Sally's Face

(4)

The next step was more direct. Travis usually hated expressing his feelings verbally. Talking was never his strong suit. But giving praise and compliments were even worst. Sal was never very good at compliments either. He could give them, being weirdly good at flirting, but when receiving them, he was a mess.

 Complimenting Sal

That was the entire idea, express his love and attraction towards Sal including and despite his face. One thing that Travis was good at was writing. He never shared his works with anyone. Sal knew it was a private thing for Travis and Travis only. He kept his distance and never insisted on reading anything he wrote. Travis journaled often, it was something is mother taught him, and was now a habit of his. Writing in general though, was a passion. Stories, papers, notes, writing of all kinds he loved it all. His words were only for himself to see, so this was a big step for him, but it was still better than constantly telling Sal how gorgeous he is.

Whenever he had the time, Travis would sit and write something out for Sal, something meaningful and from the heart. He wished he was an amazing poet, but alas he was no Shakespear or Dickenson. He tried his best and hoped that this something was enough for Sal. 

He started out simple, leaving notes on the counter and sneaking in pet names. It was weird and he hated it to his very core, but it was the first step in this, he gave it patience.

"Please do the dishes Darling." 

"Can you get hand soap from the store cutie."

"Good luck on your test. You'll do great angel."

"Left you food in the fridge if you get hungry. Love you Sally Face"

It was so corny and so dumb but Travis fought through his embarrassment. Sal thankfully never brought up these notes to Travis directly. But instead started leaving his own sometimes. It became a way of conversation, of communication. It also became a way of relying info to each other by means other than text message. When Travis left for church early he would often have to leave messages on Sal phone, the buzzing waking up the masked one. It made Travis feel bad, and Sal not able to get as much sleep as normal. Leaving notes was easier and more officiant, leaving Sal with a full nights rest and Travis without the guilt.

But as some time went on, Travis got more romantic with his notes. Mailing them to Sal's house, leaving them in his bag or just directly giving them up. They were way more elaborate and affectionate. Lovey Dovey professions of love and care and admiration. Travis was more of a poet than he originally thought. Sal loved them, he kept all the small notes with cute names on them, but now, with the love letters he kept them in a lock box with his other prized possessions. He read them when he felt down to cheer himself up or to just show them off to his friends and giggle about how cute it all was. Ash, Todd and Neil all thought it was really cute and sweet to do things like that, Larry was more grossed out by Travis's professions. Sal even tried to write back, sitting with a notebook and writing out everything he wanted to say to Travis. He improvised it, trying to give it a artsy feel, trying to acheive Travis's passion and emotion.

It was garbage. Torn up, never to see the light of day again.

But Sal prevailed trying his best to keep up with Travis's kind words in his own way. He sat one night for hours listening to music of all kinds to create a mixtape for Travis. he carefully listened to the lyrics of the music finding lovey songs that Travis would enjoy. Travis liked "old people music" (Larry), jazz, classical, slow rock, that type of thing. He never showed much love for Sal's hard rock or death metal, he tolerated it. Sal liked a lot of different kinds of music and liked some of Travis's. He hoped with the different variations in the mixtape that Travis would like it. It would never match the love letters, Sal knew, but he wanted to try. He read over all the letters, thinking about songs that copy the feel of the notes.