Pen Pals ||Shelby and Toni||

Car Crash

Shelby drives home in silence. She wonders if Toni would have kissed her back. She probably wouldn't have Shelby thinks while parking the car in her drive way. She was just caught in the moment back there.

Just excited to finally see her in real life.

Just wants to be her friend.

She opens the door as quietly as she can. Which doesn't really matter seeing as her father is in the arm chair reading what Shelby already knows is the Bible. The only book he ever reads.

She watches him look up quickly. He takes off his glasses while giving her an exaggerated huff. She knows this is not going be easy to explain. She looks at her phone and sees the time is 12:15. She didn't even realize they were out there for so long.

"Shelby we're have you been all night?" Her dad asks staring straight at her. He plays with his book mark in his hands. "You know your suppose to be in this house by 11." He says. Shelby watches his bookmark. "Sorry daddy I lost track of time. My friend needed a ride home and she didn't live to close. I didn't mean to be late." Shelby says still looking down.

"You better not be late again you hear me?" He says angrily. She looks up at him. "Yes daddy I-I'm sorry." She says. He's letting her off easy this time. He must be pretty tired. "Go on now." He says already opening his bible again.

She leaves without another word. Thank god he didn't ask who she was hanging out with. He has a very high standard for people Shelby can be around. Shelby runs up to her room and gets ready for bed.
~~~~~

The next day Martha somehow gets all the girls to meet for lunch and sit at the table Rachel and Nora sit at. The group clicked pretty fast and soon there throwing fries that shouldn't even be considered fries at each other. "This school literally has the worst food." Dot says dipping a fry into some ketchup anyway.

The group starts talking about something else that Toni doesn't bother listening to. Everyone sat at the table besides Shelby. Who was standing with Andrew and some of his friends. It made Toni angry that Shelby was laughing with them about something. How could she just let what they say go? They treat people different just because they are a different skin color than there own.

"Hey you okay Toni?" Martha pulls her back onto the table. She shifts to face Marty. "Yea I'm good just hungry." Toni says eyeing her hamburger. Martha pushes it to her easily. "You want to eat that go a head. Even though I don't even think that's made with meat."Martha says lifting up the bun.

Toni joins the conversation about who would win in a fight between a hot dog or a grilled cheese sandwich.
~~~~~

Shelby and Dot park a block away from the party. They could hear faint music while walking. It was a school night so they didn't expect a lot of people.

"So what's the deal with Toni?" Dot says kicking a pebble. Shelby's eyes go wide. "What do you mean?" She says. "While first of all she kind of just appeared out of no where. I don't think I've ever seen her before and I know basically the whole school." She kicks her pebble on the curb. "And I don't know. You act. Different. Around her." She's looking at Shelby now. She didn't think she'd been acting different around Toni. Toni was just a friend. Monday was just- Shelby didn't know what it was but it was nothing.

"We we've been friends for a while. I met her online a couple years ago. And I don't know it's just exciting to finally have her in real life." Shelby says shrugging.

Dot looks down again. Shelby knows she's just letting her drop it. Shelby didn't know how to be honest with her self. She didn't know how she felt about Toni. She didn't have more time to think about the feels she had for a while.