Page 3 of Before We're More Than Friends
“What are you doing with that?” she asked.
“It’s for my pen pal.” I smiled, rising on the balls of my feet with excitement. “I got to read my letter from her in class.”
“You got a girl? Lucky.” Her gaze traveled to her screen again. “I got a guy last year. All he talked about was video games I never even heard about.”
Looked like she had the same problem as Toby. “Maybe they should’ve paired you with a girl who’s obsessed with corny dress-up games instead.”
She rolled her eyes. “The only corny thing is your music taste.”
“At least I have taste.” I playfully stuck my tongue out at her.
I scurried to my room and decorated the plain envelope with animal stickers for Chloe. After I finished, I went downstairs to wake my dad up from his nap on the couch, his signature way of recovering from an early morning of arrests.
“Hey, Dad.” I tapped his shoulder.
He let out a heavy snore, not moving.
“Sleepyhead,” I muttered.
“Huh?” Dad’s lashes fluttered as his dark eyes opened.
“Later, can we go to the post office so I can send off this letter to my pen pal? Her name is Chloe, and she lives in Nevada.”
“Oh, yeah.” He yawned. “You know, when I was in high school, I had a guy pen pal.”
I usually brushed off Dad’s lame high school stories, likewhat he used to do and all the girls who rejected him, but I tuned in for this one. “Really? Do you guys still talk today?”
“We used to write a lot.” He stretched his arms and let out another yawn. “We started with letters, then shifted to email, and we talked a lot during college. But then I got a new email address and moved into this house after I married your mother, and I forgot to tell him about it. Our friendship fizzled after that.”
“You forgot about your pen pal?” My eyes could’ve bulged out of my skull. “How could you?”
He smiled like he hadn’t committed a loyalty crime. “Just slipped my mind. We wanted to meet in real life, but our busy lives got in the way.”
“That’s sad.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “At least you had fun writing to him.”
“I did.” His eyes drifted off into space before meeting mine again. “You’re excited about your new pen pal, aren’t you?”
“Yes, she’s amazing at not boring me.”
He laughed. “I’m glad she is. If you’re ready, we can visit the post office now.”
I clapped my hands together, jumping up and down. Now that I was at home, the excitement was hitting me in full force.
We got in his car, and he drove over to the slot in the post office. He rolled down the window, and I leaned over and dropped the envelope into the slot. Happiness welled inside me as I imagined Chloe opening the envelope, not hesitating to write back and go through the same process.
“What was your favorite part about sending letters to your pen pal?” I asked Dad as he drove out of the parking lot.
“My favorite part?” He bit his lip. “That’s a tough one, but other than writing to him, I liked sending off the letter and playing the waiting game for when his next letter would come.”
I grinned as I thought about the next response I’d get in the mail. “That might be my favorite part, too.”
Checking the mailbox became a ritual. I knew it would take time for a letter to come in the mail, but the wait was unbearable. Why couldn’t we use email instead? I had an email account—which my parents had no idea about—I could’ve used.
But the five-day wait was worth it when I found a package with a purple envelope attached to it in the mailbox. Excitement coursed through me as I grabbed the package and ran up to my room, nearly tripping over Houston.
I quickly unwrapped the package to see a bracelet with green and blue beads, a black star in the middle. Grinning, I slipped the bracelet on my right wrist. It fit perfectly.
A slip of paper stuck out in the package, and I took it out to read the note.
