Living in your Letters
Chapter 1
By: Pretty in Punk
AN: Hi to reviewers. Very short story. Just had .. some "sudden inspiration".
To write this story i had to:
- Cry 125546833 times.
- Listen to Living in Your Letters, per Dashboard confessional, all along.. that means at least 5223442322 times, considering i cry at least.. let's see.. 41,605526 times per song..
I'm an hopeless romantic. Math sucks. Enjoy.
Getting out of the car, the 23 year old man looked up without really paying attention to the stars above his head shining beautifully on that mid summer night. She always said stars were the guardian angels of the human race. He sighed. His glance finally stopped on one of the only window at the 14e floor of the Grand Hotel right in front of him from which still came out a light, seeing it was already 2 in the morning.
He took a deep breath before finding the courage to walk to the big golden front porch doors and pulled one of them. Entering the hotel La Plaza, he slowly looked around the dark hall, just to see if she was there. The hall was empty. Souvenirs. He quickly shook his head, and once again promised himself not to cry. He entered the very old elevator and watched out for the bunch of white roses, her favorites, he had in his arms not to get stuck in the squeaking doors. Then everything became on slow motion. The doors slowly closed, and he pushed the 14e button with his free hand, trembling. In some seconds he would be at the 14e floor. He tried to convince himself everything was going to be fine. Then sank in memories.
**START FLASHBACK**
"Mom, I really don't want to go to school, people at school suck!"
"Joel Combs! I forbid you to say those bad words again! What would have happened if your father had heard you?"
"Mom I'm not 5 anymore, I'm 11 and an half years old I am a man now and I'm not afraid of father anymore!"
"Joel sssh he could hear you so…"
She was cut off by a chubby-checked little boy that looked exactly like Joel. "Ho yeah, Joel the manly man!"
"Benji shut up… you are the same age as me.. remember.. we are twins?"
"Whatever" Benji said, looking for an excuse.
"At least I have a girlfriend! And you don't" He said proudly as he checked in the cupboard for his favorite cereals.
"Sherley? Sherley is not your girlfriend dude, You talked to her like.. 2 times!" Joel said, laughing.
"No dude, she told me that when we'll be older we'll get married, and have kids!" Benji shoot back to his brother.
Her mother smiled. They were so young, immature and innocent. Still, she loved them with all her heart. Her little babies would have plenty of time to grow up, and learn about life. About love.
That day at school, Joel was hanging lazily with some of his friends when Benji ran up to him.
"Joel, you were right, Sherley was a bitch." Everyone looked at Benji, because he had said a bad word.
"Wa.. what did you say dude?"
"I said Sherley broke up with me."
"Why, dude I thought this was getting serious..?"
"Well.. she found me kissing Vanessa in class.. Vanessa is my new girlfriend, I'm going to marry her and…"
"Well, Benji i think girls are meanies. I don't like them. Remember, Nathalie? Well she cheated on me with… wait.. with you! Anyway, friends are better. Guys know how to play basketball, girls don't. Girls don't know how to fight, plus you can't fight with them. Then they are always crying and they play with barbies.. no way dude, i'm never going to be friend with one of them!" They all laughed, and at this time, Joel never thought he could need one of them to live.
On their way home, the twins passed in front of an house right next to theirs that was empty since some weeks. People were moving in. "Hey dude" Benji said to his brother "Maybe we should go greet them?"
"Okay, but you talk first, I'm shy with new people."
"Okay" Benji said, walking to a kid that looked the same age that he saw going out of the house.
"Hey, hi, my name is Benji and this is my brother Joel. We are twins. So, are you new here?"
" Hey, I'm Louis. Yeah, actually, I moved here with my mom, my dad and my little sister here. We are from Canada. It's not very different from here, yah know."
"Hey that's really cool. We live right here" Benji said, pointing the house next from Louis's.
"Do you wanna go play with us? I'm sure my mom won't care." Louis looked around.
"It would be fun, but i promised my mom i was going to baby-sit my sister, Annie."
"Well, she can come, I'm sure my mom won't care about that either."
"Cool… did you see her though? She was right here 30 seconds ago… damn this girl is always running everywhere! Where is she now?"
Just as Louis finished his sentence, They heard a screaming and a very little girl came running to them. "Louis, louis! You'll never guess what I found in the house!"
"Well tell me."
"No way, Louis, you have to guess!"
"Annie, you know I'm not good at the guessing game, so tell me."
Her eyes sparked and she said: "Alright, but you have to find me first!" She laughed and ran into the house.
"Dude, she runs way too fast, I'll never be able to find her before supper!"
"We are going to help you find her!" Benji said in a superhero tone, and the 3 guys entered the house.
"Okay, Benji, go check the basement. I'll check the first floor, and Joel the ground floor."
"Okay." They said, and all went their seperate ways.
"Okay, where would I hide myself if I were a little girl?" Joel thought. He smiled and checked under the couch in the living room, and found her immediately.
"Who are you, and how'd you know I'd be here?"
"I am Joel, and I knew you would be here because I have a little sister and she always hides behind the sofa in our house."
"Oh, how old is she?"
"She's almost ten, and I'm 2 years older than her. And, how old are you?"
"I'm almost ten too… well, do you want to hide with me? It'll be fun, they will never find us, Joely."
Joel laughed at the name she had gave him, and he hid with her. It took the other guys one hour to find them, so they had plenty of time to talk and know more about each other.
---
Summer came. As Benji started to be a very close friend of Louis, Joel became a close friend of Annie. She was different from the other girls. He could almost consider her just like any other boy he was friend with. She never cried, she hated Barbies, she liked to fight with him and, something really funny about this is that she always won when they did.
One day, she even had pinned him on the ground during 2 hours, laughing in his face, and he was too weak to fight back. Annie was a friend of Sarah, Joel and Benji's little sister, too, but she was a lot closer to Joel.
Autumn. Annie's birthday. Joel came to her home with a little gift that November night: he had give her a cd.
"Do you like music?"
"Of course, I do, Joely!" She had give him this nickname the first day she had meet him and she never stopped calling him like that.
"This is one of my favorite bands, It's named Minor Threat. Hope you'll enjoy it."
"Sure I'll do. Hey, wanna come on the roof to watch the stars with me tonight?"
"Sure." They climbed on the roof and sat in the middle of it.
"You know, Joely, I think that stars are the guardian angel of the human race. They are always watching us, even when we don't see them during the day, just like angels. Mom says angels are going to save her."
Joel nodded, not really understanding what she was talking about, and searched in the sky for some kind of sign of angels.