Chapter Text
My Darling,
It took me forever to write this, words of affirmation scatter many of the pages in my trashcan. It's terrifying to tell you, but it's killing me not to. That's why I waited until now, an anonymous letter among many, just before you leave my life forever.
And it is forever, dearest. I know better than to hope for you, to hope you'd ever be mine. For it cannot be. You're a queen, effervescent and lovely and wholly unattainable by the likes of me, your anonymous lover. For I am but a peasant. A lowly, dirty, no do-gooder. A monster, more fit to be the dragon of your story.
But I could not carry on with my heavy heart, I had to let you know of it, as it is so cruel you should affect me so and not know it. That you should grace the halls of this horrid place with your ethereal light and not know how you illuminate it, how moved I am by you.
Your hair, your eyes, your smile. Your moles, your fingers, your skin. I would love you all over, consume you whole, the way you are, and cry out at the injustice of the undeserving and perverse knights that try to claim you, my princess.
My forever girl.
So know that even after graduation, even after you part from me, I will love you just the same. I see you in my dreams. No lover of mine will uphold the love I have for you. It is my burden and pleasure to love you til I die.
Yours forever,
M.
Stevie didn't stare at the letter. How could she? Her heart was in her throat, she could barely swallow her own saliva.
Who writes something like that??
She had to hide it away, keep it safe. It was precious. It wasn't like the others. The ‘I love you's or the ‘You're so hot, wanna hang?’s. This was poetry. This was art. She tucked the letter back in its envelope and carefully shuffled it back into the modest stack of the other Valentine's letters she's gotten.
In her mind there was no contest for her favorite, but little did she know the sender of that eloquent Valentine's letter watched her shove the letter away and felt their heart shatter a little.
“My, aren't we popular.” Carol leans close as she passes Stevie, glaring at the letters. Stevie clutches them away.
“My, aren't we jealous.” She snaps back, glowering at her ex-best friend as she walks away. Carol scoffs, nose wrinkled, tossing her perm.
“Looser.”
“Yeah well, some people like me.” Stevie holds her letters aloft. She knows Carol got probably five, with two being from Tommy. Stevie got twelve.
She knows it's because she's hot. She may not be the popular girl anymore, she only got a third the amount she usually got. Only a third of Billie's tower. She hadn't opened any of them during Home Ec - the class they happened to share when the Valentine's Day Notes got handed out - Billie stacked them up neatly, letting them tower over everyone else's piles. Over Stevie with a smug smile.
But none of that mattered now. Stevie had M.
Mysterious M. Stevie was confident she could work out who her secret admirer was, there weren't many guys at school that were so well read. So… romantic. And she could narrow down the few who fit the bill by that single initial.
M - who loves her. Almost obsessively. Who would consume her whole. It would… almost be scary if it didn't sound so good. Because it's creepy if it's some band nerd that hides under the bleachers during cheer practice, but it's basically erotic to think it's someone handsome. Someone who's secretly romantic, and who would write those words, who pines after Stevie in every way from afar.
The sound of a locker slamming and laugher jolts Stevie from her daydream. She looks down the hall and groans. Daphne did make her promise to renounce her “bitchy ways” by sticking up for nerds.
“Hey!” Stevie shoves her letters into her purse and stalks towards the students that just shoved someone against the lockers. Tina Halbert and Joanna Schoder if she's not mistaken. And it's Edie Munson they have pinned. “It's Valentine's Day, can we stop the violence?”
“We're just driving the point home, Stevie. Freaks don't get letters.”
“And don't deserve ‘em!”
Another shove. Edie isn't small, she's the same size as Stevie but never gets into fights. Stevie isn't sure why Edie doesn't ever shove back, just grab a ponytail and yank away.
“How do you know she didn't get any?”
“I didn't.”
“Sh!”
Tina and Joanna laugh, don't offer an explanation, and walk off. Just like Carol. Just like all the popular girls. There was a time Stevie would have laughed and walked off too.
“Ignore them.” Stevie frowns after the girls, feeling protective. Daphne wouldn't get any letters either, and she hates to think how her young friend might feel if someone bullied her about it.
“Cool.” Edie rights herself, fixing her little vest jacket and ruffling the mess of hair on her head like it was on purpose. Stevie turns to her, watching.
Huh. M for Munson…? A girl could maybe be so wordy on paper but -
“What're you looking at?” Edie frowns at Stevie, disgusted like all Carol and the rest. Stevie is just a disgusting thing now; the only different between her and Edie is Stevie fights back so they don't shove her around.
Stevie blinks. “Nothing, just… you alright?”
“Fuck off, princess.” Edie spits out, scoffing and picking her bag up. “Enjoy your fucking letters. I sure hope your head doesn’t get so big it explodes.”
With a wide and sarcastic grin Edie takes off, disappearing and weaving into the other students in the hall.
Okay, definitely not M for Munson.