Chapter Ten: You’ve Got Mail

Whit? This guy was really starting to get under my skin. Who did he think he was, flirting with Jamie all weekend, deciding he wasn’t interested and then asking me to ride with him and calling me Whit. Seriously. This was getting to be a bit annoying.

I drove home and tried to unwind from the weekend. We had school the next day, so I went to bed pretty early. Morning came all too soon and I got out of bed and began my usual routine. Mom was sitting in the den waiting for me to come in and have breakfast, and I had the habit of checking my e-mail while my pop-tart was in the toaster. I sat down, typed in my teeny bopper password that I’m sure had something to do with Taylor Hanson and waited for the annoying bar to finish so the page would upload. I had three new messages. I clicked “new mail”, and I had two e-mails waiting for me from camp friends and my eyes did a double take as I saw the newest e-mail. Sent at 12:09 am. From Darin Gatsby.

I clicked it open and before my eyes was a massive 5k e-mail. It was long and I wondered what on earth he had to say to me that late at night….or should I say early in the morning. I scanned the entire thing before I took it apart piece by piece. Mom hollered from the den, “Whit – what’cha doin”? I told her I would be right there. I sat in a daze trying to figure out what all of this meant. He went on about how discontent he was with the conference – how most of it was lacking in spiritual meaning and discipline - how it is not usually like that, and how Jamie turned him off completely. Why was he telling me this? The e-mail gave me deeper insight into his thoughts and feelings, or was he just telling me this to sound good and impress me? I didn’t know. I was confused.

I signed out of my e-mail, grabbed my pop-tart and sat down with Mom. Words and questions started spewing from my mouth and I couldn’t stop them. I told her what all Darin said and demanded to know why he was doing that. She laughed at me and I told her that I left it open on the desk top for her to read – and I had to get to school. As I drove to school, that e-mail was all I could think about. Was I supposed to act like I had already read it when I went to first period, or just play it cool and act like I hadn’t yet checked my e-mail? I planned on playing it by ear and when I walked in and saw him sitting at his desk, I played the cool card and decided to act like I hadn’t read a thing.

“Hey Whit, did you get my e-mail?” he asked.

There he went, calling me "Whit" again.

“Uh, no, I don’t think so”, I replied.

I don’t think so?! How obvious!

“Well, check it when you get home, and e-mail me back…okay?”

I didn’t know what to do. I panicked. What was I supposed to say back to this guy? What was he doing to me? Since when were we best friends and bear our heart and soul to each other about girls/guys and spirituality? Hmmm, I had a lot of thinking to do.

I went home and sat at the computer…..staring blankly at its screen. I made mom sit directly behind me to help compose the e-mail. I was overreacting, I’m sure, but I wanted to be careful. I didn’t want any feelings to evolve on either of our part, so I had to distance myself from the situation and evaluate everything I was saying. I had never been so careful in all of my life. I was honest about my feelings of the conference and elaborated on my desire for more depth in those types of things. I avoided the Jamie topic all together, and made sure to not encourage nor discourage his feelings toward anyone. I was not going to be his relationship counselor, nor did I care to know any of his feelings on the topic. In the back of my mind, though, I still wondered why he felt the need to tell me he didn’t like her.

I hit “send”, and within 20 minutes I had a reply.

What was this guy doing – sitting at his desk hitting “send and receive” over and over? I laughed and waited until the next day to reply to that one.

This was the beginning of a friendly daily “e-mail relationship”. One that was going to last longer than I expected.