Dear Stranger

Chapter 2

You were never used to receive letters before but if that experience taught you something, it's that it leads to a perpetual slide of emotions. You sent your letter and got nervous. Would people like you? Will you have an answer? What if you don't? Then comes the excitment. The feeling where you ask yourself all day long if a letter for you is waiting in your mailbox while you're there, stuck at work. And disappointment comes at last, when all smiles you open your mailbox only to find bills or leaflets. But at some point, when you're not even excited anymore about opening your mailbox at night, you find that letter. And then emotions comes back. Nervousity, excitment, disappointment, happiness. It's a circle.

But the last part worth all the waiting and all the feelings. When you finally got to throw your bag in the hall, literally shaking for no reason, and throw yourself on the couch to open that letter: that's when you forget all the bad feelings that lead to that envelope. You remembered the smile on your face from a week ago when you recieved your letter. You recognized it immediately, your name wasn't on it. You opened it as quickly as you could.

"Dear Mysterious Letter Girl,

First things first. Here's a warning for you: I suck at letters. Here you go. We can move on now.

I've been reading your letter and that really touched me. I can see what you're talking about. Everyone is surrounded by people who have something to earn from friendship. Some people prefer earning money or earning advantages from it, I personally (and I would guess you too, stop me if I'm wrong) prefer earning love, support, and laughter from it. The bad news is: you will always have people like that around you. Good news: you seem to know how to recognize those two types of people and not to misplaced them. Remember that no matter what: you are not alone. The love, the real love you share with your real friends is all you need to make it through, true for any kind of situation. You might feel lonely, but you're not alone. And hey! You have your mysterious letter boy now!

Wow. That was some serious stuff. I'm not used to it.

You asked me to tell you if it was as hard to introduce myself and follow the rules as it was for you: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. Let's see!

Hi! What's up? ('that's lame, letter boy' <- you right now).
As you may have already notice, I'm a dude. I love music too! I've been playing some instruments pratically my whole life. Music is such a big part of my life. I try to write my own to put a little piece of me out in this world. And hey! I like theater too. That's nice. Let's see... What's next... Oh! I also live in Los Angeles! Isn't it weird to think that maybe we could walk on the same sidewalk and not even recognize each other? I will totally watch all around me from now on. My friends like to call me the rambler, for obvious reasons. I hope that one day I will be a Jedi, or a teacher. There is literaly no relation between those two, but I like them anyway.
I'm also 2 years away from officially being a thirty kinda person. An old person for all the young fresh energic people in their twenties. And you were right, that's fucking hard to introduce. You won. Congratulations. You won a letter. You're welcome.

Well now is the time to say goodbye, my friend. That was nice. I hope my letter didn't suck (yours was not by the way), and I hope to hear from you soon.

Lots of hugs and magical creatures for you, letter girl

The mysterious letter boy (that name is very long)."

You read that letter over and over again. It put a smile on your face everytime. And even a week after, the only thought of it made you grin again. You send your letter back a few days ago, just randomly writing about your favorites places in Los Angeles, the best and the worst of California, your favorite plays and so on until the letter was a full page.

You were unable to focus on the words that were in front of you right now, on this staff paper. You were thinking too much about the stranger's words. A knock on your door brung you back into the real world. You walked to it and opened it. "Heeeello lady! How is my favorite songwriter doing?" your friend Joey asked. "I'm good, thanks" He was in your loft before you even had the chance to invite him to do so. Lauren hugged you and walked to join him. "Tonight is the night people!" Joey almost shouted excitingly. Lauren nodded and smiled at you. "For what?" you ask. "Tonight you're gonna meet the love of your life" Joey precises. You roll your eyes and put your butt back on the spot you were before. They have been going on and on about this guy since they were confortable enough with you to tell you. They always end up rambling about the fact that if you and that Darren guy would have meet before, you would probably be married by now. "You guys have so much in common" you still heard Joey's voice. "He's working in music, he's talented, he's funny, he's beautiful, he's cheesy as fuck, he likes Red Vines. You even have the same manager! Come on, you guys are soulmate" he said to you probably a million times. "We finally got him for the night!" Lauren said and clapped her hands together. "We're gonna meet him and Joe at the bar tonight. So get your ass off of that couch, and we're going" Joey explained. "I can't guys. I have to work on these songs tonight" you answered with an apologizing smile. "No way. Tonight you're meeting your husband" he clearly said and quickly put away your sheets. "But-" you protested but got cut off right away. "No buts. Go put some heels on!" Lauren jumped around. She was probably excited or pissed not to be there already. "Heels really? I don't even know the guy! The last thing I know he could be a jerk. My feet don't deserved to be destroyed tonight" you frown. "Girl, he's very handsome" Lauren widened her eyes. "I can't believe you out of all the people you made make me wear heels for" you admit. "He likes Zefron" your friend confessed. "Ok, I will put on heels" you agree.

You put your shoes and coat on, always hurried up by your two friends and left your apartement quickly. You couldn't help but to be excited too to meet that guy. You heard so much about him. It was like you knew him already. You three reached the bar and met Joe there and the famous friend, Darren. You hugged Joe and smiled at Darren. "Hi" he greeted you without any happy tone whatsoever. He offered you his hand to shake and if you could have roll your eyes, you would have. A handshake, really?

Joey, Lauren and Joe talked together and you stood there with Darren. He was holding a drink in his hands, and flashed to you a few awkward smiles, the kind of ones you give when you really have no desire to be standing there. Just when Joey finished his discussion, Darren hurried to go talk to him, probably to as a survival instinct, to get out of this awkward situation. They both went to another spot at the bar and Lauren asked you "So! Did you guys started to get to know each other?". "Yeah totally!" you answered sarcastically. "I learned he likes handshakes, whiskey and he does very good awkward smiles". Lauren shook her head and laughed.

You, Joe and her spend an hour talking at a table while Joey and Darren was at the counter, talking on their own. "Joe, go get us some drinks more. I have a couple to build" Lauren said, like a spy in a mission, and took your arms to lead you to the counter.

"Hey guys!" she cheerfully greeted them, once more. "Hey" they both said, Joey as excited and Darren sounded almost annoyed. "What's up?" Lauren asked. "Darren was telling me about that girl who send l-" "Shut up, Richter!" Darren cut his best friend off. "That was a private conversation!" he added. "Speaking of that, if you guys could, you know, give us time to talk, just the two of us, that would be cool" the curly guy required. Your eyes almost popped out of your head. Was he really the "soulmate" guy? You started to wonder how your friends thought you to think you and him had that much in common. "Uhm okay. See you later I... I guess" Lauren stumbled over her words and drags you back to the table.

Not so long after, full glasses were once more on your hand, and Joe was back to fill up the silence settled between Lauren and you. You enjoyed the rest of the evening, away from Joey or Darren, but whatever. That guy definitely wasn't worth you wearing heels tonight. It felt like the letter circle, except there were no happy ending to it.