The Pen Pal Project // Alex Gaskarth

11.

ALEX

The irony of the whole, 'what do you want for your birthday' thing was that Alex's gift actually arrived on his birthday.

He shamefully expected it, he felt bad for not telling Book-Girl what he wanted, but the whole thing just felt way too awkward.

Alex's birthday was on a Thursday, the day before school ended for holiday break.

When he hopped up his front steps after school, he was met with a small cardboard box. It was addressed to Guitar-Guy and Alex knew exactly what it was.

He sighed and picked it up. Using a knife in the kitchen, Alex tore open the box to see an unmarked envelope on top of the bubble wrap.

He unfolded it and smiled.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUITAR-GUY!!!!!!

I know it's probably not your birthday, but hey, this is your birthday gift after all. I know you know that you ignored my request. So I went ahead and got you something. It's not much, but I hope you like it.

I hope you use them wisely, and that they made you smile, even a little bit.

I hope whenever your birthday actually is (or was) that's it's amazing.

Hey, your legal now. And in the eyes of the law, an adult. How scary is that? A job? Taxes? Working nine to five, five days a week? Gah, the future is daunting.

Happy Birthday again, my friend.

Love,

Book-Girl

Alex placed the letter down on the table before carefully removing the bubble wrap that was in the small box.

There were two glass jars. One large and one medium sized.

The large one was filled to the top with small bits of folded paper and the other was filled with something Alex recognized almost instantly.

Guitar picks.

He picked up the glass jar. The top read, "Guitar-Guy's Personally Personalized Guitar Picks."

He chuckled then opened the jar.

The first pick he pulled out was white and printed on it was, "Property of Guitar-Guy."

There were other ones, ranging from, "Book-Girl is the best," "The Party Scene," "'I Wish Mark Hoppus Was My Father' -Guitar-Guy," amongst others.

Alex started to notice that many of these picks had quotes that he had written in his letters to Book-Girl.

Call him whatever you want, but Alex started to get emotional over the small pieces of plastic. No one had ever thought of a gift like this. Book-Girl had obviously, thought long and hard about this gift and also, she took the time to get these for him. She found the quotes from his letters.

Alex was simply amazed.

He picked up the other jar.

There were instructions on the top too.

 For Guitar-Guy, Whenever You Feel Down.

Alex unscrewed the lid and picked up the first folded piece of paper.

 "Take a deep breath, but when that doesn't work, go pull your hair, scream into a pillow and curse to your heart's desire; because suppressing those feelings of stress just never works, let them out, everyone has to eventually." -Guitar Guy