Old Friends

Darren had been looking for old friends. He used many different ways of contacting people including social media to online searches to going back to the old houses. By going to John's boyhood house, Darren was able to find John through the good fortune of John's parents still living in the same house.

Darren tried to call John several times but John never answered the phone. Although Darren did not know it, John would never answer the phone to a number he did not recognize. Finally, Darren quit calling and decided to write to John.

One day in the warm spring time air, John went out to check his mail. In the old and rusted mail box, John found several letters, a gardening seed catalog and ads for most the local stores. After throwing the ads in the open trash can by his house, John walked inside and started sift through the remaining mail. The seed catalog he set aside for later browsing. The bills were set into the bill pile. Last was a letter he had never seen before.

The address was from somewhere John did not recognize but the name he sure knew. It was from Darren Johnson, his old high school best friend.

This first letter was very short. It contained only a few short formality sentences like a "How are you doing?" and "Look forward to hearing from you."

This was not at all like what he remembered his friend to be like. Darren used to cuss like a sailor and never wrote properly. The only reason Darren passed English class was the fact that his mother was the department head at the high school they both attended.

After a couple of days, John wrote back to Darren. The letter he wrote was very dull, to the point, and not very informative. While John did want to get back in touch with Darren, John was still angry with the way Darren packed up and left one day without even leaving a note, giving a phone call, or even a simple goodbye. He just moved to Arizona with his soon to be wife.

They went all summer writing back and forth to each other. As time went by, they started to get close again but now where near as close as they once were. Darren even started to cuss and use extremely awful grammar just like when they were in high school.

Eventually Darren wrote saying while writing with snail mail has been interesting, it would be better if they could write back and forth through e-mail or even though instant messaging.

John did have an e-mail and that was the most advanced he had become. After some time, John did start to use IM among other ways to communicate with a few friends.

***

John was new to social media and really do not fully grasp what all the hype was about. He believed that if something was really important that a phone call or a face to face visit is the way to go. Finally, after much poking and prodding of his family, and coworkers, plus his longtime friend Darren convinced John to sign up for Facebook.

John slowly learned how to use some of the functions on Facebook. While most people would not have a problem finding people or playing any of the large number of games, John just barely figured out how to accept friend requests and maybe "like" a couple of things. John, however did really like to read what his limited friends would write in posts.

Late one evening in the fall, John was surfing around on the net. After checking e-mail and going to a few different sites about current events, he decided to check his Facebook account to see what new posts friends and family have put up.

John notices he has a new friend request. When he clicks to see who it is, he finds that it is from a girl John knew in high school. This request was from Jenna, a girl so beautiful and seemed to be full of life back in high school. Since John has joined, he has had many of his high school friends send requests but not someone he could only admired from a distance.

After a short freeze from the surprise of seeing her name, John clicks to accept Jenna's friend request. John then goes on and looks at wall, reading all the latest event in his friends pages.

A few days go by and John logs back into his page and John sees a message sent to him from Jenna.

Jenna's message is short with the message of "Is this John from Jefferson Highs graduating class of 1987?"

After reading this, John just froze. In a few minutes, he got his composer back and replied. The short message he replied with was "Hi Jenna! How have you been? I am doing well living in Denver now."

John spent the next couple days signing in to Facebook but not seeing any response from Jenna. The only thing he was getting more and more mafia wars requests. Then, after a week, Jenna finally responds with a simple response.

The basic replies kept going back and forth with neither one saying what they really want to. This continued for several months. Finally Jenna asks "Why did you stop coming by the library?"

Jenna and John used to meet at the library every day and would talk for a few minutes. John remembered that he used to love the talks they would have even though it was for only a short time.

Although he did not want to, John told Jenna the truth. John slowly typed that he really liked Jenna and how he thought Jenna was way out of his league. John was remembering how Jenna was so beautiful, smart, and could never be interested in a dork like him. Huge dork is the only way a person can be described that wears a blue jean jacket, blue jean pants, roper boots, and preppy striped shirt with a preppy haircut.

John sent the message hoping not to scare her away but John did not realize that Jenna was on-line and quickly replied.

Jenna's response was something John would never forget. She wrote "I had such a huge crush on you and would pray that you would ask me out but you never did. Instead, you quit coming by the library and broke my heart."

After reading this, John's heart sank because he had grown so close to Jenna over the past few months. John just knew that after falling for Jenna again, Jenna could never forgive him for what happened in high school and would not go out with him now.

John wrote back "I am so sorry, I had no idea that you felt that way. I always thought that such a beautiful girl like you could never fall for a dork like me."

A little bit of time goes by and John decides he would ask her out again. Hopefully she would say yes but if not, this time they would both have some closure.