Twenty-Eight Stamps [#Wattys2017] || ✓

the n i n e t e e n t h letter

Dear Hunter,

Prom. The night of dreams for many girls my age at the time, or whatever other crap there was surrounding it. School finished early and I was buzzing with excitement by the time I got home.

You told me you would pick me up from my house at six o'clock, and from there we would simply drive off in your Nissan and go to prom 'as friends'. I didn't mind.

I even had my makeup done, with the help of my cousin, I think, and I was ready by half past four. I remember how restless I was, imagining you and how you might look and what you might wear and what your hair was going to be like. And what was going to happen once we arrived at prom.

Early, you arrived. The memory of you standing under the pool of light thrown down by the streetlamp, tinting the edges of your hair golden and making me just want to run my hand through it, is so distinct that writing about it now, I could be back on my front porch gazing at you. The tuxedo you were wearing just looked expensive, I remember thinking, and your hair was styled to one side. I could see your old Nissan Micra parked across the street from my house.

You told me I looked amazing. My bubble of happiness swelled again, and I managed to utter 'you too' in my moment of joy.

Honestly, the prom itself has become a blur as the tiny details of it faded with time. The only part I perfectly remember is the aftermath, when most of the other had left or gone elsewhere and you and I were two of the only people remaining. We sat on one of the benches lining the edge of the hall and watched the balloons rolling and bouncing across the floor and the ribbons swaying in the gentle breeze. Then we went outside, to the part of the grounds sectioned off for what could, depending on how you looked at it, pass as a pond.

What happened next is something that I think about every day. It makes me happy at the worst of times, and it also is usually the reason that put me in the stage of heartbreak. But that's for the next letter.

All my love, always,
Maia.