best friend | zdj

three

"annabelle!"

i looked up at joel and grinned. "hey. what did you need my help with?"

he pulled the chair beside me out and sat down. "my anniversary with your sister is coming up and i was wondering if you could help me surprise her. i mean, no one knows her better than you."

ouch. "of course." why the hell am i agreeing to continuously break my heart? "what do you need?"

"i was thinking of taking her to puerto rico for a weekend, since it's your birthplace i assume she must miss it a lot."

my eyes widened. "to- to puerto rico?"

"yeah! it's not too much, is it? it's our second anniversary so i think we're ready for something like this."

i shook my head. "she'll appreciate it. i know for a fact she does miss our homeland. i don't remember much so i have nothing to miss."

he smiled. "thanks, annabelle. see you later in class?"

i opened my mouth to respond, but he was already up and gone. i sighed and dropped my head on the table.

"you're gonna break that table."

i jumped up. in front of me stood christopher. yes, christopher from homecoming. he chuckled at my confused face. we had a class together this morning and he didn't even bat an eyelash in my direction. what could he possibly want now?

"look, can we talk?" he asked as he sat in front of me.

i stared at him for a second. "talk? to me? about what?"

he pulled his phone out of his pocket. he unlocked it before handing it to me. it was an email, i recognized the first sentence:

we danced under the moonlight with our classmates as witnesses of the magic that happened between us...

my eyes widened. this was his love letter. i remember writing it the next morning, i exaggerated everything that happened for the sake of my fantasy. holy fucking shit.

"h– how did you get this? who sent this to you?" my eyes were filling up with tears.

"i received it like half an hour ago, thank god my girlfriend didn't see it. it says the sender was you... look."

i took a closer look. indeed, my email was clearly on the sender's place. i placed my hand over my chest as i tried to calm myself down.

"this isn't happening... i'm dreaming." i closed my eyes tightly and opened them again, but christopher was still sitting across me and the love letter was still on his phone. "look... i wrote this years ago. i– i honestly don't know how you received it. i never leave my laptop unattended. i'm really sorry."

"don't worry, anna." he smiled. "you described that night so beautifully... it seems like straight of a novel."

i blushed. "uh, thank you."

he nodded and stood up. "tell you what, that letter seems pretty private and obviously you didn't want it to leak. i'll delete the email."

"oh my god." i sighed. "thank you so much, it's so embarrassing that something i wrote so many years ago..." i suddenly trailed off, realizing something. "...is out in the public like this. oh no. oh my god, no."

"what's wrong?" he furrowed his eyebrows.

"i have to go. i'm sorry!" i offered him an apologetic smile before grabbing my bag and running out of the cafeteria.

if christopher received his letter, that means... so did everyone else! oh my god. erick, richard, joel...

i think i'm going to be sick.