The Love Letter (Part 1 of 2)

Bobby slipped the pink love letter in between the pages of Kate’s textbook when it was recess time.

The class was totally quiet. He made sure the letter was hidden within the book and he checked it twice to be safe.

He imagined Kate’s big brown eyes gleaming in delight when she read it. Hopefully not aloud in class as it would be totally embarrassing.

He touched her pencil case that was so cute with the Frozen characters. Her favourite was Elsa though she was too old for that sort of cartoon in his opinion. He brought his nose nearer to smell the case.

“Bobby! What are you doing?”

Bobby jerked up in shock and saw Alexis starting at him. She was the class monitor as displayed by her bright red name tag.

“Nothing,” Bobby muttered, walking towards the classroom door. He couldn’t fool his friend that he grew up with in church.

“Tell me the truth. What were you doing at Kate’s desk?” Alexis said, stretching out her arms to block his way. Her face was red and freckled like a tomato. Bobby was always quite scared of her for the longest time. She saw herself as a guardian to all the girls in class.

Bobby shuffled uneasily. He had to act as calm as possible. “I was just walking past that’s all.”

“You’re 16 years old with the confidence of a 6 year old,” Alexis said with a laugh. “Are you trying to fool me?”

She went over to Kate’s desk and checked it carefully. She checked the pencil case, then her bag pack and lastly the textbook. Bobby’s heart raced furiously.

“Ah, you swapped the textbook?” Alexis said, squinting hard at the cover. “Oh yes, I lent her my textbook earlier.”

She swapped the textbook on Kate’s desk with the one on her own desk beside.

Bobby gulped and panicked. He forgot to check the name inside the cover of the book. Alexis would get his love letter. He didn’t write Kate’s name anywhere in the letter.

“Time to go,” Alexis said, grabbing her lunch box. “Get moving Bobby.”

Bobby smiled grimly and was shoved out by Alexis. Sweat poured down his forehead.

The love letters weren’t his. He had found his grandfather’s love letters to his grandmother one day and it seemed so romantic, so perfect, so poetic that he simply used it for himself.

He stared at Alexis and felt a strange sensation. She was pretty too with her small button nose and puffy cheeks but sitting next to Kate didn’t really help her chances. Bobby probably got used to Alexis’ boyishness over the years in the youth group and kept her in the friend zone.

Kate however, was in a different league; the stratosphere of goddesses. Booby ate with some guy friends in the canteen. He poked at his sausage pasta that tasted bland now.

He watched Kate at the popular table with Alexis and a bunch of other girls. Alexis seemed to be sharing something excitedly with the group, sometimes glancing at his direction.

The group laughed loudly. They were all definitely laughing at him, this loser. Bobby felt alone even with his friends surrounding him.

He tried to sneak back earlier to class to remove the letter from Alexis’ textbook but was stopped by the bullies, Fred and Lee.

Fred slapped Bobby’s face and said, “Give me the money for this week’s protection.”

Bobby took out his wallet and Lee snatched it away. Lee had a sly grin plastered on his slimy face. “Looks like enough!” Lee emptied all his cash of around $20 and tossed the wallet into the trash bin.

“Hey that’s for my lunch,” Bobby said, almost on the verge of tears but his fear of looking weak overcame him. He didn’t want to come across as too weak just in case they beat him up worse.

“Losers like you deserve to be beaten up,” Fred said, his huge frame rippling with muscle under the tight school uniform. He cracked his knuckles and drew back his arm to punch Bobby.

“Stop!” a shrill cry erupted from behind them. They turned to look and saw Alexis in the corridor. She had a death-stare and stood threateningly with her hands akimbo.

Bobby saw her holding a pink letter in her right hand. His love letter. She tucked it into her skirt pocket.

“What’s your problem?” Fred said. “Monitor?”

Lee whispered to Fred, “She’s trouble! Let’s get out of here.”

“Give Bobby back his money,” Alexis demanded, her tone firm and authoritative like a teacher.

Bobby was so scared that Fred might hurt Alexis. “Alexis it’s okay, I gave them my money willingly.” Did she read his love letter and then decide to save him? Almost everyone in the school knew he was bullied but didn’t bat an eyelid.

“No, it’s not okay,” Alexis said, strutting up to Lee and twisting his ear hard. Lee yelped like a wounded dog, pulled out Bobby’s money from his pocket and gave it to Alexis.

Fred looked dumbstruck for once.

“And you!” Alexis said. “So big like a dinosaur with the brain of a peanut. I’ll tell the Principal to inform your dad.”

At the mention of Fred’s dad, Fred’s face drained of all colour. “No, please Alexis, anything but that! We promise not to bully anyone else.”

Alexis gleamed in triumph. Bobby was relieved. He was sure that Kate wouldn’t have confronted the bullies like Alexis did.

Fred and Lee apologized profusely to both of them before dashing off like a bat out of hell.

Alexis returned Bobby the cash and picked out his wallet from the trash bin. “Here you go, let me know if they bother you again.”
“Thanks Alexis,” Bobby said softly. “Why did you help me?”

“Now I know why you were in the classroom,” Alexis said, standing closer to Bobby that he felt her body pressing against him. Her perfume was sweet and tangy.

“Your love letter is so romantic,” Alexis said in hushed tones as if they were the only people in the world. “Though the language is a bit Shakespearean. I never knew you feel that way about me. Do you Bobby?”

Bobby gulped, his body stiffening. Should he tell Alexis the truth that the letter was meant for Kate and that he made a mistake? That would be devastating and he wouldn’t want to hurt Alexis’ feelings.

“I need to tell you that…” Bobby licked his dry lips.

“Yes?” Alexis’ face was almost touching his. Her eyes widened in anticipation.

“That I didn’t write the letter… I used my grandfather's love letter. That is why it sounds so old fashioned.” He couldn’t bear to tell her the naked truth. At least not now.

“Ah I see,” Alexis said proudly. “It doesn’t matter who wrote it as long as you really meant it. Did you mean it?”

“Of course I meant it.”

Alexis leaned in and kissed Bobby’s cheek lightly and quickly. Then she said, “See you after school.” and tripped down the corridor like she won the lottery.

Bobby blushed and sweat broke out on his face. What did he get himself into? He watched Alexis talking to some other girls and they all laughed. But he noticed Kate didn’t. Did she notice something?

When class resumed, Bobby couldn’t pay attention at all. He kept thinking about Alexis’ kiss in the corridor. It made him feel good inside.

The teacher slammed his ruler on Bobby's desk shaking him to reality. “Pay attention!” The whole class laughed at Bobby. Alexis shot Bobby a cheeky smile from her desk in front. Kate didn’t turn around.

---

It was Physical Education class before the end of school and they all changed into their sports attire. Fred came up to Bobby in the changing room and said, “You should be lucky to have a friend like Alexis watching out for you. You both are from the same youth group in church right?”

Fred seemed like a different person now. More reserved and polite after Alexis’ scolding. Bobby nodded, pulling on his T-shirt. “Since we were toddlers actually. She’s always been the brave one, sticking up for other people.”

As he said that, memories coursed through his mind. Indeed, Alexis has always been in the same youth group, usher team and even youth camp committee as him. But he felt that she wasn’t the right type of girl for him. She seemed too boyish.

“She’s just a good friend,” Bobby told Fred. “Let’s go!”

The sports teacher made them do track running which elicited a lot of groans. Bobby was terrible at sports and always lagged behind. He was scrawny and lacked the stamina.

Alexis however was one of the school’s top runners and at the sound of the teacher’s whistle, she dashed off at full speed.

Bobby huffed and puffed slowly at the back of the pack.

“Heard you wrote a love letter,” a voice came from behind him.

He turned to look. It was Kate, jogging up beside him. She wore a look of concern on her pretty face.

Bobby stammered whenever he talked to pretty girls. “Yes...how did you know?”

“The girl grapevine is fast,” Kate replied, her eyes looking downwards. “Did you give the letter wrongly to Alexis?”

“What do you mean?” Bobby asked, feigning ignorance.

They turned around the bend in the track and Bobby saw Alexis on the opposite side of the track watching them. He couldn't see what her expression was but suddenly felt guilty. Like he was betraying their friendship.

“Alexis told us that you put it in her textbook that was on my desk.”

“So?”

“You meant to give it to me right? It’s pretty obvious you have a crush on me.” Kate was direct and Bobby was caught off guard. They jogged on in silence for the next few minutes.

Alexis was running so fast that she caught up with them. “What are you both talking about?”

Kate wanted to say something but Bobby interrupted, “We were just talking about the year end prom party. How to do the decorations!”

“Yucks,” Alexis said with disdain. “Of no interest to me.” She nudged Bobby’s side with her elbow and ran off ahead.

“Look,” Kate finally said. “It’s not that I like you. It’s just that I don’t want my best friend to get hurt by you because you are too scared to tell her you made a mistake.”

Bobby felt as if a dagger was plunged into his heart. Kate admitted what he suspected all along - she didn’t like him!

“That’s not true,” bobby said with confidence. “I gave it to Alexis intentionally. It wasn’t for you.”

Kate seemed quite affected by his comment.

Why would she be affected when she didn’t like him? “Girls are really strange,” he thought, “even stranger than the laws of gravity!”

She bit her lips and muttered hoarsely, “Fine, that’s all I need to know.” They jogged on in tensed silence till the end of the exercise.

Kate was visibly disappointed. Maybe she knew he was lying? Maybe she would tell Alexis her suspicions? Bobby was too tired to think about it. Too much was happening to fast.

After they washed up and changed, Bobby got a text message from David, his youth pastor. It read: “Come find me later at the Crib.” The Crib was a drop-in center for studying in their church.

“Let’s go get ice-cream!” Alexis said.

“Pastor David wants to meet me later. Want to go to the Crib?” Bobby asked as he lugged his school bag.

“Sure,” Alexis said, bouncing about out of the school gates.

Bobby bought themselves some vanilla ice-cream from the ice-cream man outside. She was licking it under the hot sun when she froze.

“Oops, I think I know why Pastor David wants to meet you,” Alexis said apologetically. Bobby glared at her, head cocked to one side.

“I told him about your love letter and asked him to pray for our blossoming relationship.” She smiled apologetically as she said it.

Bobby nearly choked on the ice cream. Then he remembered that Alexis was David’s niece. It wouldn’t be a secret for long.

But he was more concerned if David was going to give him a scolding. He had the unnerving thought that David had a word from God that he was just playing with Alexis’ feelings. Prophets of old had that special revelation. Does David know the truth? He shuddered at the idea. No one could hide anything from God.

Click Here for Part 2