Peace, Love, & Pogo Sticks

Until Next Time

Brian attempted to jump up and swat the basketball out of Shawn's hand, but his attempt was unsuccessful. The ball left Shawn's hand and flew gracefully through the air, effortlessly falling through the hoop. Brian placed his hands on his hips and huffed in defeat.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that if you want to beat me, dude..." Shawn chuckled.

"I thought this was supposed to just be a friendly one-on-one game?"

"It is," Shawn affirmed. "I'm only putting in like...a tenth of what I could be. It's not my fault if you can't keep up." Shawn tossed the basketball back to Brian, who promptly caught it and began to casually dribble it around the court. He lifted the ball and launched it towards the basketball hoop, but it hit the brim and bounced back instead of falling through the net like he had intended. Shawn tried to stifle a laugh as Brian just groaned in disappointment. Before he could sulk too much, his phone started ringing. He tossed the basketball back to Shawn as he ran over to the bleachers to answer the call. Shawn tossed the ball at the hoop a few more times, watching it effortlessly go into the net every time.

"Dating sucks," Brian scoffed as he made his way back onto the court. Shawn looked at his friend and cocked his eyebrow, curious as to what would cause him to say that. "That was Jessica. She cancelled our date tonight. Apparently she's just 'not feeling us' or whatever."

"You'll find someone," Shawn said encouragingly.

"Speaking of...how's Courtney?"

"Her name is not Courtney," Shawn said as he rolled his eyes. "I still don't know what her name is. Even if I did know her name, she has nothing to do with my dating life."

"Sure she doesn't." Brian was unconvinced. "So, aside from mystery girl, how is your dating life?" Shawn ignored his question, and instead put the basketball back on the rack.

"I think I'm gonna head home now," Shawn grumbled. Brian laughed. There were few things he enjoyed more than teasing his best friend. Shawn stopped to get a fresh pressed juice on his way back to his apartment, something he always enjoyed after any type of workout. He grabbed his mail for the day, flipping through the envelopes as he rode the elevator back up to his place. Although he came to expect the letters from Miami, he still got extremely excited whenever he would receive one. He flipped the envelope over to see which sticker she chose and snorted when he saw the crass cactus cartoon. Despite his eagerness to read what she had written, he decided he was more eager to clean off the sweat from the afternoon of basketball with Brian. He threw the letter on his bed while he went into his bathroom, stripping his clothes off and stepping into the steaming shower.

As soon as he was in the shower he regretted not tending to the letter first. The anticipation was killing him - he needed to know what else she had to say. What if she included another picture? What if she sent an actual picture of herself? He cleaned himself up as quickly as he could so he could relieve his curiosity. With water still dripping off of his skin and a towel still wrapped around his waist, he sat on his bed and carefully peeled open the envelope, saving the sticker as always.

The description she had provided of her best friend, Bristol, sounded all too familiar. Though he didn't have much information about her, she already reminded him of Brian.

...Also don't worry about the peach comment. It's not the first time a guy has complimented my peach and I imagine it won't be the last. Those stickers were actually a gift from my friend Bristol, so in a weird way it's kind of like you guys have already met.

Shawn felt his cheeks reddening as he read over that part. As much as he hated to admit it, he was extremely curious now to see her 'peach'. With regular compliments on her butt from guys as well as the fact that Bristol had felt the need to purchase those stickers for her, surely it had to be pretty fantastic. He shook the perverted thought from his mind and continued reading her words. A goofy smile spread across his face when he saw that she had guessed 'Sean' as his name. Sure, the spelling wasn't correct...but she still technically got his name right. He laughed when he saw that Bristol had picked the sticker for that letter. He imagined that Camila must have a pretty expansive sticker collection based on the ones he had received so far. Still wearing nothing but a towel, he grabbed his notebook and pen and began to write.

C,
You did it! You guessed my name! Well, kind of. I'm going to give you the point for Sean, though technically the only correct way to spell it is Shawn. Nice to finally meet you! I'm not going to lie, it feels like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders now that you know my name...though I'm still dying to know yours. I've been trying to think of more potential C names, but I've been unsuccessful. Bristol sounds like fun. She also sounds eerily like a female version of my friend Brian. Speaking of Brian, he knows about you. I hadn't really meant for him to find out about you either. It sounds like we kind of felt the same way. I wasn't necessarily keeping things a secret, but just didn't really feel the need to tell anyone. Unsurprisingly, he thinks it's hilarious that I have a 'pen pal', but I don't care. I like writing you. He calls you Courtney, despite the fact that I've told him that's not your name. Have I mentioned that I really want to know your name? I'm dying to know your name. Please tell Bristol that she did an incredible job picking the sticker. It made me laugh. 'Cact-ass' is genius. Wait, is that your name? Is it Cactass? Damn. You really put your name right in front of my face and I didn't even realize until just now. I look forward to hearing from you again, Cactass.

Until next time,
Shawn (Feels good to finally write my full name...)

He folded and sealed the letter in the envelope and set it on his bedside table as he finally decided to finish drying off and getting dressed.

Later that evening, he took the letter down and put it into his mailbox to send out. As they continued writing back and forth, Shawn found himself spending more and more time thinking about her. What is her name? What does she look like? What does her voice sound like? What does her laugh sound like? He spent so much time thinking about her that part of him wondered if Brian was right about him having a small crush on the mystery girl. It's not a crush, he convinced himself, it's just curiosity.