Twenty-Eight Stamps [#Wattys2017] || ✓

the e i g h t h letter

Dear Hunter,

When you invited me to your house, I didn't want to be late, so I came early instead. The only problem was that when I turned up outside your front door with my chemistry books and pencil case in hand, you weren't even there. It's funny, how much I'm spilling out to you in these letters that I completely forgot until now had even happened.

You'd given me the address as well as your phone number. I brought it with me as if I didn't already know where you lived. I can remember my hands shaking, and my eyes searching the house, not wanting to knock but desperately willing myself to at the same time. When I plucked up enough courage, I knocked on the door and your father answered, asking who I was. I didn't want to say that we were friends just yet because I didn't even know if you liked me, so I simply told him that I was 'one of Hunter's classmates'. I asked for you, and he explained that you weren't even back yet, and I must have rushed here from school to be back so early. It was pretty embarrassing.

When you finally got back from school after my riveting, highly uncomfortable conversation with your parents, you left the car outside and gave me a genuine smile for the first time. It wasn't a smirk. It was a beautiful thing, and it made everything seem so much better. I could almost forget about the pouring September rain and my loneliness and how much I needed to impress you. I still picture that smile when I feel down sometimes.

We did the majority of the project in silence in your front living room. Textbooks, paper and stationery, spread across the floor, as we worked for a solid four hours yet only got about a third of the work done. I couldn't help but steal glances at you. Crystal clear, I recall the way that, as it became gradually darker, the light from the streetlamp outside cast a yellowish glow onto your skin and your hair and your whole perfect being, tinting your blue eyes a dark orange; it was as though you had been dipped into liquid gold.

Your mother seemed to like me when we ate dinner. She really did. I was so happy about that. I heard her ask you if I was your girlfriend just as I closed the front door behind me to leave.

All my love, always,
Maia.