I walked past my house. Leaning over the fence, I blinked the rain out of my eyes. I opened the hatch and stuck my arm in. Nothing. Not a single envelope. Not one. Laura must be bringing it in earlier than she used to. With a sigh, I refused to look in the window and unlatched the gate, heading up the front path, if you could call it that.

Patting my pockets I cursed as I couldn't feel or hear the jangle from my keys. Shit. I knocked three times on the door and shifted from foot to foot, hoping that I wouldn't get too drenched waiting for the door to open. If Laura was even home. She opened the door a crack, before seeing me and throwing it behind her, pulling me inside.

'It's been so long since you were home! I've missed you, arsehole!' She smiled. I let out a small laugh, feeling that the insult was warranted.

'Me too.' It felt weird to be welcomed home, but, wasn't that the reason that he was doing Dark's wishes and bribing Yancy? So he could return home happily and pretend that nothing had ever happened?

'Reyna called by the other day looking for you, don't worry' she could read my expressions so well, 'I said you were at the library. I don't think that if you weren't willing to tell me, that I should tell her. She wanted to ask in person about the date...' Laura raised an eyebrow with a playful grin.

'Oh god it was a nightmare. It was so bad. She was such an obnoxious person, kept insulting my interests. Nothing like what I thought they would be like, you know? I was picturing someone maybe a little stand-off-ish. Maybe sweet? But she was awful. I'm so sorry that Reyna is related to her.' We both laughed, walking slowly over to the kitchen.

'What did she do? Usually a comment or two isn't enough to tick you off. Shut down socially, maybe.' She smiled, teasing me as if we had seen each other yesterday and not months ago.

'She thought that the regular waiter was flirting with me? Like, how do you even jump to those conclusions? He was just being nice.' I furrowed my brows, honestly confused.

'Are you sure it wasn't because he actually was?'

'What? No. That's stupid. He goes on about his girlfriend all the time. I think her name's Melanie.' I laughed, sounding forced.

'Okay.' She held her hands up in defense.

'Have you seen any mail for me?' I asked, quickly changing the direction of the conversation.

'Oh yeah! Quite a bit, more than usual and some weird stuff too. It's all on top of the microwave like always.' She shrugged, heading over to the microwave to grab it all for me. She was right, there was quite the small stack. I grabbed it quickly, sorting through some of it. A packet of book-lists for class, a reminder for an optometrist appointment, pay packet from work with the presumably pitiful amount of cash in it, and two letters from the penitentiary. My heart jumped up to my throat. I put those two at the bottom of the pile and quickly opened the optometrist letter.

'Hey, is the pharmacy/clinic hybrid place still doing optometry? Or did they limit that? I can't remember.'

'Dude. They've been closed since like a month and a half ago. They're just a doctors clinic now. We've got to go into the city for that. We've still got the general pharmacy by the train station.' She laughed, looking at me like I was stupid.

'Yeah I forgot.' I laughed awkwardly, already dreading having to get the train to the city. It was overpriced and inconvenient.

'When's your appointment?'

'Uh, in about a week. The other stuff is just for class. I better email my professor, but I'll be out from my room to watch a movie? If you want to pick and order lunch?' I suggested as if nothing had changed.

'Sure! How about Mamma Mia? Or the second one?' She teased.

'No. How about no. I swear Laura...'

'Please... It's been ages...' She whined, giving me puppy eyes. I rolled my eyes before heading off to my room.

It felt odd to be back in the familiar room. All my decorations, posters, stupid photos were up on the walls, and yet my wardrobe was mostly empty. I sat down at my desk, turning on the lamp and opening the more official of the two prison letters. It was a lot of fine printed text that was slightly difficult to read, but it was mostly just about letter sending procedure and confirmation of address. The second letter, for some reason, my hands were shaking. In it was two bits of paper and a firm paper card that was stamped with approval. Discarding that to envelope of the administrative letter, I held in a deep breath and unfolded the pages.

The thin loose leaf that was almost translucent was filled with chicken scratch. Barely legible chicken scratch. I smoothed it out and traced a finger under each line, realising it was written two days after I had visited. My heart dropped and my breath sped up, rattling in my chest. I hadn't responded. It had been about a week and I hadn't responded. He probably thought that I wasn't going to. Why did I feel so guilty? It was likely because I owed him an explanation. Yeah.

After struggling to read it, mostly just poorly written sentences about how he can't write but enjoyed writing during the educational blocks instead of participating in the educational program. I pulled out an empty shoe box from under my desk, placing both of the letters inside. I should write a response, but, Laura would know that I was lying to her. Writing an email to a professor took a quarter of the time of reading two letters and writing one in response.

Changing my mind, I slipped both of the letters into the binder that was supposed to be for social studies. I'd take it with me to the manor and write the response then.

Setting the box back underneath my desk, I quickly left my room just as there was an obnoxious knock on the door.

'EVAN! Can you get it! It's the Thai food for lunch! I ordered it online, so no pay!' Laura yelled. I quickly rushed to the door, awkwardly smiling as the delivery guy handed me a big bag. I nodded before closing the door and heading over to the couch.

Laura had pulled the coffee table over to the couch and set out a couple dinner plates and some chopsticks. Of course, lighting up the tv screen was the main menu of Mamma Mia. The good old fashioned dvd version.

'What did you order?' I asked, setting the food on the table.

'The usual. Curry puffs and spring rolls, yellow curry stir fry, mild for the man child and prawn fried rice for me. Oh and a red curry with a small serving of rice that we can split for dinner.' She laughed, pulling a mocking frown as she pressed play on the dvd. We both knew this movie by heart, and if we didn't have our mouths full, we would sing every word.