Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
“Whatever,” she said, and I pictured her waving me off like she always did. “My point is, he knows what he’s talking about. You should listen to him.”
“Right,” I whispered.
“So it’s decided? You’ll skip class next Saturday?”
I sighed up at the ceiling, holding the phone down against my neck as I prayed to no one for patience. “Sure, Mom,” I gritted out.
“Oh, good! I would hate to see you burn out or get injured when your career has barely started!”
I swallowed and nodded, even though she couldn’t see me.
“So, what else is new? Have you made any other friends besides your roommate? Kaya?”
“Maya.”
“Right, right,” she said.
“Um… no. Not really,” I admitted.
She made a huff of annoyance on the other end. “Well, Lennox stopped by the other day, and—“”And I’m sure you told him I said to fuck off, right?”
“Haven Wainwright!” I heard my dad shout, and I winced, realizing I must be on speakerphone. “I know you broke up with him, but really, he is a nice young man, and—“”Yes, yes,” I said, antsy to get past the issue of Lennox. “He was nice enough, but there was nothing special there,” I explained for the millionth time.
I would not explain to them how he wanted things I couldn’t give to him. Not without giving up my own dreams, my own plans for the future. I would not explain to them how he tried to control every aspect of my life when we were together. He was the son of a family friend, and I didn’t want to mess up that relationship for my parents.
“Well—“”That’s all I’m saying about it!” I said in a firm voice. “Now, I…” I swallowed and pulled my cardigan around me tighter. “I wanted to ask you something,” I said in a timid voice. The voice I reverted to whenever I asked anyone for anything.
“What’s up, buttercup?” Dad asked.
“Do you remember the letter I gave you?” I asked slowly. “The one I asked you to send right after you first adopted me?”
“The one you wrote to that boy?” Mom replied.
“Yeah.”
“What about it?”
“I was just wondering if you ever sent it?” I asked.
“I told you I sent it, baby, remember?”
“Yeah, I just… I don’t know. Being in California just got me thinking about it and—“”He would have written back if he really wanted to. We talked about this when it happened eleven years ago. He clearly wasn’t really your friend. You just thought he was since you’d never had a real one before.”
I swallowed at her words and bit back the retort on the tip of my tongue. “No, I know, I just…” I paused and peered out my bedroom door towards the letters on the coffee table. “Maybe they got lost?” I suggested.
“All twenty-something of them?” she replied. “I mean, sure, if it had just been one, I could understand that maybe it got lost. But you wrote to him so many times and never got a response. It couldn’t have gotten lost every time.”
The front door opened, and Maya stepped in, holding two large, reusable grocery bags. She looked around the apartment in caution before closing the door.
“Wes?” she mouthed, and I shook my head at her.
“Like I told you then, Haven, I sent it. I sent all of them. He just didn’t care enough to write you back. Don’t you trust me?” my mom asked.
I inhaled and looked down at my feet. I could feel Maya’s eyes on me as she pulled the groceries out of the bags, so I closed the door to avoid her stare.
“Of course I do,” I mumbled, even though my stomach clenched at my words.
“Okay then,” she said. “Now, let’s just leave that awful, awful boy where he belongs—in the past.”
I nodded again. “Okay.”
“Was there anything else you needed?”
“No, that was it,” I whispered. “Bye, Mom.”
“Bye, Haven!” My dad echoed her farewell, and then the line went dead.
I tossed my phone back on the bed. Torn. I felt so… torn. I didn’t know who to believe. Why would he lie to me about not receiving my letter? He’d always been honest with me. Even in his first letter, he was overly honest.
But why would my parents lie about sending it? What would they have gained from cutting me off from my first and only friend?
“Wanna talk about it?” Maya called to me from the kitchen. “I bought wine?”
“It’s 11:00 a.m.,” I said through the door.
“It’s five o’clock somewhere!” she called back to me.
I shook my head with a laugh. “Just give me a minute,” I told her as I perched on the edge of my bed to take my shoes off.
I stretched and wiggled my toes once they were free and sighed at the sensation of no longer having them constricted by the stiff box. I reached for the hole in the sole of my tights to roll them up over my ankles, but then Maya said, “You better not uncover those stinky ballerina feet!”
“I’ll put socks on!”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?