Love Letters

Love Letters (Part 30)

I walked back to the rendezvous point with my hands in my back pockets as the boys waved their newly acquired numbers in my face. I held my hands up in surrender and they laughed at my failure though Jace couldn’t really believe that Mack had returned with a number before us.

Mack laughed at Jace and told him there was no trophy for being second but at least he hadn’t come back without a number at all, like me.

While we walked to the fast food court I started thinking about that girl again, I wished I’d asked her for her number, not for the purpose of winning the game but because I was genuinely interested in her. I didn’t even realise Jace was talking to me until I saw him look at me questioningly, obviously waiting for a response.

‘Wait, what?’ I asked him, pretending I hadn’t heard.

‘Word on the grapevine is that you got into a scrap this morning, busted some guy’s lip or something. What’s that all about?

‘I didn’t bust his lip.’ I told him matter-of-factly.

‘But you had a fight? You didn’t even tell us about it! We would’ve had your back, man.’

I shrugged, ‘It was more a spur-of-the-moment thing. Ally’s new boyfriend.’ I said say in way of explanation. ‘But I appreciate your loyalty.’ I grinned, patting him on the back.

Mack grimaced on my behalf and stopped me, ‘no wonder you couldn’t pull. Sympathy card my friend, I’ll pay for the food today.’

I felt relieved, at least now he’d eat into his own pocket.

‘But you know what the boys are calling you? They’re calling you The Cole.’

‘Cole?’ I asked, confused.

‘Yeah, as in coal, you know, hot-headed. Way to go on building a hard ass reputation.’ He said as we sat down to eat.

I laughed as I wacked Mack playfully across the back. I looked around and caught sight of Ally’s boyfriend and his friends. I ducked quickly to avoid them noticing me and thumped my head off the table as I did so.

I groaned in pain and when I came back up Mack looked at me and went, ‘yeah… that wasn’t so hard ass.’

It had been a very long day.

I woke up the next morning to the sound of the letterbox and roused myself up from sleep. I trailed downstairs and opened the fridge door; praying there was something cold in there. My head felt hot and my hands were disgustingly clammy. I poured myself a glass of juice (Alex had me well trained) and stumbled over to the doormat.

I was surprised to find a letter from Jem there, I hadn’t heard from her in a while and truth be told, I hadn’t been thinking of her these last few days.

Dear Tyler,

I found him a while ago actually, he wasn’t too hard to track down but things are alright on that front now. But that’s irrelevant right now; from your last letter I got the feeling that things weren’t quite normal… I mean your tone was different to how it normally is. I know it must sound strange but I could just feel that there was something not quite right, which begs the question, are you alright? Like I said, you can write about anything to me, I’d be okay with it and even if I can’t give you proper advice, sometimes a problem shared is a problem halved.

Your soon-to-be brother-in-law’s proposal sounds so sweet! I wish I could’ve seen it, I’m a die-hard romance fan so it probably would’ve made my day.

I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, you never really said. But trust me; I’ve had loads of publicly embarrassing moments! I’m so clumsy it’s unbelievable; I trip up stairs and trip over my own feet on a regular basis, not very elegant I assure you. So what’s this girlfriend of yours like?

I hate Gaston too; it’s all about the brawn and nothing in the brain with him. He just likes to throw his weight around and act the big guy. I hate guys like that. I’ve watched the film so many times and I still can’t get over my dislike towards him!

By the way, I’m sorry for the late reply! Hope your holidays are going well!

Jem

P.S If it helps you sleep at night, fine, you ‘let’ me win.

I sneezed violently and rubbed my reddened nose. I loved that even now, while everyone else and everything else was changing, Jem and her letters stayed constant. I could rely on her to keep some consistency in my life.

But I felt guilty when I read what she'd written about Gaston, that's exactly what I'd done the day before. I'd thrown my weight around and punched that guy before he'd even had an idea what I was doing, I'd had an unfair disadvantage and I really shouldn't have done it.

I felt that I had to explain to Jem why Gaston wasn't entirely bad, he'd done what he'd done because he loved Belle. He did what he did for the sake of his love.

Dear Jem,

I should've been honest with you from the beginning, everything isn't alright. in fact, nothing is right. I've become someone I didn't want to become, I've lost the one person I never thought I'd lose. There'd be no point in me describing my girlfriend to you, because she's not my girlfriend anymore. It didn't work out and she broke it off with me for some other guy. I didn't realise that I hadn't told you, I was sure I had. I'm starting to get over it now though, it's only been a few days but whatever happens, happens for the best right?

I've never been a typical romance fan so I wouldn't know if it lived up to expectations or not but Alex was really happy. I just think that copying every other Romeo's romantic gestures makes your own love seem like a cliche and that's not original. Every time someone falls in love it's unique to someone else's love so shouldn't their love story be individual too?

I've been embarassed so many times I'm getting used to it, public humiliation isn't such a big deal anymore, not for me anyway. I once ripped my pants climbing a tree... it was awkward, both for me and for everyone looking up.

I see your point about Gaston, he shouldn't have used the means he did and he should've tried to understand Belle and understand her passions but maybe he just didn't have the mental capacity to do it? Afterall, society shapes our minds and even the Beast was similar to Gaston before his confinement, so maybe deep down Gaston could've been a good guy. The sexism and macho behaviour was just something he was brought up around.

I'd have said my holidays were finally picking up but I think I'm getting ill, which sucks.

Hope your revision is going well!

Tyler

P.S Deal with it. You won, I let you win. End of story.