One Letter Away

Letter #1

'I sit in class with my elbows pressed to my desk and my cupped right hand against my face waiting for class to end. Mr Finley is going on and on about how Martin Luther King Jr changed civil rights. I really hate History class. Math is my power and History is my weakness. Math is just numbers and easy equations and History is a bunch of crap. I almost fall asleep until I heard the door squeak and footsteps walk into the room. It was Riley. My best friend of 13 years. I had no one to talk to in Pre-K, until Mrs. Ortega paired us up for an assignment. Somehow, we quickly became best friends after that. We've done everything together like parties, sleepovers, camping, and even meet each other's families which was completely embarrassing.

"Riley, it's almost the end of class and you've been in the bathroom for 10 minutes." said Mr. Finely. The classmates laughed while she laughed along with them making it seem like she wasn't that embarrassed.

"Sorry, Mr Finely." She sat down on the seat right next to me.

"Where have you been?" I whispered.

"Smoking in the school greenhouse." Riley answered. She started smoking at the age of 15 and I decided to walk along on that road with her.

"Why not waited till you got home?"

"I couldn't help myself." Riley can't go one day without smoking. We have this fake ID that says that we're 18 years old. The fake ID helps us buy cigarettes. Our friend Zoey's older brother, Garrett, gets them for us. People call him "Nerdy" because he also knows how to hack into computer systems and stuff like that. Finally, the school bell rang. Riley and I quickly grabbed our binders and headed out the door behind other classmates. We walked to our lockers and as we walked, a tall, handsome boy with wavy dark brown hair looks into my direction. Alex Carter. The only senior jock who makes all the girls paralyzed with just one look. His blue eyes gives me a look that says "hey beautiful" in a sexy tone.

"Hey Emma." Alex said. "You look beautiful today."

I smiled at him while I brushed a strand of hair behind my ear.

"Thanks Alex." I said walking past him along with Riley.

"Looks like someone's into you." Riley said tapping me on the shoulder with her elbow.

"Him, Alex Carter?" I scoffed. "No way." Okay I've gotta admit, Alex is insanely hot. He and Anna Parker broke up two weeks ago so I guess he's available, but I don't want to leave the Single Ladies Club.

The Single Ladies Club is a club started by Zoey. There are 5 members: Riley Walker, Valentina Nelson, Zoey Mitchell, Kayla Peterson, and me. The club started at our freshman year. We don't think men are good enough for either one of us so we decided to join the SLC.

We arrived at Riley's locker. She stopped walking and I kept going because mine was two lockers next to her. As I open my locker, an envelope fell out. I looked down and picked it up and saw a red heart shaped sticker on the front. I looked around to see if anyone was looking at me, but no one was. I flicked open the flap part of the envelope. Inside there was a piece of hole punched paper folded into three parts. I take out the paper and unfold it. Inside of the folded paper there were small heart shaped cut-out papers falling onto the floor as I opened it. I looked down to watch the paper hearts fall to the ground. Then, I looked back up to read what's in this mysterious letter.

"Roses are red, violets are blue. They're both beautiful and so are you." says the letter.

I stood there smiling and grinning from ear to ear. It feels like I have millions of butterflies in my stomach. Who could this letter be from? Was it Alex? It had to be Alex. What do I do? What do I say? Get it together Emma Taylor. You're overreacting.

"Hey guys." I heard a voice behind me. It was Valentina. I dropped my binders to cover the small heart shaped papers so they wouldn't see it. I turned around a saw her standing in between Zoey and Kayla. They all had the same fourth period together so they always walk together at the end of class.

"Hey." Riley said closing her locker while holding two her textbooks and binders.

"How was math?" I asked.

"Anna kept crying the whole fucking time."

"Alex dumped her badly." Kayla said.

"Alex is one of the main reasons why we have the Single Ladies Club."

"Yeah, he's dip shit."

"I don't think Anna is ever going to go out with anyone after that breakup," I said.

"Yeah, she actually loved Alex."

"Guys, get your PJs ready because we are sleeping over at my house." Zoey said. We always sleep over at Zoey's house over the weekend. It's a Single Ladies thing. Instead of hanging out with guys on a Saturday night, we just watch movies all day long and gossip about Anna Parker.

"Duh Zoey." Kayla said rolling her eyes backwards. "We always sleep over at your house."

I grabbed my backpack and put the note inside along with my History binder. I bent down and picked up my binders stepping my feet onto the paper hearts. I put my binders into my locker. I closed my locker thinking about the handsome, Alex. Is this his way of asking me out on a date? No, I can't leave the Single Ladies Club. It's my only way in the world of being happy because you have your friends by your side.

"See y'all at my place." Zoey said walking away.

"See ya." I said throwing my backpack on my back and sliding the straps onto my shoulders. God, what do I say to my friends? I can't keep this secret from them. We always tell each other everything. What about Alex? What do I say to him? Did he really put this letter in here? I'm guessing he did. What if he asks me out? Keep it together Emma. Keep it together.