Pen Pal

A week went by before anything really interesting happened. Mike and I went to school, I went to soccer, we all hung out with our usual group, and of course there was the usual schoolwork and Mike’s daily stalking of the girl down the block.

Today was different though. It was a Wednesday the week after we had hung out at the mall. As usual, Mike was up early to try to catch Alysha, which meant I was up early as well.

I was currently sitting on my bed scrolling through the newest posts on the group page. Occasionally I would like and comment on posts about new bands that were suggested that I hadn’t listened to before. The guys had mentioned some of them before, but I’d never taken the time to listen to them. I was always looking for new music so I made sure to remember all the names.

“Which shirt?” I looked up from my phone to the door where Mike was standing with two different shirts in his hands.

“Why?” I asked.

“Today’s the day, bro. Today I’m gonna talk to her.” I rolled my eyes. Mike had been saying the same thing for about a month and a half, so I wasn’t convinced that he was actually going to make the move to talk to Alysha.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” I mumbled, looking back down at my phone. I could feel my brother’s scowl.

“Well believe it,” he said, “it’s gonna happen today. But first, which shirt?” I looked back up at him as he held each of his hands out individually.

“The red one,” I said.

“You sure?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes. Don’t you know the Fuentes men look good in red?”

He chuckled and tossed the other shirt, a black one, on my bed. He swiftly took off the white T-shirt he was wearing and put on the red one.

“You ready to go?” Mike asked as he picked his white shirt off the floor.

I frowned. “Can I eat first?” He shrugged with a slight grin on his face before he walked out of my room. I shook my head and looked back down at my phone. Swear, dealing with Mike was a handful at times.

I was about to close the Facebook app and go downstairs when I got a notification. The original poster of the pen pal post had commented.

“Ok everyone I’m matching people up tonight! I will pm you the name of your new pen pal and you just write them to get their address sound good?”

I quickly liked the comment and closed the app.

So tonight was the night I would make a mysterious new friend. That thought went through my mind as I gathered my things and slipped on my shoes. I wondered what they would be like. What kind of music did they like? What about books or movies? Where did they live? Would I be paired up with someone in California or someone outside the continental United States?

Was I overthinking again?

Yup.

I walked downstairs with my things in hand. Mike was sitting at the dining table eating a bowl of cereal and scrolling on his phone. I quickly poured myself a bowl as well and sat next to him.

“So, what’s your plan?” I asked my brother. He looked up from his phone with milk dripping down his chin.

“Well I figured that I probably won’t get to walk with her to school so today I’m gonna talk to her during second period. If that doesn’t work then I’ll do it during lunch. Either way, today’s the day. I’m not gonna chicken out this time.”

I nodded. I knew how badly Mike wanted to get close to Alysha, and how much talking to her at least once meant to him. Even if he had been stalking her for a while, I could tell that she was more than a pretty face to him. My brother never committed this much time to a girl, especially not one who didn’t know he was alive.

Mike and I put our bowls in the sink and went off to school. As usual we stopped in front of Alysha’s house, and as usual she wasn’t outside. Part of me wondered if she even lived there.

Mike and I sparked up a conversation about the soccer game I had this weekend. He said he would see if he could bring noisemakers to that one since they weren’t allowed, and he was one of the only members in my cheer section.

Our parents worked almost every day of the week to make enough money for us to keep our house. Because of this they were hardly ever home. They rarely attended any of our extracurricular activities, but we never minded. We knew it was what needed to be done.

Mike and I walked up the steps to the school and went straight to our lockers. The lockers at our school were assigned by grade and last name so his was in a different hall than mine. He waved goodbye and I mouthed “good luck” incase he saw Alysha before the bell rang. He nodded with a bright smile before walking off.

I made my way to my locker, waving to those who waved at me. There was about another half hour before class started. I debated going to homeroom or the cafeteria but decided against both of those options and walked out of school instead. My friends usually sat in the courtyard before school started so I figured that’s where they’d be.

As I suspected, my friends were sitting outside talking about whatever the hell they were talking about. Sometimes their conversations would go into random tangents so I could never assume what the topic that minute was.

I was greeted by all the guys as soon as I was in their field of view. I waved and sat next to Tony on the brick ledge.

“Guys, we should go see the new Marvel movie this weekend,” Jaime said.

“Or we could not,” Tony said.

“Dude, I get you just love Star Wars but there are other things out there. Live a little.”

Tony simply rolled his eyes and sighed. “So Vic, what time’s your game on Saturday?” he asked, emphasizing each word.

“Oh shit bro, I’m sorry. I forgot you had a game,” Jaime said quickly. I waved him off.

“It’s fine. You know I don’t expect you guys to come.”

That was true, I never expected my friends to come to my games. They had their own lives and I never wanted to impose. Mike had to come though since we were related and if he didn’t I’d fight him; he knew that.

“Well, you know I’ll be there,” Curtis said with a bright smile. Besides Mike, he never missed a game. I think it had something to do with us being friends since we were in diapers.

I smiled back at my friend in thanks and turned back to Tony and Jaime who were talking about whether or not we should see the movie in IMAX 3D.

“But Tone, the glasses. The experience!”

“The price.”

“You’re no fun. Back me up here, Vic.”

“I have to go with Tony on this one,” I said with a smirk.

Jaime pouted as Tony high-fived me. “Man, I need new friends,” he said as the bell rang and we walked back into the building.

***

The rest of the day dragged on. I went to my classes, went to soccer practice, and continued the IMAX debate with my friends. By 6 PM I was tired, starving, and sweaty, and I knew Mike was two of the three.

I walked out of the locker room with my gym bag in hand and my backpack over my shoulder. I went back onto the field and signaled to my brother. He got up from his seat quickly and ran down the bleachers.

Mike usually waited for me after school, especially when he wanted to complain about his day. On days I had practice he would sit in the bleachers and watch. Sometimes he would record me and replay the tape on our walk home. His pointers usually helped come game day.

“So how’d it go today?” I asked in reference to his plan with Alysha.

His demeanor changed from blank to anxious to angry. “She wasn’t even at school today! She’s home sick!” he shouted.

I sighed and patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry, brother,” I said. “How’d you find out?”

“Danielle, you know, that chick who has a crush on you? She told me.”

I scrunched up my face. “Danielle doesn’t have a crush on me.”

“Dude, she so does. She’s always staring at you.”

“Not true,” I defended.

“Open your eyes, Vic,” he said with a laugh. I shrugged it off and moved my gym bag to the other hand.

We dropped the topic and talked about the movie the guys wanted to see. By the time we got home we were also arguing about whether or not we should see it in 3D.

“Whatever man. Go take a shower; you stink.”

I hugged my brother tight as he opened the front door. He quickly pushed me off and shoved me.

“No need for all the hate, brother,” I said smugly. He gave me the finger as he walked to the kitchen. “See? That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” I said after him.

“And that’s exactly why I’m buying the tickets with your card!” he shouted to me as I walked upstairs. I simply rolled my eyes to avoid an actual argument.

I went straight to the bathroom and showered, thinking of my future pen pal.

Wait…not in that sense!

I simply meant that I continued the thoughts from earlier. Who were they, and would they like me? Oh God, I hoped they were a decent person!

It bothered me a little that I hadn’t received a message from the original poster to tell me that I had gotten one, but I figured that we were in different time zones and blamed it on that.

After washing off the aftermath of practice, I dried off and changed into the clothes I had brought with me. When I was done I went into my room and belly-flopped onto my bed.

I was lucky enough not to have any homework to attend to that night as I had finished it during study hall, so my night was free. I opened the Twitter app on my phone and scrolled down my timeline, liking and retweeting things along the way.

“What’s got you so down, bro?”

I turned my head to see my brother leaning against the doorframe. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“I mean you’ve been sighing and shit since I’ve been up here. You okay?”

I shrugged. I hadn’t noticed I was making a sound.

“Well whatever. I have a problem,” Mike said as he made his way into my room. He sat on the floor next to the foot of my bed and laid back. I rotated from my position so I was still on my stomach but facing him.

“What’s up, little brother?” I knew this was going to be a rant about Alysha, but I also knew he needed to say what was on his mind, and because I was an amazing older brother, I let him say it all as I pretended to listen.

Because that’s what good brothers do.

I continued to scroll through my apps as Mike talked. I had no idea what he was saying as I’d learned to tune him out when he got like this, but I knew who it was about so I was able to interject some hums of agreement between his sentences.

A notification on my phone took me away from “agreeing” with Mike. I had gotten a message on Facebook. I tapped the notification which opened the Messenger app. A name I didn’t recognize had requested to send me a message. I accepted after a brief moment of hesitation and read what they had sent.

Hi! Your pen pal is Kellin Quinn :)

Kellin Quinn? What an interesting name.

I typed the name into the search bar, although I wasn’t sure who I was looking for. I don’t think I had seen this person post or comment on anything since I’d been in the group. Still, I searched for them in the app.

I was happy to see that there weren’t that many Kellin Quinns on Facebook.

After making sure I had the correct person, I tapped the profile picture and sent a quick message.

Hi Kellin, I’m Vic. I’m your pen pal

I rolled onto my back and rubbed my face with my hands. I had been stressing out about this pen pal thing for about a week and now I finally knew. Would they answer back? Would they even want anything to do with me? I mean, I think I’m pretty great, but what if they didn’t? I can be kind of boring online.

My thoughts came to a halt when I felt a soft yet firm material come in contact with my face.

“Ouch! What the crap, man?” I yelled at my brother.

He rolled his eyes. “You weren’t even listening to me! How am I supposed to tell you my problems if you don’t even listen to them?”

“To be fair, I barely do.”

“I hate you.”

I chuckled and threw back the pillow Mike had thrown at me. “I’m sorry, bro. What were you saying?”

He grabbed the pillow, fluffed it, sighed, and laid on it. “How big of a Harry Potter fan do you think she is?”

---

Sorry the ending sucks. I have a migraine and I can't

Notes