19A/N: Heh. This has been a long time coming, and it's quite a bit shorter than other chapters… I'm sorry about that. I've been writing a lot of other things – I've written two one shots, almost an entire novel, and a novella between posting this chapter and the last. Yay! But sadly, this story has gotten the boot.
The good news is that one of those one shots, Straight On 'Til Morning, a Peter Pan one shot, won runner up in a TWA contest and was also nominated in the winter round at Some Kind of Wonderful Romance Awards. If you would, I'd be much obliged if you'd run over and read, then vote if you enjoyed it. (:
I'm going to work on the next chapter of this right now, so hopefully the next update won't be as long coming. And you should all thank Cathering611 for updating her story, A Touch of Crimson, or you wouldn't be seeing this one, since I really only write this for her to read. :P
I started writing the journals the next week, usually during classes. I droned on and on about my professors, the work load, the weather – anything that came to mind. At one point, I found myself scribbling poetry into the margins. The boys would probably be getting more than they bargained for, but somehow, I didn't think they'd mind. They'd been extremely encouraging so far, and I had no reason to think that would change.
Anna and I continued to talk. I was swamped with schoolwork and she with her internship at a local newspaper, so we didn't get to meet up again, but we talked on the phone whenever we weren't busy. I managed to keep our chatting from Brielle – she wouldn't like it, and I didn't feel like trying to explain our friendship since I'd have to get into the letters.
I hadn't mentioned my correspondence with the guys to anyone, and there was still no good reason. Bri would probably have been cool with it – actually, she would have loved it. The romance of befriending a bunch of soldiers, the rebelliousness of doing it under the Biddies' noses… but every time I thought of telling her, something stopped me.
That was why - about a week and a half after I'd sent the last letter and my first journal installment – I panicked when my phone started ringing in the middle of a psychology study session with my already irritated best friend.
Flinging the phone under a pile of clothes waiting to be washed, I turned to Brielle grinned in what I hoped was an innocent way. "Hey, could you go grab a couple of Cokes out of the fridge? I have a feeling we're gonna need the caffeine." Brandishing the essay prompt as evidence, I all but shoved her out the bedroom door.
The plan was to tell Anna I couldn't talk and go back to studying before Bri got back, but there was one big problem… the deep male voice on the other end of the line was most definitely not my bubbly new friend, and was infinitely harder to get rid of.
"You weren't sleeping, were you?" it asked, sounding almost worried. "It's only ten there, right?" If he was worried about waking me, chances were it wasn't a prank call, so I didn't hang up immediately. But if it wasn't a prank, who was it?
"Nope, just studying. Uh, who is this?" I pulled the phone away from my ear to check the caller id, but all I saw was a jumble of numbers with a strange area code.
"Guess." Maybe it was a prank. Why would someone call and then ask me to guess who it was if they wanted to have an actual conversation?
"Ricky Salvatoro, I swear, if that's you I am handing this phone over to Brielle and letting her rip you a new one." The threat was crude, not my usual style, but I was tired and cranky. "I am sick and tired of you and your goons calling this number and –"
"Who the fuck is Ricky Salvatoro?" Mystery caller demanded, the protective note in his voice taking me by surprise.
"Uhm-" What were you supposed to say to that, honestly? "Not to be rude or anything but… who is this?" Brielle was looking at me as I spoke, one perfectly waxed eyebrow raised in question. I shrugged, trying to tell her that I was as confused as she was.
"Shit, I guess you wouldn't recognize my voice – this is Tony!"
I almost dropped the phone. "Tony? As in, Tony Zippelin? What- how … Oh my God!" I squealed, making Brielle jump.
"Who?" she demanded, rolling her hair into a ponytail as she looked at me.
I shook my head to shut her up. "It's just friends that I met at camp last summer – actually, you know what? I'll go take it downstairs." I stood up to leave the room, only to get an eye roll and a shove back down.
"Forget it – we're pretty much done anyway, and I need food. I'll talk to you tomorrow." She gathered her things and left, grumbling under her breath about secrets and supposed friends.
But I'd deal with her tomorrow. For now, I had other things to worry about, like the guy on the other end of line trying to get my attention. "Korynn? You there?"
"Yeah, I'm here," I said, a tad breathlessly. "How are you calling me?"
"Well, I picked up the phone and dialed your number …"
"Smartass. Not what I meant, and you know it. Wait." Something occurred to me. "How did you get my number?"
Deep laughter rumbled through the phone. "Anna gave it to Aiden, kid," he answered. "And we got phones today from some charity thing. I didn't really ask questions- we were just excited."
I giggled. "Understandable, I guess. So, how are you? Staying safe?"
"Yup, yup," he said, and we sat in silence for a moment. Clearly fishing around for conversation topics, he went with a generic one, asking, "What's going on with you, girl? School good?"
"Eh, it's school. As good as can be expected." I shrugged, ignoring the fact that he couldn't see me. "I started those journal entry things the other day – you should be getting the first ones in about a week."
"Awesome – ah, shit. Ok, we're only allowed a couple of minutes, and I'm being yelled at to hand over the phone. I'll talk to you soon, though, ok? We're thinkin' this can be a once a week kinda deal." Tony sounded genuinely disappointed that we couldn't talk more, making my grin stretch even wider.
"That's great! But I'll let you hand the phone over. I'll talk to you soon! Stay safe!"
I barely got my goodbyes in before the next voice was on the phone, this one a warm, southern drawl. "Hello? Korynn?"
It was Jake. I got about the same amount of information out of him as I did Tony about the phones; just that some charity had donated some prepaid ones and a bunch of minutes for soldiers serving in Iraq. I made a mental note to find out which charity and send a donation and a 'thank you' card since the guys couldn't. What they were doing definitely deserved at least that much recognition.
We chatted for a few minutes about school and football teams, but I was so overwhelmed that I could think of almost nothing to say. Jake was a sweetheart, like I had guessed from reading his sections of the letters. Whenever we began to spoke at the same time, he would refuse to continue until I had finished, and he never teased or laughed when I stuttered or said something stupid.
"Oh, my time's up," he sighed finally, sounding regretful. "I'll talk to you next week, though, ok? Don't let that stupid town get you down."
I chuckled a little, unable to stop myself. "Bye, Jake. Stay safe."
There was a knock at my door as I heard the phone being passed around, and Anna walked in. She too, had a phone glued to her ear and a wide smile covering her face – I took it to mean that Aiden had called her as well.
"Sorry I just popped in," Anna mouthed at me, covering the mouthpiece of her phone. "But I figured we could gush together after we're done talking."
I gave her a nod and a smile before turning my attention back to the phone. She would be there after I hung up the phone; I could focus on the next speaker for now.
"Korynn?" A low, quiet voice hit my ear and sent goose bumps down my arms in waves. It wasn't Aiden, I would have recognized his voice – plus, the grin on Anna's face said that they were talking. If he'd called his girlfriend, chances were that Alec was talking with his fiancé, which meant only one thing.
This had to be Cade.
"Hey, Cade," I greeted, somewhat anticlimactically after the chill he had given me. "How are you?"
There was a rumbling chuckle from the receiver. "Process of elimination, right?"
"Yup." Something occurred to me then, and I couldn't stop myself from blurting it out. "Hey - why are you three passing around one phone when Alec and Aiden have their own?" I shouldn't have brought it up, I scolded myself, almost immediately after. It was none of my business if they were trying to be noble or something.
"Oh, yeah. We let the guys with the girlfriends have the spare phones, it seemed fair." The nonchalance with which he answered set me back at ease, though it seemed as if his voice would always have me shivering in my seat. I couldn't seem to stop as long as he was speaking. "So we get to share while we're talking to you."
The conversation progressed very differently than the other two had. Cade always had something to say when I went quiet, so there were less awkward silences, and when he asked a question, I was sure that it actually meant something. There were no pleasantries, no boring, "how's school going?" kind of questions – I was grilled about my political stand points and my faith before I could hear Jake in the background, urging Cade to hang up and save their minutes.
Then, for no apparent reason, we entered the first awkward silence of the conversation. Cade cleared his throat; I curled a lock of hair around my finger and glanced around my bedroom. Anna had taken up residence on my floor and was still talking animatedly on her phone. My psych books were scattered around them from when Brielle had left, and my bed sheets were all but torn off the bed from my excited flailing.
"Sorry about that… I guess I got stuck in 'witness examiner' mode. I'm not usually that intense, I promise." I could almost picture him rubbing the back of his neck, cheeks reddening. Of course, the mental images made me laugh, leaving me in much the same position.
"I believe you," I assured him. "And I don't mind, even if my answers were all pretty lame." My political views had never been very defined, as sheltered from the real world as South Cale was, and I couldn't really explain my faith, or why I felt as strongly about it as I did. I'd been raised to believe in God and the Church's teachings, and throughout my life, those beliefs had really kept me crashing and burning. But could I put that into words for Cade? No chance in hell.
"They weren't lame. But hey, I've gotta go – we're using up too many minutes at one time, I think Jake's about ready to tackle me." There was a cry of protest behind Cade's words, followed quickly by a roar of laughter. "I'll talk to you soon, though. Did you start those journals?"
"Yeah, I sent the first one out today, so you should get them soon." God, could I sound any duller? I wanted him to like me, not think I was an automaton.
"Cool. Ok, I really have to go now – bye! Keep your phone on you!"
Before I could respond, the dial done was buzzing in my ear. Jake must have really been determined, because Cade didn't seem like the type to cut anyone off before their goodbyes. He was more of the gentlemanly type, at least in my book.
Anna finished up her conversation a few seconds later, closing her flip phone with a snap. "Did they tell you they were getting phones?" she demanded excitedly, looking at me in mock accusation.
I shook my head. "I take it they didn't tell you either?"
She copied my movement, shaking her head as well. "I guess they wanted it to be a surprise, the assholes." Anna laughed, stretching her long legs in front of her. She was already in her pajamas – a faded pair of South Cale Uni sweats and a t-shirt that ordered readers to kiss her since she was Irish. "But I'm so happy I don't even care. It's great to hear Aiden's voice – it feels like it's been years."
I frowned, wondering how long it had been since she had seen or spoken to her boyfriend. I knew Aiden had left for basic training a little over two years ago, since he'd graduated high school one year ahead of me and left straight after. We had mostly lost touch after his junior year, though, and I hadn't even known he was seeing anyone, let alone that he was leaving her here in town while he went and risked his life.
When I voiced the question out loud, Anna just shrugged. "Uh… about four months now, I think. He got to come home after basic training for a few months, and then was deployed in June and we haven't spoken since." Dark eyes glazed over as she stared at the wall behind me. "I mean, we've written letters the whole time… but it's just not the same. You know?"
I nodded, considering what life must be like for Anna for the first time since meeting her. I couldn't even imagine going without speaking to Brielle for a week, let alone months, and it wasn't even the same sort of attachment. "How do you do it?" I asked in astonishment, looking at the slight woman through new eyes.
A sad smile quirked the corners of her lips upward. "I have no idea, honestly. I was really lonely for a long time, and I knew Aiden could tell. That's why he set Beth and I up. You just kind of… grin and bear it during the day and pray at night that they come home safely."
There was no way I could be that strong, and for the first time since meeting Anna, I was thankful that I wasn't really an Army girl.
"Korynn! Get your lazy behind out of bed!" Grandma Rose's screech jolted me out of sleep. Anna had stayed late the night before, until almost 3 am, and we'd stayed up talking. The lack of sleep was showing now – according to my bedside clock, it was nearly noon, meaning I'd slept through my first two classes of the day.
"I'm up, Grandma," I shouted back, climbing out of bed sluggishly. I still had two more classes, and work after that, so I could not afford to stay in bed, as much as I would have liked to.
But why was my grandmother still home to wake me up? Normally, she left me to go about my own business and she went about hers, unless I was doing something she deemed inappropriate. The last time she had been home at noon, instead of at the Church or one of her various clubs, it was because Linette McCurdy had lied and told her I'd had sex with Ricky Salvatoro.
"Get dressed and come down here, then!"
That was it then, she had something to scold me for. The question was what – I hadn't done anything bad, as far as I knew, and there was no way she could have found out about the letters, I'd been carrying them around with me so she couldn't find them if she decided to snoop through my room. So what was it?
I dressed quickly, wanting to get whatever lecture she had dreamed up over with before I missed class and was late for work. Grandma Rose had been known to go on and on for hours, if you let her, and I was in too good of a mood to let her drag me down like that.
"Korynn! I said get down here! Now!"
I rolled my eyes and headed down the stairs, crossing my fingers that this lecture would be relatively painless. I was still tired, and my patience with Grandma's antics was miniscule even while I was well-rested.
Two minutes later found me sitting at the kitchen table, Grandma pacing angrily around it like a caged tiger. She was dressed as she usually was, in floral blouse and khaki slacks, impeccably ironed and accessorized. Her greying hair was curled perfectly, not one wisp out of place, and she wore her usual frown. Something was clenched in her wrinkled fist, though I couldn't tell what yet.
"Grandma, is something wrong?" Normally, I wouldn't provoke her, but I needed to leave the house in half an hour. There wasn't time for her theatrics.
Her eyes shot up and connected with mine, angry wrinkles forming at the corners. "Wrong? Wrong! You know very well what's wrong!" Whatever was clenched in her fingers had to be ruined by now – her fists had tightened, crinkling whatever it was into a tiny ball. "Do you know what I went through today? Sissy Overton held our mail!"
Sissy Overton was the postmaster's mother.
Shit.
Grandma was holding one of the guys' letters.