walk to my room, replaying my own stupidity. Apparently, I forget to think straight around her, and I’m afraid one of these days it’s really going to catch up to me
Chapter Sixteen
TYLER
I hardly sleep, tossing and turning all night as images of Gemma’s tears burn in my mind. Hanging out and watching a movie with her after Everleigh went to bed was probably a bad idea, but I don’t regret it. I hated seeing her so upset, and it makes me want to track Robert down and speak to him with my fists. If spending two hours with her was enough to put her in a better mood, then I’d do it all over again. Hearing her laughter and seeing her smile was worth the awkward tension.
At five a.m., I give up trying to sleep and can’t stop thinking about one of the letters she sent me. She was sixteen and obsessing over romantic comedies.
* * *
Dear Tyler,
Do y’all get to watch movies over there? If so, you NEED to see 13 Going on 30 with Jennifer Garner. It’s my absolute new favorite movie, and if I don’t fall in love the way she does, then I don’t ever want to. Just kidding (kinda!).
But seriously! Jenna’s best friend, Matty, is basically in love with her, and while she’s having this horrible middle school party, she starts wishing she was thirty instead of thirteen. Matty builds her a dollhouse and sprinkles it with “magic dust.” As she’s wishing to be 30, the dust goes everywhere, and her wish comes true. When she wakes up the next day, she realizes her wish was granted. The kicker is she doesn’t remember any part of her life since the party and has to go through the next several weeks trying to figure it out. She grew up as one of the catty popular girls and ditches Matty basically. And since she doesn’t know anything about her adult life, she has to catch up and ends up finding him. She doesn’t realize they stopped being friends and guess what? HE’S ENGAGED! (I legit screamed!!!)
They rekindle their friendship while she’s discovering who she is and doesn’t like the person she’s become. At the end, he’s about to walk down the aisle and returns the dollhouse he made for her. She leaves in tears (and at this point, I’m SOBBING) and closes her eyes to make another wish, and the magic dust on the dollhouse blows in the wind. Then, she’s 13 again and kisses Matty! She gets a redo, and it ends in a big fat happily ever after!
I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s seriously the best, and I’ve put it on repeat. Then Everleigh and I decided to have a girls’ night, and we chose A Walk to Remember. Though we bet each other we wouldn’t, we cried through the second half.
So, in case you’ve ever wondered what happens at sleepovers, we watch sappy romance movies and stuff our faces with junk food while trying not to cry but failing miserably.
Maybe look up the soundtrack for A Walk to Remember if you have time to check it out. It’s such a good album.
The Notebook is on our list for next weekend, and I’m going to be an emotional mess, guaranteed. I’ll update you in my next letter :)
Until then, please be safe!
Love, Gemma
* * *
Though I had no plans to watch either of those movies, hearing her gush over them had me curious. I was able to listen to the soundtrack like she recommended, then found them on Netflix. In my next letter, I explained I saw them all, and that I thought she deserved to have someone like Matty or Landon in her life. I hoped she’d get to experience love in the same way and feel all the raw emotions they did, even if I personally felt like it was an unrealistic expectation. But she deserved and still deserves everything she wishes for.
As promised, she sent me a follow-up letter gushing over The Notebook. How she and my sister used an entire box of tissues and put it on repeat three times in a row. Hearing from her always brought a smile to my face along with laughter during the hard times. Everleigh and I kept in touch too, but not as much as Gemma and I did. Sometimes, there wasn’t anything new going on, but it didn’t stop us from talking. Not being face-to-face helped us open up as the years