Locker of Love Letters

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Prologue

I stood in the courtyard of my small high school in Iowa, awaiting the arrival of my best friends, Arianna Rutger and Seth Burns. They both got a ride to school with Arianna’s mom, and always come at the last minute, right before homeroom. This is because Arianna insists she must look absolutely perfect down to every last strand of hair. Why? It’s for Seth, not that he knows it.

Arianna has had a crush on Seth ever since I can remember—since about the sixth grade. No, I take that back; it’s not a crush. It’s an obsession. Every time we go shopping, she tries something on and says things like, “I don’t think Seth will approve,” or “Do you think Seth will like this?” It’s always about him. Always.

But it’s not very hard to constantly think of Seth seeing as he’s such a good guy. I mean, he has straight A pluses in school, spends time with his family, and does community service on the weekends. That’s not what Arianna’s worried about. She just likes him because he’s “hot.” Seth is pretty good looking, I’ll admit, but basing your feelings on looks alone was pretty shallow in my eyes. Seth is tall, about six feet even, and is only a freshman. His hair is wavy and falls halfway to his shoulders—it’s black in color. His eyes are a medium blue hue that Arianna says looks like the ocean in Cancun, Mexico. Not that I’ve been there. He usually wears a black or navy band T-shirt paired with blue jeans, and of course his shoes would only belong to a skater. Did I forget to mention he skateboards?

Just about the time homeroom is about to start, I decide to head inside to escape the cold. I was impeccable as far as my timing went; I did everything I was supposed to when I was supposed to. With three minutes left on the clock, I doubted Arianna and Seth would do the same.

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I got to homeroom with a minute to spare. Nearly everyone is there already seeing as the two main halls were practically deserted. I saw Seth there, sitting in his usual spot (the back right hand corner) with his earphones in his ears as usual. In front of him, Arianna’s seat is empty, and there is no sign of her pink and white tote bag—the one with the black lettering. I wonder where she is and if she’s going to make homeroom in time. I try to silence these thoughts as I went to the back of the room and sat beside Seth.

“Hey, Seth,” I said, and he says hi back, taking his earphones out. “Where’s Arianna?” I asked, and he shook his head.

“She’s not going to be here today, I don’t think,” he says, drumming a beat on an imaginary drum set. He’s always doing this seeing as he wants to be a musician. He thinks this is equivalent to real practicing, and he believes it will help him in the long run. I don’t think so, but whenever I comment on it, he only laughs.

I give a small nod, wondering why she wouldn’t be here. She has had perfect attendance three years running, and she wanted to keep it running. “Why do you think so?” I asked, and Seth shook his head again.

“I don’t want to say. She’ll tell you herself.”

That did not sound good. Something must be seriously wrong, I thought. “What’s going on?” I asked, alarmed. I wanted to shake his broad shoulders and throttle it out of him, but I resist my urge. I refused to get a detention—not this year, at least. Any other time, I would have done it. “Why isn’t she here?” I shot him an odd look, hoping he got the message that I was ready to beat it out of him.

Seth seriously contemplated whether or not he was going to tell me. He stopped his imaginary drumming, and gestured me to lean in. I did, and then, whispering, he said, “She told me she liked me last night, but I told her I didn’t like her that way.” He pulled away and said, “I think she’s a little embarrassed.”

I could not believe my ears. Arianna had told Seth she liked him without consulting me first! was my first thought, but then I softened and took in something bigger: Seth, whom I thought was crazy about Arianna, didn’t like her in a romantic sense. I sat back and took this in, amazed that I had been wrong. They had been a tightly knit pair since I can remember, and I always felt like the third wheel. They always laughed and joked together, hung out without me, and even went to movies together. But, once I thought about it, I realized most of that had been initiated by Arianna—she was the one to start things, not Seth. He only went along with it. Does that mean he’s at fault? I wondered, but I didn’t get the chance to think this through. Seth spoke yet again.

“Don’t treat her any differently, though,” he said. “She hates that.”

With my mouth open to say something else, to say something along the lines of ‘Why don’t you like her?’ the bell rang. The intercom came on for morning announcements, and our teacher, who sat in the front of the room behind his heavy wooden desk, shushed us, a finger to his lips. I fell silent. Great. Now I wouldn’t be able to talk to Seth until lunch.

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Classes passed slowly even by my standards. Normally I thought school went by quickly; I was one of the nerds that actually liked school. But today, I simply wanted to hurry up and get to lunch to talk to Seth, but no, time was against me. By the time noon rolled around, I was practically bouncing off the walls. I was one of the first in the cafeteria, and I took our normal round table up in the back left hand corner, on the opposite wall from the vending machines and waited.

In the meantime, I opened my lunch bag and nearly inhaled my turkey and cheese sandwich in nervousness. I have a habit of eating when I’m nervous or anxious. My mother says I’ll never grow out of it, that I’ll end up some six hundred pound lady because I only eat “junk.” I don’t care. At least I’d die happy, I said.

Just as I was finishing up my carrot sticks, Seth walked up to the table. He had his lunch bag in hand and sat down to eat with a quick greeting. His usual ham sandwich came out almost instantly, and suddenly, I found I had nothing to say. Sure, I could ask why he didn’t like Arianna, but then I would blab to her like I always did and make her feel bad. I didn’t want to do that. So instead, I kept quiet.

Seth didn’t. “Emmy,” he said, “do you want to go out with me on Friday night to catch that movie you wanted to see?” Instantly, I knew I was stuck in the middle of Seth and Arianna.

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A/N: It's not my usual genre, but I still like it. Do you? R&R! Thanks for looking!