⌜ chapter sixteen ⌟

Letty and Eric walk into the kitchen at his house and they see both his brother and Shawn dancing. It's an odd sight to say the least, possibly more jumping around than dancing really.

"Come here, guys." Eric gets between them, and the younger boys sit at the table. "Now... Would this bother you? Alright, your name is Brianna Henshaw. You're the best looking girl in school."

"Wait, isn't that Scarlett?" Shawn asks, and she narrows her dark eyes at him.

"What did you do?" She questions.

"Nothing." He says and then quickly looks back at Eric. "Continue."

"So, one day you see me accidentally​ stumble into your best friend, Debbie, and inadvertently French-kiss her." He says, and the brunette shakes her head as he places his hand on Shawn's shoulder. "Now you won't go out with me. Why won't you go out with me?"

Cory looks at Letty. "You didn't explain this to him?" He questions.

"It's your brother, he doesn't listen." She says, and he looks back at Eric.

"I'm a little bit Country. You're a little bit Rock'N'Roll." Shawn says, and she chuckles.

"Hey, Eric. You like this girl — well, then, you gotta take a big risk. I know about this." Cory says as they both walk over to the island counter, stopping on opposite ends of it.

"Oh, you do?" Eric questions. "Well, I'm always eager to get romantic advice from a fetus."

"The point is, you're never going to win her over unless you do something bold, unless you take a risk." Cory tells his brother. "That's how I live my life. I'm Risk Boy." He says as he then stands up straight and places his hands on his hips in a superhero pose.

"Uh-huh." Letty then looks back over at Shawn. "Hey, Risk Boy's little sidekick — what did you do that you think I'm gonna be mad about?"

"You look really pretty today. I mean, you're pretty every day, but today there's​ something different." Shawn says, and she nods slowly. "Special."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, bud." She tells him as Eric walks around the counter. "What did you do?"

"I opened your letter." He says as he stands up and pulls an envelope out of his pants pocket.

"Shawn!" The brunette yells, and he quickly holds it away from her. "I'm taller and faster. I can get it from you."

Eric then quickly grabs the envelope from the twelve-year-old. "Can you get it from me?" He asks as he looks at his best friend.

"Give me my letter."

"Who's J?" Shawn asks as Eric runs up the stairs.

Letty quickly chases after him, and they end up in his bedroom. He holds the letter above his head and she jumps, trying to get it from him. But he's taller than she is, so she can't reach it.

"Eric!" She yells, and he just laughs.

He moves back as she steps forward, and they both start to fall, but he catches her and steadies the two of them. He's holding her against him with his arms around her waist, and their faces are now only inches apart. Both teenagers freeze for a moment as they just look at each other.

His gaze then falls to her lips and he starts to lean toward her, but Letty quickly moves away from him. The brunette pulls out of his arms, and he lets go of her, slightly surprised by the rejection. She wants to kiss him just as much as he wants to kiss her, but she knows that she can't. Not now, at least.

"No, you can't do that." She shakes her head, turning her back to him.

"Why not?" Eric asks, obviously confused. "You've never tried to stop me any of the other times that we've almost kissed."

"How about because you were just asking​ Cory and Shawn about Brianna Henshaw less than two minutes ago."

"Well, maybe I wouldn't​ be going out with other girls if I didn't feel like I'd be competing for you with some mystery guy every time he sends a letter, or a gift around Christmas every year." He argues, and she shakes her head as a scoff escapes her lips. "You're always happy after you hear from this guy, but you never talk about him. Nobody knows who he is, not even Shawn — who I thought you were closer to than anyone. Other than maybe Miller. So who is this guy? And is he even a he?"

"Yes, he's a he. And he's my friend from when I was a little kid." She says, turning to face him again. "Our moms were best friends when we were little, and me and him were always together before he moved away. Now can I have my letter please?"

"Yeah. Him before anyone or anything else, right?" Eric says as he holds the envelope out toward her.

Letty hesitates for a second, hurt by the way that he's acting, but then she takes the envelope from him and goes back downstairs. The rather upset brunette walks past Shawn and Cory, and they both look confused. She makes it to her trailer and goes to her room before she opens the letter. Luckily, neither her dad or Miller are back yet.

Letty unfolds the letter and looks at the familiar handwriting on the page.

Claire,

I don't even know if you get these letters or not, but I hope that you do. I miss you, and one day I'll come find you. I want you to know that. Don't lose faith in me before I have a chance to really prove that I'll always be here for you. Happy Valentine's Day.

—J

Letty sighs as she finishes reading the letter. She doesn't understand how he never gets her letters​ when she always gets his. She misses him too, and she wishes that she had another way to contact him, but she doesn't.

He's never actually told her, but she's sure that his parents would never approve of the trailer park girl. And she doesn't really blame them for it either.

—

The landline at the Black residence rings, and Letty picks it up. She and Miller are currently the only ones home, not that they've said a word to each other. Before she can get a word out, she hears Shawn yell, "Morgan's missing!" into the receiver, and her eyebrows furrow.

"What?"

"We left her alone at the house, and when we got back the front door was wide open, the back door was broken, and she's gone!" He tells her. "Cory's freaking out, and naturally my first instinct was to call you."

"I'll be there in two minutes." Letty tells him and then hangs up the phone.

"What's going on?" Miller asks, having heard the urgency in his voice.

The brunette looks over at where he's sitting at the table. "Morgan's missing and the doors were wide open." She says, and he's out of his seat in an instant. They both bolt from the living room.

The teenagers run in the front door of the Matthews house a couple of minutes later, and Letty looks at Shawn as Miller goes to look at the damage done to the back door.

"Cory went to talk to Feeny and he never came back." Shawn tells her.

"Did you go talk to Feeny to see where he is?" She asks, looking over at Miller and the broken window in the back door.

"I don't even like sitting through his class." He says, and she sighs.

"What am I gonna do with you?" She mutters as she closes the front door, crosses the living room, and heads into the kitchen before making her way out back.

"Hey, Bozo." Miller gets the younger boy's attention.

"Mr. Feeny—"

"They're in the treehouse." The older man tells the concerned brunette, not looking up from his newspaper.

"Morgan too?"

"Yes, with Cory."

"Thank you." Letty then walks past the deck and climbs the latter.

"I promise, I won't let you be in trouble with Mom and Dad. Okay?" Cory's telling his little sister as Letty leans into the treehouse.

"Okay." Morgan leans forward and hugs him. "I hope you don't plan on going into babysitting professionally." She says, and he shakes his head.

"Oh, yeah. That makes two of us." The teenager gets their attention, and the two Matthews kids both look at her. "Children." She greets.

"You got here fast." Cory says.

"Well, I heard the words Morgan's missing. 'Course I got here fast." Letty tells him. "And now I wanna know what's going on."

She takes the Matthews kids inside, and Cory fills her in on everything that happened. So she decides to get a handle on the whole situation. Breathing deeply, Letty looks down at the three kids before her.

"Shawn, go home." The brunette tells him.

"Bye." He quickly turns around and runs for the front door.

"Cory, take Morgan upstairs and get her ready for bed. It's getting pretty late." Letty says, and he nods. They use the stairs connected to the kitchen to go up to the youngest's room.

"What about me, Coach?" Miller asks, and she sighs as she looks up at him.

"That depends. You wanna help clean a mess in the living room?" She asks, and he shrugs.

"I don't have any better plans for the night." He tells her, and she nods her head in the direction of the mess at the back door.

Letty and Miller go into the living room to further assess the damage. She stands up the small wooden pillar that the potted plant was sitting on, and then goes to get a garbage bag from the kitchen. The teenagers pick up the larger pieces of the broken pot and put them into the bag, then she goes to get the broom to sweep up the smaller pieces as well as all of the soil and the slivers of glass.

"Scarlett?" Mrs. Matthews is surprised to see the teenager when she and her husband walk into the kitchen. Their argument's put on hold in order to figure out what's going on. "What are you doing here? I thought Eric had a date tonight."

"Oh, no, Eric's not home yet. Shawn called me; the kids got into a little bit of trouble and they needed help." She tells them. "The two boys left Morgan alone, and she was dancing on the couch. Somehow a doll went flying and...broke a window."

"What?" Mr. Matthews walks past her and looks at the damage for himself. He pauses briefly to look at Miller, who's picking up the last of the larger pieces.

They're all standing in the living room when the front door opens, and Eric walks in. "What's going on?" He asks, surprised to see Letty and Miller with his parents. He thought Cory was babysitting their sister tonight, not her.

"Where is he?" His dad questions, turning toward the stairs.

"He's putting Morgan to bed." Letty quickly tells him, and he turns back to her. "She was pretty shaken up, afraid that she was gonna get into trouble for the window. Shawn called me when they couldn't find her, but she was hiding in the treehouse. I sent Shawn home, and told Cory to get Morgan ready for bed."

"Thank you for coming to help them so quickly, sweetheart. Both of you." Mrs. Matthews says, and the brunette smiles as Miller nods his head once. "And I appreciate you taking care of things while we were out."

"I can finish cleaning up while you guys talk to them." She says. "Oh, and Cory says that he takes full responsibility for everything that happened. He said that it was his fault, and he doesn't want Morgan getting in trouble because he messed up tonight."

"How long have you two been here?" Their mom asks. "I know you weren't supposed to be babysitting tonight, so what do I owe you?"

"You don't owe us anything. Really." Letty shakes her head, glancing at Miller. "It freaked me out pretty badly when I heard Shawn say that she was missing; I just wanted to get here and see what was going on, make sure that they were all okay. Morgan and Cory are my family too, I'm just glad that they're both alright and safe."

"You never have to pay us for checking in on the kids." Miller tells her. "Especially when something like this is the reason that we're here."

"I'm gonna go talk to him." Mr. Matthews says and then disappears up the stairs.

"Are you alright, hun?" His wife asks the teenage girl.

"Now that my heart's beating at a normal rhythm again, yeah." Letty chuckles. "I'm fine."

"I'm gonna go check on Morgan." Mrs. Matthews tells her, and she nods.

The teenager then turns back to the soil and broken glass on the ground; she wordlessly gets to sweeping it up. Letty hears footsteps behind her, but she doesn't turn to look at Eric.

"Awkward." Miller says something about waiting out back, then he leaves the two of them alone.

"You came rushing all the way over here to make sure that Morgan and Cory were okay?" Eric asks, and she nods.

"I've been hanging around this house since before Cory was even in school. Of course I came to make sure that they're okay." Letty tells him.

"So, can... Can we talk about what happened in my room?" The older boy asks, and she takes a deep breath as she turns to look at him.

"How was your date with Brianna Henshaw tonight?" She asks, and he looks down. "You were gonna kiss me, and then the next day you were hiding in her locker to convince her to forgive you for making out with her best friend." She scoffs as she leans the broom against the door that isn't broken. "Goodnight, Eric." The brunette turns around and leaves his house.