Accidental Penpal

Dear Kendal,

First of all, I think I should tell you that this isn’t York writing. It’s Aaron. I know it’s been two months since you last heard from him, but let me explain. Please don’t throw this letter away without reading all of it. Please don’t hate York for not answering back. I have to confess that I read your letters that you wrote and I know how much you’re hurting right now and with everything that you’ve said I know that you wanted York to answer you back, but I swear, there is an explanation. Please just continue reading.

I won’t go into much detail, since you probably don’t want to hear about all of it and I really can’t tell you, but I’ll tell you the basics.

After York sent his last letter to you, the next day our CO came and told us we have a new mission. It wasn’t that big of a deal. We had gone on one similar to it before so we knew what to do. And York (who is the leader of our special ops team if he didn’t tell you) got us prepared, came up with a fool proof plan, and we honestly thought that everything was going to be fine. Honestly.

Little did we know that we were going to get ambushed and nearly get the whole team killed. We didn’t see it coming. York didn’t see it coming. And he’s our leader for a reason. He’s always on his toes, always looking out for the rest of the team, and is always always able to sniff out a set up. But for some reason the enemy was two steps ahead of us.

Anyway, sorry for stalling. So we arrived at the area we were going to attack and then everything just seemed to go horribly wrong. The first shot was just a warning shot then it seemed the whole world erupted into an explosion. Bullets and shrapnel were flying everywhere. Everyone was yelling and York was trying to yell out orders.

We fought back (of course we did, if we hadn’t it would have just been a waste of time) and we did ok defending ourselves. In the middle of it all, I just happened to look in York’s direction just as something I’ve never seen before came flying towards one of the other men in our unit. York yelled to warn him but he just stood there, frozen in place. And York being the heroic (and slightly mental) person that he is forgot what he was doing and ran for the other man.

He was able to get there in time and shoved the man down to the ground as whatever it was flew over them and impacted into the building that was behind them. Whatever it was destroyed the entire wall that it had hit and more debris was flying everywhere.

I heard a cry of pain and knew instantly it was York but couldn’t do anything. I was already trying to fend off the others that were coming toward us. But anyway, I’ll get to the point. In the end the mission was successful and we were able to do what we had come to do. After everything had calmed down, the only thing on my mind was York.

Running over to him, I saw his head in the lap of the guy he had saved while the guy was talking to him trying to keep him awake. He was a mess. Literally. We called in a helicopter and were able to fly him back to base to get him medical attention. As soon as we got back to base, Maggie was there (I had given her and the rest of her team a heads up that we had wounded stressing to her that one of them was York) and she instantly got him to the ward to fix him up.

Thankfully he looked worse than he really was. Yes that means he’s alive, you can let go of that breath you were holding. He had a few cracked ribs and a concussion and cuts and bruises, but the worst was his leg. When the building had come down, he got some metal stuck in his thigh but thankfully Maggie and her mad nursing skills was able to repair it almost as good as new.

So I can happily say that York is fine. He’s alive and well but hasn’t been able to write you during the time he was recovering. He’s still recovering at the moment and a few days ago he asked me to write you. I had read all your letters out loud and he’s really worried about you.

The first thing he wanted me to tell you (it’s not actually the first thing because I wanted to explain first what has been happening) is that you have nothing to be sorry about. He says that it was his fault and he shouldn’t have pushed you that much (and trust me, this boy can be pretty bossy when he wants to be, I would know) and that he should have just let it go like you asked.

He says that you didn’t blow your chances with him and that as soon as he’s better he’ll write back to you properly instead of having me do it (but I think he’s just being lazy at this point and making his injury worse that it is so he can be spoiled by Maggie and the rest of the hot nurses here… Did I say that?).

He wants me to tell you that you’re not alone and that he’ll be there for you whenever you need it. That you’re the best friend (besides me that is, just kidding) that he’s ever had and never wants to lose you either. That something had finally gone right in his life when you decided to pick his address to write that drunken letter to that night back in February.

You’re not alone, and never will be alone now that you’ve met York. He didn’t tell me to write this but I’m doing it anyway because you need to know. He’s one of the most amazingly loyal trusting guys I’ve met. I’m truly honored to call him my brother. He means it when he says he forgives you. The boy doesn’t have one mean bone in his body. Believe me. I’ve pushed every single button the guys has and not once has he raised his voice to me or get a evil look in his eye. I don’t even think he has a proper evil glare that he can use.

Anyway, this letter is really long and I can’t believe I’ve actually had the attention span to write this long. York is sleeping beside me now as I write this and he looks the most peaceful I’ve seen since the mission. I think it has something to do with you. He even still wears that weird necklace you gave him when you first started writing each other, and even wore it when he got hurt.

I swear to God that there is some magic in that necklace you made because even after being so bloody and broken when he first got hurt, that necklace didn’t get a scratch or drop of blood on it. See, you truly are amazing. But I’m going to stop now or he’s really going to kill me if he ever reads this.

So he should be waking up soon so I should end this letter. He’s only got a few more days left in the hospital and then he should be free to go so he’ll write to you soon.

Take care of yourself and don’t worry about anything that happened between the two of you. You’re forgiven and you’re not alone!

-York and Aaron.

(Ps, I added another booger to the top of this letter in case you want to continue that evil plan of growing your own Aaron. The world would be blessed to have two of me!)