The Pen Pal Project // Alex Gaskarth

50.

They all kept it pretty cool and tried desperately to avoid the elephant thumping around in the room.

Mainly, they all caught up. Especially Kendall and Jack. They really hadn't realized they had missed so much in the others lives.

"And what exactly does it mean to graduate Magna Cum Laude?" Jack asked. They were discussing Kendall's college achievements, they seemed to have picked up where they had left off.

"It means she's super smart," Rian said.

"But not the smartest. Even I couldn't get a 4.0 all four years." Kendall laughed.

Jack smiled, "I bet you could've, you just didn't have the right study buddy."

She smiled, "English doesn't really work that way Jay. It's either you read the material, or you didn't. Not a lot of gray area in there."

"So, what you're telling me is that Book Girl didn't read all of her books," Alex said looking over at her.

That's when the table went silent. Everyone kind of looked down and fiddled with their hands. Kendall took another, long sip of her coffee in front of her.

Alex coughed, "Uh sorry."

"It's no big deal."

It was silent a little longer until Rian cleared his throat, "So, Lauren what do you do?"

Lauren smiled at him, "I'm a mathematician doing research for the government."

"Wait people actually like math?" Jack asked, "It was always nap time for me during high school."

"Yeah we know," Rian said, rolling his eyes.

"I've always been good at math and it was never like a huge passion of mine until I got to college and knew I wanted to be in a STEM field but hated science. So, I majored in math and minored in physics." Lauren explained.

Jack nodded and looked at Kendall, "She's pretty and smart, good choice in friends."

Lauren looked down at her latte and blushed while smiling.

Kendall laughed.

Conversation went on a little longer but soon enough Kendall was out of coffee. It was late and she knew she probably shouldn't have another but decided that she did a lot of things that night that she probably shouldn't have so another cup couldn't hurt.

She excused herself and walked over to the counter where the barista was standing, playing on his phone. He looked up and smiled, "Can I get you something else?"

Kendall smiled lightly, "Yeah, can I get another latte macchiato."

"Anything else?"

"No, that'll be all," she replied, going into her pocket to fish out the five-dollar bill she knew was in it.

"Total is $3.75."

Before Kendall could hand the guy the crinkled five, a hand with a flower tattoo handed the cash over to the barista, "I got it."

Kendall looked over at Alex and smiled, "You didn't have to."

"Well," he shrugged, "You did pay money just to yell at me earlier so, it's the least I can do."

Kendall gave him a glare, "I didn't come to yell at you...I came to confront you."

"And if you just so happened to start yelling it would've been a bonus."

"Yes, exactly!" Kendall exclaimed laughing.

That made Alex laugh too.

After the laughter died down, Alex spoke. "Seriously though, I'm so glad you came. I've been trying to work up the courage to talk to you for years, and for some reason, I just could never find the guts."