Pen Pal ✉ j.s au

29

I walked into school, looking down at my feet to hide my swollen eyes from my classmates. I had spent the entire weekend crying over what happened, which was stupid but true.

I sat down at my desk and pulled out my notebook. I started the day's prompt, which was just part of the daily schedule. All of a sudden, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Can we talk? Please?" Jenna asked. She looked into my eyes. "Jesus, you look like shit. Come to the bathroom and we can talk."

I got up from my seat and walked to the bathroom with Jenna. Since school didn't officially start for ten minutes, I figured we had enough time to have a solid discussion on what happened.

She sat on the windowsill in the corner and motioned for me to join her. I sat a foot away, making sure to keep my distance just in case things got ugly. I doubted they would, but Jenna was hella unpredictable.

"First of all, I'm so sorry for the way I acted. I was a total jerk and I guess I was just blinded by Giulia's Italian-ness." She said, a sincere look in her eyes.

"It's okay." I said. I rubbed my eyes.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way, I need to know. Why are your eyes so swollen? Who made you cry that this happened to you?"

"Um," I started. "You're gonna hate me for this, but..."

"I swear if it's a boy..." She warned. I cringed.

"It was Jacob. My pen pal. He made me cry like this."

She balled her hands into fists.

"Imma smash that boy's head into the wall a bajillion times for hurting you. What did he do exactly?" She asked. I shrugged and told her the entire story of our letters and texts, and how we met at Killington and all the other cute stuff. When I got to our argument, I started tearing up again.

"He just won't listen!" I said, the tears streaming down my cheeks. Jenna got up and grabbed a wad of toilet paper from the nearest stall. She wiped my tears away and patted my head.

"Boys are stupid, hon. Don't let him get to you. He has no idea what he's losing, you're the greatest person ever." Jenna smiled.

"I guess I am pretty great." I laughed, wiping the tears off of my face. Jenna laughed, and I felt a warm feeling inside of me. It was great to have my best friend back.