Chapter 1
"You look so old!" The boy smiled politely at that comment. He'd been getting that a lot lately. Having been long haired for about five years, people seemed amazed to see his whole face without the wavy blond ponytail. "Looks good." The girl added.
"Thanks," He smiled again, wishing she would stop staring and just let him in. There had always been a certain discomfort between the two of them, though their families had been friends long before there were any baby Hansons or Carlos' to run around.
Isaac cleared his throat, "Ah, Kendra?" The girl looked at him, "Are ya gonna let me in?"
"Oh, yeah!" She laughed and got out of the way of the door, he pulled it in behind him. The house smelt like burnt bacon and toast. Taking off his shoes, he headed straight for the kitchen, fully expecting to find his escaped brother mooching off their morning remains.
Kendra had quickly taken the chance to evade all hosting responsibilities and was making a dodge for the backyard door when Isaac turned around,
"Have you seen my brother?" He asked seeing that there were seeminglly no others present. She turned around and agian smiled at the hair cut. All the time she had known him, which was longer than he'd been alive, Isaac had done everything possible to straighten, hid, or disguise, his curly hair. That had been the reason he'd grown it out to begin with. He could pull it back and comb it into straight obedience. It had been so long a time since then, that she'd almost forgotten why they used to call him Shirley Temple behind his back. Now free from the control of the ever elusive hair elastic, his hair wildly curled in all directions, though he had managed to part them in the middle to some degree. He repeated the question, and this time she listened,
"Oh, yeah, he took off with Kale and Micayla."
"Not that one, Zachary." He corrected.
"Zac's never here."
Isaac groaned and headed for the door. Kendra had never been known for her good memeory, if she had she would probably have remembered that Zac had been at her house everyday that week. Isaac rolled his eyes as he put in his shoes.
"What? He isn't!" She insisted, seeing Isaac's expression.
"Ok." Sarcastically he nodded in agreement and tied his left shoe.
"What? Was he supposed to be here?" Kendra began to grow annoyed.
"He's always here Kendra." It was her turn to groan. Isaac never seemed to believe her. "But forget about it. When you see him, tell him to come home, he's late." He opened the door.
"I think I'd now if he was in my own house," Ya snotty little twerp. She added to herself.
"Uh huh," Isaac agreed.
In her mind's eye Kendra could see herself smacking the boy with the curled up magazine in her hand, but a parking car distracted her. Walking through the open door, both teens watched as her family van opened and out popped Isaac's lost little brother. She bit her lip remembering now that Zac had been in the house around breakfast.
"Well I told you he wasn't in the house at the moment." She defended herself before she could be accused.
"Yes you did. You were right Kendra." He didn't look at her, simply left her on the front porch to let the reality she could not dismiss set in. She was wrong. She glared at the back of his head as he went to collect his brother. Why was that boy always so difficult? She now remembered that since his 14th birthday, Zachary had been spending much more time with her younger sister Leena. They said they just missed each other but everyone figured they were simply trying to be more underhanded than their siblings had been at their age.
Kendra and Isaac had openly began dating and declared their undying love for each other right after Kendra had started high school. Not that things were different back then, there was still an awkwardness between them. She had thoroughly believed him when he said they were practically engaged, even though there really wasn't much of an attraction. It was the letters, she had always known it. He could seduce a cobra with mere words alone. But that wasn't all. He serenaded her with songs, made her tiny presents of memories and brought her flowers for their two-month anniversary. He pulled out chairs, opended doors, said please and thank you and kissed like an angel, so that even to think of it now brought the tingle back to her cheek, but he hadn't loved her. He could be the the perfect boyfriend but he couldn't love her. The day he confessed that, she didn't need to question it. She hadn't loved him either and hadn't even been very good at pretending to. But she did love the letters. They were what she cried over that day. And after that, they were the only thing that had changed. After she gave him back his ring (he didn't take it, she left it on the park bench), and they broke it to their parents (who had dreamed of their children marrying at birth), the apathetic chill between them remained but so died the treasured letters.
With a toothy smile Zachary waved to every member of the family then piled into his brother's car. Kendra didn't wave back. It was obvious that Zachary truly enjoyed Leena's company, and that they genuinely did love each other, if not romantically, than as friends. Kendra dreaded the idea that her beloved letters could possibly become resurrected from Zachary to her sister. A pang made her heart flinch as she saw her little sister, fold up a piece of paper before she came to the door. Leena saw her sister's stare.
"Don't let that smile fool you," Misinterpreting Leena spoke.
Kendra shrugged her shoulders, shaking her head, explaining she hadn't a clue of what Leena was talking about.
"Zachary. Don't let him fool you." The plastered smile she had given Zac had melted into a frown. "There's something wrong with him."
Hiccuping the smile and giggle she nearly let escape Kendra kept a straight face and only thought Yeah we ALL knew that! Zachary used to be painfully hyperactive at times, still was, if it got late or he got excited.
"He had to go to a doctor."
"That's probably just the sushi." Kendra guessed. A boy named Jonny, who the boys had hung out with while in LA resently, seemed to have a thing for sushi restaurants, which always made Zac sick. Normally Zac complained about it over the phone, from where ever his family currently was, but this time they had gone out with Jonny and returned to Tulsa the next morning, so the tail was divulged in person.
"I don't think so Kendra. He hasn't been himself. He's acting so...fake." Kendra sighed. Her sister seemed determined to blow things out of per portion. It wasn't a kind fact but it was common. The boys had just returned from recording their second album and so much pressure took a lot out of Zac. The first album had been made when he was only 11 but people hadn't expected so much of him. When he became over tired, it was true, he could get sullen, but it was nothing to worry about. It always passed. Leena blinked back tears and pulled out the note he'd given her to distract herself.
"He wrote me a letter while they were in LA," she began to unfold it.
"I don't want to hear it." Without fear of seeming rash Kendra left the room, consumed in her own fear of that letter. She locked her bedroom door behind her.