Stephen and Sharpies ~ Watty Awards 2012

Chapter Sixteen

    January 1st, 2008

Dear Alec,

    I thought I’d write you a letter. We’ve been friends for a few months now and I thought it was appropriate. I want to just wish you a Happy New Year! I wonder what you’ve chosen for your resolution. I have a resolution this year; I want to go out with someone. I want to have a boyfriend before the next year. I think it’s a weird resolution, but good, good for me. I think that having this “goal” will help me with the whole “normal” problem I have. You know the one I am talking about, right?

    Maybe you don’t. It was just a few weeks after we had met. You came outside and sat with me. I smiled at you and then continue to eat my sandwich. You started eating too, but it wasn’t long before you started asking questions.

    “I know I have asked before, but why do you like it out here?”

    I laughed lightly and smiled. “I like it out here because I can be alone, away from the people who don’t matter.”

    “I matter don’t I?” You said it jokingly, but I still answered.

    “Sure, why not,” I had said when really I want to say ‘heck yeah you matter’.

    “Good.” You took another bite of your food. “You know it’s not normal to sit by yourself right?”

    “Normal, ha, I hate being normal.” You gave me a look of disbelief. “Yeah I know it isn’t.”

    “Well go sit inside.”

    “With who, my one friend has lunch with the booster club.” I stare at you with my head cocked to the side, taking a huge bite of my food.

    “Sit with me,” you said with a smile spread huge on your face.

    “You don’t really mean that.”

    You were silent for a few minutes, deep in though. “Actually, yes I do mean it. You could be normal one day a week and then the other days I’ll be not so normal with you. What do you say, do we have a deal?” You stuck your hand out and waited.

    “Yeah we have a deal,” I say putting my hand into yours.

    “Now next to sitting with me, you have to try to be normal on your own also.”

    “How so?”

    “I don’t know, interact with others, date and just act normal.”

    “Oh.” I fell silent with just one word. I finished my lunch and then stood up. I walked away, ignoring your voice calling me back. I went inside and for the first and only time since you’ve been sitting with me, I threw my own trash away. I went to my locker and the bell rang right then.

    So you see, I am finally trying to be normal. I have the resolution and I even tried going to booster club…once. I am trying. I hope it is enough, if it isn’t maybe you can help me. Tell me what clubs to join, who to talk to, and what is normal and not so much. I want to be normal, maybe that way you could like me for real. Oh man, that sounded stupid and so cliché.