up with your friends?

(Did I use that phrase too many times? Oh well, I'm not changing anything.)

I think I'm going to stop now. I've never written this much. My hand hurts.


That had beens easier than I had thought.