Who: Psalm and some guy he works with (Max) What: Psalm getting off his shift and finding out he's got a secret admirer When: a little after 10 pm Where: Front lobby of the Phoenix
With a deep sigh, Psalm finally took off his nametag and started to unbutton his uniform shirt. It had been one hell of a day. Waking up to be on shift at 5 (terrible), having Bunny surprise him at work (bad) before noon and call him cute (strange), texting and ultimately fighting with Myra (pathetic on his part), and being suckered into working for someone else (annoying) he needed to sit down. Half teasing with Max, one of the college students that worked there through the weekeneds, he threw his name tag at the boy. It didn’t hit Max though, it didn’t even come close. In fact, Max didn’t seem to notice it at all which was probably a good thing in the long run, he didn’t need to be teased yet again about how terrible he was at sports. When he got behind the front desk, he leaned down to pick up his nametag and looked over, noticing that Max was sifting through some junk mail. “What are you even doing? You don’t get mail here.”
“Yeah but you do.” Max replied with a laugh. “Look, I need coupons to go shopping this weekend, do you have any idea how much eating ramen noodles every night of the week sucks?”
“They’re not so bad when you can find other things to put into them. Like vegetables.” Psalm replied with a shrug. He knew all about eating ramen noodles for dinner over extended periods of time. It’s called living with a woman who refuses to cook.
“That just sounds gross man.” Max said making a face. “You’re a weird little bugger.”
Psalm didn’t respond but instead rolled his eyes.
“You really did get mail though.” Max insisted. “It’s in your box. It’s the only thing in your box.”
Psalm tilted his head. “How do you know I got mail.” And why would I get mail?
Max held up one of the flyers. “Where do you think I get these bad boys from dude-o? You never check your mail. Plus I heard Fred saying that some chick dropped the letter off herself. Maybe it was your school telling you you’re so dumb you have to repeat the 11th grade.”
Psalm punched him in the back of the head, not very hard mind you, but enough to get the message across to stop acting like a creeper by going through his mail. “I’m pretty sure the school would call in the case of that happening, besides today was graduation, no one from the school hand delivers letters anyways.”
“Okay but here’s the thing…” Max said with a smile. “There’s no name on the envelope, just yours.”
Psalm’s eyes darkened and he clenched his fists. “YOU READ IT TOO?” He asked in a harsh whisper.
“God no!” Max replied with a laugh. “You’ll tell me what’s in it anyway. Plus it was sealed.”
Psalm went over to the boxes, retrieving his letter before responding to Max. “If you boil water the steam loosens the flap.” Psalm had done this with several of Olivia’s letters over the years, mostly so he could know about the bad news coming from the school before her. That way he knew how to prepare himself for whatever punishment would be just in her eyes.
“Talk about mega creeper,” Max responded with a laugh. “You’re like the king of the creeps.”
Psalm let out a sigh. He had been called so many things over the years that Max calling him that was honestly the least of his concerns. What bothered him at that moment was the white envelope in his hands that had his name typed on the front. He didn’t particularly want to open the letter there in front of Max but he also knew that taking it upstairs risked Olivia taking a personal interest in the letter as well. So he opened the envelope and pulled out the letter inside and looked over it for a moment before actually reading it. Completely typed on plain white paper, no signature, no way of knowing whom exactly it came from. And then he finally started to read it. This was the sort of letter he wrote, he never intended on actually receiving one like this, much less sending out his own so this was a startling surprise. The only person he could think that would possibly send it to him was Bunny, and he highly doubted it was her because she had just visited him. But then he got to the part at the bottom, recognizing them vaguely as song lyrics. He read over them three times before folding the letter in half and looking generally defeated. It was too much given that he was a medium to talk so lovingly about lost souls. Part of him wanted to throw out the letter, but he didn’t have the heart. Even if it was Bunny who had sent the letter he had to respect the guts that took for her to do it. He had a whole box of letters in his room that he had never sent, and one that he would forever carry around with him, to remind himself of the decisions he had made to protect the ones he loved. Even now he had to sabotage every good thing he had just to keep Myra safe and away from him.
“So…?” Max finally asked.
“So what?” Psalm said looking up at Max, still stunned.
“What’s it say douche bag?” Max asked rolling his eyes.
“I’m kicked out of school.” Psalm said in a flat tone. The urge to really punch Max was growing inside of him.
“We’ve already had that discussion so I know it’s not that.” Max didn’t look amused in the least. “Tell me what it is or I’ll take it from you and read it myself.”
“What are we in middle school?” Psalm retorted. “You’re not my annoying little brother, and I have no reason to tell you.”
“Hey, fine, but the next time you get some letter from a mystery girl, I’m doing the seal trick you told me about.” Max waggled his eyebrows, like it would make any sort of difference in Psalm’s opions.
“I don’t even know who it’s from why does it matter?” Psalm refused to tell him, refused to give in, it wasn’t like Psalm got letters ever.
Max grabbed the letter out of his hand, being taller than Psalm surely had his advantages at that moment. He held it above his own head and read it to himself. “Woah, that shit’s deep.” He told him handing the letter back to Psalm.
“Thank you for the unwanted summary/opinion.” Psalm said shoving the letter back into the envelope and then into his wallet.
“Who do you think it’s from?” Max asked, his eyes lighting up.
“Don’t know don’t care.” Psalm kept his face straight.
“That’s cold hearted man.” Max’s eyes fell to the ground. “No one ever writes anything like that for me.”
“You have a life outside of these four walls Max, you’ve been on dates, you’re no player but you’ve got it a lot better than me.” Psalm insisted, his voice tired. Why was he doing this? Why was he talking to Max after he was a total douche to him?
“Don’t you at least want to know who it’s from?” Max asked, giving him a hopeful grin.
“No.”
“Why not?” Apparently Max was unable to let this whole thing go.
“Because.” And Psalm was unwilling to budge or to talk about this to Max.
“Fine, you little dweeb.” Max said sighing and sitting back down on the stool at the counter.
“Hey could you do me a favor?” Psalm asked as he started to walk away from the counter and towards the elevator.
“What is it?” Max asked, crossing his arms.
“Don’t tell Olivia about this.” He said pointing to his wallet where he had stored the letter.
“She already knows man.” Max replied with a shrug.
“What?” Psalm said, his eyes going wide. He would be beyond dead.
“Calm down. She didn’t even give a crap dude. I don’t think she gives a crap what you do as long as you show up to work on time anyway.” Max said looking back down at his stolen ads.
“So you think.” Psalm said with a roll of his eyes.
“So I know.” Max replied.
But Psalm didn’t ask him what he meant by that, instead he went back to his room, made himself a peanut butter sandwich and read over the letter one last time before going to sleep. So Bunny liked him then? Or Bunny and whoever sent the letter? Or just whoever sent the letter? He couldn’t see why anyone would willingly subject themselves to time spent with him, well other than the spirits who apparently didn’t care what you were like just that you could see them! For an 18 year old boy he had been severely lacking in the whole girlfriend category, anyway. Not that a letter counted as anything, just confusion.