{SMALL DISCLAIMER --- THIS IS IN THE FUTURE!!!} 

1 year. 1 FUCKING year and nothing. No contact. No message. No call. No email. Not even a letter. I could survive off of a letter. But nothing? That was impossible. Until, out of the blue, a text saying ‘hey’.

I reluctantly responded but was faced with a ‘sorry, wrong number’.

I walk down the hallway of my, boring, high school. Dreading the date I had with my, ever so perfect, girlfriend Valerie.

I drag my feet to my locker, only to be met with, the overly bouncing, Valerie, giving me her overrated puppy-dog eyes.

“Hey, sweetie!!” She said. I mentally groaned but smiled and gave her a side hug.

She smiled back and looked me up and down, all of a sudden, I felt extremely uncomfortable because I decided to wear sweatpants today. She scoffs.

“What are you wearing?”

I give her my best ‘bitch face’ which, surprisingly, to her, is my ‘I love you’ face.

“I just felt lazy today is all,” I say dryly.

She shrugs and walks away but not before turning around, winking my way, and sending me a kiss. It was clearly all for show because the ‘awes’ from the hallway were nearly overwhelming, to say the least.

I roll my eyes, open my locker, get my things, and, once again, drag my ass to the classroom.

The bell had already rung by the time I had gotten in my seat.

“Hello, class!” Said no other than the teacher Mr. Staunt. His name always made me question my superior to school. He just scared me. He was nice enough. Just scared me. He just had too much in common with my past. 

The class seemed to carry on for hours instead of 40 minutes. As soon as the bell rang I gathered my thing and headed for the door. I felt a warm, strong had on my shoulder. I turned only to find Mr. Staunt.

“I need to speak with you Pinny.” He calmly said.

I turned around with him. I started listing all the things that I might have gotten in trouble for. My mom would kill me if I had gotten in trouble again.

“Ever since my nephew was put in a boarding school home by his mother, he has been trying to contact anyone in his family.” He said with such a bitter tone that even I didn’t like this mother whoever she was.

“My nephew has told me to give this to you and that it’ll be of great importance to you.” He said.

A letter? Why a letter?

“Liam says that he’s sorry for leaving. And, mind you, since he is far away from us, this letter is about a month old and probably outdated. I would like to inform you that he is, in fact, coming home next year in the same grade as you too.”

My breath had caught in my throat at this point and my body was itching to have. That. Fucking. Letter.

I pulled my hand out of my pocket and lightly scratched the letter. He smiled, patted my back, and said, “You may go to class now.”

I stood there for a second, looking at the letter before realizing what he had said and basically sprinted out the door.

Right as soon as I had gotten in the bathroom, I ran into a stall, slammed the door shut, and ripped the letter open.

I took a deep breath and ran my hand across the letter before opening it completely.

I began to read.

Dear Pinny,

Due to the fact that I have been behaving properly, I was able to contact you and 2 other people. I contacted my mom, my uncle, and you. They are giant ass holes and don’t understand that, sometimes, I want to talk to the people I care about. Not only that but it gives me time to get away from the cafeteria food here. Seriously, it tastes like fucking crap. I have to hurry though because I’ll get in trouble if I take to long. So, how are you in general. I haven’t really been in touch with you lately. Obviously. Look, I’m sorry Pinny. I’m sorry I took something away from you that should have been shared with another girl or something. I don’t know honestly. Your Christian shit is confusing. I took it away and ran. It was one of the most awkward moments and night of my life. And even though we watched porn, we never knew what we were doing. We were just winging it. We both had gotten rid of our virginity. But, even though I regret taking it from you, I don’t regret that night. It was one of the best nights of my life. No, scratch that, it was the best night of my life. Sure, I took your virginity, but I gotta see you in a position that no one else had seen you in. I was the only one seeing you come for the first time. I was happy I was the only one. Then I left. I left and left you alone. I couldn’t do anything about leaving since my mom is an asshole and can understand a simple plead. Please, please, please understand Pinny that leaving was not under my-

I stopped. I took a breath. The page ended. I remembered the heartbreak and turmoil when Liam just left one day and never came back. He was gone and wasn’t going to come back. When I had asked his mom about the whole ordeal, she shut me out completely. I spent a year hoping he would just magically appear. Now he was next year. He was coming back next year. I felt my hand tremble slightly as I continued to hold the paper. I need to know the rest. I continued reading.

-control. But telling you about it and letting you know ahead of time was. I know it might sound selfish but, I wanted to put some kind of imprint on you before I left. Let you know that I would be back and wasn’t going to leave again. The good news is that everything will be over by next year! If I have an attitude and demeanor as awesome as yours, I will be back home by next year.

I smile. He’s coming home and excited about it.

I can’t wait to see you. You have no idea how much I want to hug you, just hug you. I promise you can hit me too when I get back. Bye Pinny and I’ll see you in Senior year.

{Liam Harper Staunt} -- 187 Clerk Wood Revenue; PO BOX: [Call: 1-800-987-547]

I took a deap breath. My eyes were watering, my cheeks were flushed, and hands were trembling terribly. He was coming back and I had a girlfriend. Shit.