Write Me A Letter

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CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR | B A C K

IT FELT DIFFERENT TO SEE XANDER in her room—that was the first thing that came to Brie's mind as she followed his every move. He was moving around almost aimlessly at a slow pace, fingertips softly brushing against the spine of her books and the edges of the picture frames that lined her desk.

It felt odd, but not exactly imposing, just like the way it would feel when there was a new furniture in a room that hadn't been there.

She was sitting at the foot of her bed, fingers curled together in tight knots of anxiousness and frustration. Brie only learned today that not knowing about something could be so frustrating that it could push you over the edge, and Xander, she knew there was a purpose on why he was there in her room when he'd never really been the type to wander around in her house.

He was the type of person that stayed in place because he never felt the necessity to move.

Ever since they started to become friends, her treehouse had always been their go-to place. In those three years, Xander only entered her room once and that was to help Ollie bring a box down.

"This is only second time that you've been here," she told him in a soft voice, watching how a smile grew on his face as he flicked through a photo album on her desk.

"Yeah," he agreed, closing the album with a soft thud. "I can't believe that I've been to your place so often but has rarely been in your room." He turned to her with a smile that almost looked sad. "I missed out on watching your photo collection grow."

They both chuckled at that, two pairs of eyes flying to the line of multi-colored photo albums and creative picture frames. They were silent for awhile until her sigh broke the tranquility.

"It's not like it's something to miss out on. They're just silly photographs."

"Can be true, but these photos are all special in their own way. See, look at that—" he pointed at the third frame in the line. It was sea foam green with yellow shells all over them and it housed the photo of one of their fun afternoons at her treehouse in sophomore year. It was also around the same time that Brie realized she might have had feelings for her friend.

They all looked so much younger in the photo, even if it was just around three years ago. Xander was on the floor with a frown on his face, head locked in Simon's arms as the latter grinned toothily at the camera. Simon was transitioning from his emo phase to a sporty teen then and had his hair was dyed in black despite wearing a varsity jacket that he stole from his older brother.

Jean, Paula and her were all huddled together at the side, smiling widely at the camera. It felt nostalgic to see Jean in a lilac dress with multi-colored bangles on her wrist just like she always used to. Then there was Paula before her crop-top phase in a jean overalls and braided hair. Her gaze trailed over to fifteen-year old her whose grin was so wide yet it was obvious that her smile wasn't for the camera. She was looking at Xander—laughing at his frown, almost. Troy was behind them, his tongue poked out and a bag of Lays tucked under his arm. Then there was Ollie, right smack in the middle of all the chaos with arms stretched wide open and floppy blond hair sticking to his sweaty forehead.

Her mom took that photo after depositing a tray of sandwiches, and then the rest of the photo collection followed shortly after.