The Pen Pal Project // Alex Gaskarth

4.

ALEX

Alex sat in his room, a notebook in front of him with lyrics on it, and a guitar in his lap.

 It was mid-October so Alex had on basketball shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt.

 He was writing a song, or at least trying to. He tried to make it for Book-Girl but it's hard to write a song for a girl who you've never seen. You can't write about your adventures because the closest they came to having an adventure was when Alex told her about the time he got poison ivy on his hands then ended up with it everywhere.

 The two had written each other twelve times each.

 By now Alex was writing witty names on the front of the envelopes, trying to make Book-Girl laugh.

He'd write things like Friend, Girl Who Lives At, Book-Girl, and Not Guitar-Guy.

 He imagined her laugh to be like honey, sweet and addictive.

 Alex was certain he could find this girl, Mrs. Clark only had three AP classes, and each only had 25 students each.

 Since he could count out the boys he was somewhere near 35 people. Plus, he could count out all of the girls with blonde or red hair too.

And Alex wanted to; he wanted to find Book-Girl so bad it made his chest ache.

 Sure, this girl was his friend, but he couldn't help but think that their friendship could be something so much more. He loved the way she wrote, she sounded so smart and inviting.

 "You are so whipped and you haven't even met this girl."

 Alex was broken out of his trance to see that Jack had entered his room and was already sitting in his desk chair spinning around and around like the five year old he was.

 "I'm not whipped," Alex replied.

 "Fine, then obsessed. We hardly talk about guy things anymore, it's all about Book-Girl. Tell me my friend, when was the last time you told a dick joke?" Jack asked.

 Alex shrugged, "Like last week?"

 "Exactly! Bro, you used to spit one out every other sentence, now every other sentence is about Book-Girl!" Jack exclaimed.

 The skunk haired boy had a point; he spoke about Book-Girl a lot.

 "Look, Lex, I'm not trying to tell you to stop talking about her, obviously she makes you happy. Just try and channel whatever you're feeling into a song or poetry so something," Jack elaborated.

 "What do you think I'm doing now?" Alex asked, gesturing to the notebook and guitar.

 "Well let me hear what you've got," Jack said.

 "I've been noodling around with different chords, and I like them a lot, but they don't fit with what I'm writing right now. These chords are too upbeat and these lyrics need something a little less intense and I can't find a happy medium right now," Alex explained, running his hands through his hair.

 "What about the lyrics, maybe I can help out with some chords man," Jack offered.

 Alex cleared his throat and sang the words softly, "You're just a daydream away. I wouldn't know what to say if I had you."

 "How long have you been working on this?" Jack asked, smiling at his friend.

 "Like two hours," he shrugged.

 "That's a lot of time and not a lot of words bro," Jack stated.

 "You think I don't know that?!" Alex snapped.