Lloyd began to tap a pen on the desk, unable to think of anything. His father had signed him up for a pen pal exchange program that connected homeschooled boys to ones from different boarding schools. He was only ten, but it sounded pretty cool to him. The blond was to send the first letter, and his person was some boy named Bradley Doodlebomb (insert snickering here), and he received a photo of him too. He had a more overgrown ink black bowl cut that was nearly in his eyes, and sweet baby blues at that.

What was he supposed to write? There was surprisingly no overlooking except between the two sending the letters. He was trusted with this, but there was nothing holding Lloyd back. That was cool and really weird. Finally clicking the pen open, he pressed it onto the lined paper deciding what he was going to do.

'Dear Bradley,

My name is Lloyd Garma, but you probably know that. I think we're the same age, so do we like the same things? My favorite thing to do is build Lego towers and make the people have fights. Too bad they can't hold half of the weapons by themselves. It's really funny when my cat, Hinder, bats at them! I have two dads, but I secretly think Dareth (his real name is Darren, but his karate class is supposed to call him that) is like a mom.

Is it fun at the boarding school? It's pretty great being homeschooled, but you can't have snow days and random free days like public schools and stuff have. I don't really get friends since the city is pretty big and Dad hates it when I go public places too much…

Hope to hear from you soon,
Lloyd Garma'

"Done!" Announced Lloyd eagerly as he shoved it into an envelope and licked it to close it, and rushed out into the living room to his father, who was looking over bills and punching numbers into the calculator.

The pale man let his hazel eyes fall onto his son, "Good, now go out to the mailbox and put it in, then stick up the red piece on the side after you put your name on it."

Nodding, the boy took up another pen from the coffee table and scribbled on the address his father made his recite until he knew it by heart. Throwing the pen back down, he ran out of the home and to the mailbox, doing as instructed. Just then the mailman went by, and opened it again to take the letter. Sticking it in his pouch, the older man kept cycling away as Lloyd retreated back into the house.

-~Brad finally responds~-

Dareth walked into the house, and shuffled through the letters in his hands, "Let's see… junk mail… bills… Hm, something for Lloyd?" It was a joke, but the little blond eagerly ripped it from his parental figure's grasp and sped off to his room. Slamming the door, he opened it with much excitement.

Plopping onto the bed on his stomach, he eagerly read it.

'Dear Lloyd,

Yeah, I knew that. You're only a few months older than me according to my headmaster. Legos? I'd rather play outside or garden, since nature is so much more fulfilling honestly. You have a pet? I miss my dog, but my dad hated the noise since he gets hangovers a lot and got rid of her after I left.

I only have one dad, but no one else after that. I'm pretty sure whoever knows him long enough would rather stick their hand in a blender than be with him, so I'm sure glad to be here. Secretly, I only took this opportunity to be away from him. It's not very fun here, and we don't get snow days either since we live here. We can go to city sometimes, but not very often since where I am is kind of far from there.

Back at you,
Brad D. (I know my name is funny…)'

Brad sounded like a kid who was already pretty grown up for his age, but still had that childish undertone to prove that was indeed his new friend. The dark-haired sounded like he's already had a tougher life, and he was only ten. It didn't feel fair that Lloyd got a better end of the deal, but he decided to keep on writing this lonely sounding boy to make sure someone acted like they cared.

~Six Years Later~

The blond teenager checked the mailbox, smiling to himself as he noticed a new letter on top. Bringing in the letters, but picking out the one for him, Lloyd slapped the rest down in front of his sleeping cat. He ignored his dilated glare from Hinder and closed his bedroom door. Lately, well… as of a few years ago, the boy found that he was gaining a crush on his pen pal, and since they sent pictures as each year went by the blond had the one from Bradley's most recent send before this in a picture frame. He wished he had the guts to find the dark-haired personally and ask the other out, or at least question about having them actually meet.

Carefully opening the letter after flopping onto his stomach…

'Hey,

I'm sorry it took so long. Remember how I was talking about my 'frenemy' Sheen? Anyways, he asked me out recently-'

Lloyd nearly seethed with jealous rage…

'-But I declined, since he's not the one I want… I think we should meet and talk for real, since I have something to tell you. I'm probably at the café a block away from your address by now, so I'll wait all day if you want. Sorry to cut this short, but I want you to meet me there? I won't doubt a 'no', but I'm not going to see my father, no way…

Think about it?
Brad D.'

He barely had time to think about it before leaving his room eagerly, noticing his father now petting the purring Hinder in his lap, and cuddling tiredly with Dareth. They gave him a nod like they knew, and for the first time Lloyd left their house and went somewhere else without supervision. Maybe being so dedicated to his pen pal caused them to trust him fully, to be able to make his own decisions. It was oddly quiet on the roads, so the blond could sprint there without interruption. He spotted his lithe friend sitting under an umbrella-shaded bench in front of the indoor café quietly.

Finally getting close enough, the green-adorned nearly chickened out at the sight the long-distance friend. Slowly making his way over, he sat down at last and intently waited for the attention to be on him. Their faces slowly turned to speak to each other, but instead their lips met from being so close. Least to say, it was good. Which was clearly an understatement.

Lloyd would dare say perfect, but he didn't have anyone to compare this to. Which was good…

…He didn't want to try with anyone else to actually find that out.