Peace, Love, & Pogo Sticks

Your Pal

Shawn couldn't get the envelope open fast enough. He finally ripped it open, but only after carefully peeling off the music note sticker she had used to seal it and adding it to his growing collection. He felt like a dork for always being so excited to receive her letters, but they were one of the few things that could bring him genuine joy recently. His breath caught in his throat when he saw a small picture flutter out of the folded piece of paper and fall to the ground. It had landed face down and although he didn't know what she had sent a picture of yet, he had hoped it would be a picture of her. He involuntarily let out a disappointed sigh when he saw that although she did seem to be in the picture, her face had been covered with a peach sticker leaving only her dogs visible. He turned his attention from the photo to the letter, reading the words she had written for him.

He was immediately intrigued upon hearing that she enjoyed songwriting. While he did his fair share of writing lyrics himself, he always felt most comfortable just playing instruments and singing already written lyrics. She had guessed seven more names that she thought he might have, but none of them were correct. She finished her letter by describing the dogs in the picture she had sent, as well as the reasoning for the sticker that covered her face. As much as he wanted to respect her decision to keep her identity hidden for now, the curiosity was killing him. He picked up the image and used his fingernail to carefully attempt to peel off the peach sticker. Though he tried his best, the adhesive of the sticker was too strong and ended up ripping her face off of the image. He groaned and dropped his shoulders in defeat. Shawn grabbed his notebook and added his two new stickers to the cover before beginning to write his response.

C,
My birthday was good! You're assumption of the booze and girls wasn't too far off. (And yes, I like girls.) I'm sad to inform you that none of your seven guesses as to what my name might be were correct. (Though I kind of wish my name was Sven now.) I have to admit, I do have a couple guesses as to what your name is. For some reason, I feel like you're a Courtney. Other guesses include Caitlin, Cierra, Carly, Cassie, Caroline, Clara, and Catherine. Did I nail it? I hope so. To answer your question, yes I do have tattoos. Ten, actually. I totally understand your hesitance to get one. My advice would just be to make 100% sure that it's something you want before getting it. One of my tattoos was gotten on a whim and honestly I kind of regret it. Oh well. You live and you learn, right? You've gotta be careful with tattoos. Once you get one it's kind of addicting. Please tell Thunder, Eugene & Leo that I say hi. As for you, I like your peach. And now that I've written that, I realize it sounds like I was complimenting your butt. I promise I wasn't...I just said that because of the peach sticker you used to cover your face. And now I've made it awkward. I tend to do that, sorry. I'll go now. Looking forward to making that kickass song with you someday.

Your Pal,
S

Just as Shawn was about to seal his letter in the envelope he heard a knock at the door. He set the notebook with the letter down onto his couch and got up to answer the door.

"Hey man," Brian said as he walked through the door, bypassing Shawn.

"What are you doing here?" Shawn asked. It wasn't uncommon for them to drop by each other's place - but it usually came with a warning text beforehand.

"I was on my way to go pick up this girl I'm supposed to take out tonight when I went to take a drink of my water and spilled it all over my shirt while driving." Brian pulled open his denim jacket, revealing the obvious wet spot on his shirt. "I didn't have time to run back home so I just stopped here on the way. Can you grab me one of your shirts to wear?" Shawn playfully rolled his eyes and nodded before heading into his bedroom to retrieve a suitable shirt for his red-headed friend.

As he waited, Brian wandered into the living room and sat down on the couch - immediately noticing the notebook laying open. Letting his curiosity get the best of him, he picked up the notebook and began reading what Shawn had written.

"Ok, this one should work..." Shawn said as he stepped back into the living room. His eyes widened when he saw Brian reading his letter in obvious confusion. "Put that down!" he exclaimed nervously.

"Who's C?" Brian asked in amusement. "And what's so nice about her peach?" Shawn's face grew redder as he lurched forward and ripped the notebook from Brian's hands and replaced it with the shirt he had retrieved.

"It's none of your business," he said sternly.

"Oh come on, man. It's just some lighthearted fun. I think it's cute that you're writing love letters-"

"They're not love letters," Shawn said adamantly. "We're just...pen pals, I guess..."

"Pen pals, huh? What is she like 80 or something?"

"No, she's 23. She's cool."

"What do you mean she's cool, Shawn? You don't even know her name." Brian tried to suppress a laugh at the absurdity of his friend's situation. "Have you sent her any snail mail nudes yet?"

"Shut up."

"Do you at least know if she's hot?" Brian asked inquisitively. "I mean, aside from the peach..." Shawn rolled his eyes.

"I mean, she sent me a picture of her and her dogs but she covered her face with a peach sticker...hence the 'peach' comment." Brian once again tried to suppress a laugh. "Look," Shawn sighed. "It's fine if you don't get it, but I'm enjoying having someone new to talk to. She's really nice and funny. I don't know, it's just nice having a friend to talk to while still having a veil of anonymity."

"What if she's a serial killer?"

"And what if I am?" Shawn asked, glaring at Brian with a jokingly threatening look. "Now change your shirt and go pick up your girl. You're going to be late."

"Fuck," Brian muttered as he looked at the time. He quickly swapped his shirt out for Shawn's dryer one before heading out. "Thanks man! See you later! You should ask that C girl for a picture of her actual peach," he chuckled as he closed the door to Shawn's apartment behind him. Shawn just rolled his eyes and fell back onto the couch, letting out an exasperated sigh and running his hands over his face.

Suddenly he thought back to the picture she had sent him. Should he send her something? He remembered her question about tattoos and the idea hit him. He pulled out his phone and took pictures of three of his tattoos - the guitar on his forearm, the sparrow on his hand, and the butterfly on his bicep. He sent all three of the pictures to his printer and folded them up to include in the envelope, adding an addendum to the end of his already written letter.

P.S. - I've included pictures of 3 of my 10 tattoos. None of them are in weird places, I promise. I decided not to include the ass tattoo.

P.S.S. - I don't actually have an ass tattoo. That was just a poor attempt at a joke. I keep making things weird, don't I?

He sealed the letter and the images in the envelope and took it down to put into the mailbox. Shawn hoped that Brian finding out about his secret pen pal wouldn't affect his budding friendship with this mysterious Miami girl. Although he didn't know her well, he sure as hell wanted to.

A/N: I wrote ten tattoos but apparently our boy has eleven now? I can't keep track. Also if we don't find out what it is soon I'm gonna EXPLODE. Someone on Twitter said it looks like "ohana" which honestly wouldn't be too surprising as a Shawn tattoo. ALSO MUSIC VIDEO SOON. AHHHHHHHHJWKESKKSSJ.