Dear Violet,

I loved the flower that you put in your letter, so I'm sending you another seashell. 

I met a guy here. His name is Ace and, oh my god, Violet, he's SO HOT. He's got some kind of an accent, maybe British or something, and it's so cute and he's so cute and VIOLET THIS IS IMPORTANT, so DON'T YOU SHAKE YOUR HEAD AT ME. (I already know you're shaking your head right now.) VIOLET OH MY GOD MAYBE HE'S MY TRUE LOVE.

He's so cute, Violet, I'm literally DYING. He's got this sort of cute eternally messy blond hair and handsome green eyes and his smile is adorable.

VIOLET I'VE MET MY FUTURE HUSBAND.

Love, 

Jade.

P.S. Send a picture of my son

Enclosed in the letter was a tiny seashell, maybe one that had once belonged to a hermit crab. No bigger than the nail on Violet's little finger, in a perfect spiral. It was beautiful, but Violet couldn't focus on the shell.

Ace.

Ace.

Ace.

That wasn't such a bad name. It rolled off the tounge nicely. Maybe this Ace wasn't so bad. He apparently had 'cute' blond hair and 'handsome' green eyes and an 'adorable' smile. Not such a bad guy. Probably. 

What hurt worse was that Jade was her Jade. Her best friend. (Alright, she probably wasn't Jade's best friend, but Jade was definitely Violet's best friend.) 

And it made her absolutely wild with envy that Ace, and Ace's stupid adorable smile, had taken that from her.

She didn't know how to respond to the letter, so she chose to focus on the postscript and went downstairs to ask her dad to borrow his camera.

Minutes later, armed with the camera and a few cat treats, she stood at Pumpkin's. She pushed open the door and stepped inside.

"MEOW!"

Violet looked down to see a streak of orange racing across the floor. Pumpkin launched himself onto her leg and tried to claw his way up.

"Oh, hi!" she said to the kitten. "Ow, your claws are sharp." She lifted the kitten up and looked into his sapphire blue eyes. "Is that a little bit of green in your eyes? It is, isn't it? You're growing up." She fed him a fish-shaped cat treat. "Hold still for a second."

She pulled out the camera and took a picture of Pumpkin sitting on the floor. "You are the most photogenic cat ever," she laughed. 

She took a few more pictures and considered ordering something, but it was too painful to order from someone other than Jade.

"Alright, Pumpkin, I have to go. I have to write a letter to Jade."

The girl working behind the counter lifted her head. "You're writing to Jade?"

Violet froze for a second.

It wasn't like she couldn't talk to strangers. She just hated doing it.

"Um," she said when she finally found her voice. "Yes?"

"Oh." The girl smiled. "Oh, you must be Violet."

"Yeah."

"Jade talks about you a lot. Tell her Kristy says hi."

"Ok. Bye." Violet turned and darted out the door.

Back at her house, she picked up her pen again.

Dear Jade,

I don't even know what to say about the Ace situation. So I'm going to skip over that.

I have pictures of Pumpkin. I think his eyes are starting to change colors.

Love,

Violet.

Into the envelope she slid a pressed forget-me-not.