Jasper had to wait what seemed like forever for Alice's next letter to come. He was busy during that time, and although his mind was usually occupied, he could never quite get that pretty face of hers out of his mind. It was the worst when he was trying to fall asleep. He even dreamed about her.

The letter finally arrived after two and a half weeks. He found himself sitting outside his bunks one night, a lantern by his side, with the unopened letter in his hands. For a moment, he just looked down at it, running his fingers over the writing on the outside. He glanced up at the moon for a second, then opened the letter.

To Jasper,

Hello again! I have no idea when this will reach you, but I'm writing this right after reading your last letter. A friend of mine, Carla is sleeping over tonight, but she's been asleep for the past hour by now. I'm sitting on my window seat and writing this. It's very late, past midnight, but tomorrow's a Saturday, so it doesn't matter. I can sleep in a little tomorrow...today...whatever it is.

I'm glad I made you happy! I like making people happy.

Yay! You're my first boyfriend, did you know that?

Thank you, for telling me the story. I had to bit my finger to keep from laughing too loud and waking people up! There are still teeth marks on it! Let's see...a story about me, preferably cute. I might be able to some up with one.

When I was seven, I spent the summer with my grandparents on their ranch. My Grandfather taught me how to ride a horse, but the first lesson didn't go too well.

He'd picked out one of the most gentle horses they had, it's name was Frankie (strange name for a horse, don't you think?) So, he put me up on Frankie's back and showed me how to hold the reigns, and lead us around for a little while. He decided it would be all right to just go for a little ride, I was doing so well. So he got on his own horse, and off we went, just walking. Things were going well...until Frankie saw a snake. Then, he bolted. It was terrifying. I didn't know how to stop him, so I just hung on to his neck and did my best to keep from falling off while Grandpa tried to catch up with us.

When we finally stopped, I was laughing like I was crazy and yelling that I wanted to do that again.

How was that? It was all I could think up as of now.

You are? I thought you must be...when do you get to come home? Do you know?

You make me smile...

Things at home? Well, what do you remember from when you were here? It's pretty much the same. Not much goes on here, you should know that. This is just a sleepy little town by the ocean in Texas.

Jasper kept reading the letter, and when he finished, he read it again. And again. Then he tilted his head back and looked up at the night sky, full of stars.

He didn't know how long he was there, but it seemed like only a moment later when he heard someone sitting down beside him. He turned his head as Ryan got settled on the patch of ground beside him.

"What are you doing out here so late?" he asked Jasper, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"What time is it?" Jasper asked. It had only been a little after nine when he'd sat down.

"A little past eleven." Ryan answered, glancing down at the watch on his wrist. "So, what are you doing out here?" he asked again, taking a glance up at the sky.

"Oh...letter from Alice." Jasper said, carefully folding up the two pieces of paper and sliding them back into their envelope. Ryan smiled a little, to himself. This boy was head over heels.