Miles In Between the Silence

[LunaxLove]

||Mateo Rilynn Salucci||
♬when we were made we were set apart...
♪life is a test and i get bad marks...
♬now some saint got the job of writing down my sins...
♪the storm is coming, the storm is coming in...

A soft sigh escaped the lips of a young 21 year old starring down at the blank piece of paper in front of him. He tapped the end of the pen on his desk unsure where to begin. "This is so pointless...why did I agree to this...?" He thought to himself taking a sip from his fresh cup of coffee. You see, Mateo had finally giving in to what his therapist had been suggesting him to do for months. He wanted him to go and make a friend using one of the many pin pal services available to him. However, Mateo had refused multiple times feeling like it would be a waste of time. The only reason he caved was to get his therapist to quit pestering him on the subject. This had turned out to be a bit more difficult then he had originally thought.

Mateo hadn't said a word to anyone in about two years. Why? No one knew. All that they could figure was that something pretty terrible had to have happened to make him do so. With this having occurred, most of the people he used to be close with barely came around anymore. Even his family members ended up giving up on him for the most part. No matter what anyone said or did he never said a word. So what if he was alone? What was the big deal? He was fine with the quite life though his therapist liked to say otherwise.

He glanced back down at the paper having only written the words 'Dear Miss Williams'. Rolling his eyes he decided to just write whatever came to mind and didn't seem too odd. Picking up the pen again he started to write:​

​

Dear Miss Williams,

So, honestly I have no idea where to begin with this. I haven't exactly spoken to anyone in a long time now. Anyways, my name is Mateo Salucci and I am 21 years old. I know this is probably odd to get a written letter from someone you don't even know, hell I think it's fucking odd. However, my therapist said this would be something that might 'help' me. Whatever. I guess all I can do is try it out and see what happens. I don't blame you if you don't reply. I don't know if I would either!

Let's see...I currently live alone in a tiny house in the middle of nowhere in Ireland with my dog Benji. I am however not Irish. If my name didn't already give that away. I used to live in the U.S. until I was about 7, but then my father got a job offer and we wound up here. I will say it's a lot nicer here than it was in Florida. Too many old people in the area of town we lived in. I don't care much for touristy beaches either. Which of the giant islands we call continents do you live on?

I was in school for a bit, but some things came about and I just never really went back. I was majoring in engineering, but that's on the back burner for now. My parents mainly wanted me to pursue it so I could take over their business, but I don't think that's what I want in life. More interested in cooking and music. At least I still have some time to figure things out I guess. What about yourself? Are you currently in school?

Back to the subject of family. Tell me. Do you have any siblings? Do you enjoy your family? I am one of two boys. We are twins, identical to be exact, but complete opposites. We never got along. I haven't seen or spoken to him since I was maybe 17? Not that it bothers me. Less for me to deal with. As for my parents, my father wasn't very impressive. He was barely home working all the time to keep food on the table. When he was home he would just stay in the living room watching his idiotic news programs and football. My mom on the other hand. Sweetest woman in the world. She did everything she could to make us happy even in the worst of times. She ended up getting sick for awhile with something they couldn't figure out. Shortly after she passed away when my brother James and I were about 13. After that, life got pretty hard for the three of us to say the least.

But anyways! I hate to leave this on a sad note, but I am going to end this little letter here. I'm unsure if you will reply, but if you do I shall hear from you soon then?

- Mateo Salucci

With that he folded up the piece of paper, slipped it into an envelop, and placed it into the mail box right outside his front door. Shrugging his shoulders he headed back inside wondering if anything would come of it.​

 

[Shelby]

As Lee let her gaze sweep across the paper she held in her hand, she started to ascend her way up the stairs that would lead to the apartment she shared with three other people, who, over the course of a year of living together, had become some of her closest friends. Her brows furrowed, then relaxed. Her lips pursed before she blew out a breath to relax them as well as she reached her hand back into her backpack to grab out her keys, the light sound of their jingling nearly falling on deaf ears before she unlocked the door, opened it, and then closed it right back before her with the bottom of her foot. Still, she hadn't looked away from the paper, despite the fact that she had already read the letter in its entirety. Now, merely, she was going over the words again, trying to picture what kind of person had written it to her, wondering what this person behind the words looked like.

Unfortunately, she was unable to come up with any face. But, Lee digressed. She hadn't expected to conjure up any imagery about the person. Hell, she actually hadn't expected to get anything from anyone. When she had signed up to be a pen pal, something that she had heard of and done when she was much younger in elementary school, she hadn't expected to receive the name of anyone that had been paired up with her, and she certainly hadn't expected to get a letter from said person. But, lo and behold, here was a letter from him.

Mateo Salucci.

Closing herself in her room so as not to let any of her roommates catch any wind of what she was doing, since she hadn't mentioned anything about being a pen pal, as she walked into the room she set the letter down on her desk before tossing her backpack somewhere in the middle of her room and sat down in the chair by the desk. Okay, now it was time for her to write, right? It was an odd feeling, an odd thing to do no less, yet she figured, why not? It was what she had thought when the little activity was thrown around in one of her class discussions, something to joke about, something about the art of writing actual letters being gone, but it had stayed in her mind for longer than she would have liked. Sure, she had actual friends she could talk to, but... Why not talk with someone else, someone she didn't know and would probably never see? While the thought was a little unnerving, it was a bit comforting. If that person judged her from what she wrote and didn't put his/her opinion on paper, then what would it matter to her?

After tapping her pen against the desk, biting her lip and staring down at her blank sheet of paper with Mateo's letter right beside her, eventually Lee started to write.


Dear Mateo Salucci,

Trust me when I say that you are not the only one lost when trying to figure out what to write, or just thinking that this entire process is pretty... Well, weird, to put it in nicer terms. To be honest, I don't even really know why I am doing this. It's not something that I normally would do, and I surely haven't been a pen pal for anyone in years, though it had only been because an elementary teacher of mine thought that it would be a 'splendid' idea to write to someone in another country to talk about their experiences and ours with life, despite the fact that we weren't even old enough to understand a lot of things that went on in the world or around us. Long story short: I never got a reply back.

But! that is something for another time, and if I haven't disinterested you already with my rambling, I guess I can tell you a little bit about myself. So, hi! I'm Lee Williams (I know, Lee for girl's name? I've been teased about it in the past, but I've learned to live with it. I actually like my name even). I'm 20 years old, currently a junior in college, and I live in the United States, Michigan if we want to get technical and specific in a way. But, that's cool that you live in Ireland; I've never been out of the country before, but I'd love to go some place some day. Don't know where, but there are a few places that I have in mind, I guess. It might be weird to ask since you may not remember, but how was the transition of moving from one country to another? I imagine that it couldn't have been too easy, but, then again, I've heard that moving when your young makes things easier. Oh, and if you couldn't tell, I've never moved before, or rather I've never had a 'big move'. Just from one neighborhood to the next, which, actually, was really only thirty minutes away from one another. What's it like in Ireland though?

Like I said before, I'm a Junior in college, actually just beginning Junior since the semester just started a week ago, but I'm majoring in Pre-veterinary medicine, very much to my parents disdain. But, as I've always said and thought to them, they aren't the ones paying for my education, so I'm going to do what I want, not what they want me to do. Of course that causes arguments and what not with me and my parents, but we've never been on really good terms with each other, even when I was young. My parents and I... We just see differently, and I refuse to let them try and dictate my life. Besides, I'm an adult now and not living with them since I live in an apartment with three other girls not far from the university I go to, so I figure it's time for me to make my own decisions and go about with my own life.

But again, I think I'm getting off track. I'm sure you don't want to hear me rant about my parents, so I'll just leave it at that.

I'm hoping to become a veterinarian, obviously, in the future, though it's a lot of work. Pretty difficult too, but I'm dealing with it. I'm sure understand how difficult school can be seeing as you used to study engineering, which I've heard can be a pain as well. Hopefully I've only got this year and next for my undergraduate years, and then after that I'll be going to vet school. Again, I'm only hopeful about that since I'm not even sure it'll happen. If it doesn't... I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. Try again maybe? I don't know. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Alright, back on families again... I would say I'm sorry for you loss with your mother, but I'm sure you've heard it enough, so I won't, even though I am. I'm not really good with consoling people with tragic events, so I'll just leave it at that. I'm an only child, which I figure can be a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I have no younger or older siblings to bicker with and complain about. A curse because growing up I didn't always have someone to talk to like I imagine siblings do when and if they get along with each other. It's always just been me and my parents, and while many people think that being an only child means that you get spoiled endlessly by love and affection and what ever from your parents, it wasn't, at least, in my case. They put a lot of pressure on me growing up, maybe because I am their only child, but I don't know.

You mentioned you have a twin though, one that you don't get along with? How was that like? I may sound ignorant asking this question, but do you think it's different growing up as a twin, rather than just having another sibling in the house with you? I've heard it is, but you know what they say: don't always trust what someone tells you.

Well I think this letter has gone on long enough, so I'll just leave it at that. I don't know if you'll reply to this, seeing as my one and only track record with pen pals isn't the best, but I guess we'll, or I'll, see, right?

-Lee Williams
P.S. Oh yeah, I forget to mention this before, but you don't have to refer to me as 'Miss Williams' anymore. It makes me think you're talking about my mom with a different misses title to her name, which she wouldn't appreciate very much. Just call me Lee, and I'll be happy with that.


​

It had taken her much longer to write the letter than she thought it would take her, and she hadn't expected to be as engrossed with it as well. Odd. Nevertheless, she shook her head and stood from her desk as she folded her paper, put it in an envelope, sealed it, and put a stamp on it. And after putting Mateo's letter to the side on her desk, she headed out her room and out to her p.o box, so that she could sent the letter away. Would he reply back? Would she receive a letter from him again? Only time would tell, she guessed.​

 

[LunaxLove]

Mateo made his way up the little path that led to his house in the dark, finally free from work. Reaching the door and slipped his key into the knob and let it swing open. Glancing to his mailbox near the doorway, he slipped his hand into the box and pulled out a few things. Shutting the door behind him he set the small stack of mail on the corner of the counter top in the kitchen. He rummaged through one of the cabinets grabbing a glass from it and set it down in front of him. He then grabbed a bottle of rum and poured some of it into the glass picking up the glass and stack of mail. He took a seat at his desk, tossing the annoying flyers and credit card offers to the side. Picking up the last envelope he noticed it had the name of the girl he had not long ago wrote to.

Taking a sip from his glass he just stared at it for a few minutes not really expecting a reply. Finally he decided to open it and after taking another swig of his drink began to read her reply. He found her to be quiet interesting. She seemed witty and friendly, but also a bit headstrong when she mentioned her parents and school. After he finished reading her letter a few times over, he decided to work on a reply. Of course he refreshed his drink before doing so.

Dear Lee,

I must say I was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply from you miss! Guess I don't sound totally uninteresting after all! As for the school pen pal thing, I never really understood it either. We did that right before the summer I moved away. Seemed so pointless, but I guess they were trying to instill awareness of others so we could be cultured and whatnot. Who knows? I must say I don't miss it for a second besides the fact that making friends was easier. The older I get the harder it is for me to take the time to get to know people. I rather just be home watching movies or playing music. Guess I'm a bit of an introvert.

The move I actually remember quiet vividly even though I was so young. That was probably because it wasn't just 30 minutes in a different direction like yourself, however, I'm sure it was still a little weird for you to move away from something familiar. Going from sunshiny Florida to chilly Ireland was definitely an experience. The leaving friends behind wasn't the hard part or leaving my birth place behind. The hard part was flying oddly enough. I had never been on a plane before, nor did I enjoy it. Probably because my brother Issac decided it would be entertaining to push my face against the glass window knowing full well I hated heights. Needless to say that was the longest flight of my life. Glad we had no reason to fly anywhere else after that. Ireland is pretty great actually! It's a must see honestly. It's so beautiful and where I live it's peaceful. I've got a nice little pond in the back a little ways down. It's wonderful being away from the bustling city life. Or maybe that's just because I'm some 60 man trapped in a 21 year old's body. Who knows. Where are some of the places you would like to go?

Veterinarian huh? That sounds like it would be a very rewarding job, but at the same time a hard one too. I couldn't imagine having to tell the family when they don't make it. Hardest thing in the world I feel like. However, from what I can tell you seem like a strong willed kind of person, so I think you could handle whatever challenges that may come with the job. It's gotta be harder then being a doctor having to know all different body structures and what different animals are prone to. I applaud your endeavor! What made you want to follow that path? Were you around them a lot growing up? What did your parents want you to pursue instead of saving the lives of animals? I feel like they would want a daughter who is out there saving the world! Okay, maybe not world, but saving the lives of creatures that bring humans happiness.

Thank you for the sympathy, but I'm okay with it now. It hasn't gotten easier, but I have accepted it. I still go visit her grave once a year and hangout with her. I know that probably sounds weird, but it just gives me some comfort in a weird way.

Honestly I would have given anything to be an only child. My brother Issac is a pain. He constantly used to get into trouble and then blame it all on me. I thought maybe it would get better as we got older, but that didn't happen. Issac kinda followed a shitty crowd of people, the kind of people that bullied others, shop lift, sneak out, the whole nine yards. I believe it was because of mom's death, but any time I would say that it would just piss him off. I just gave up after awhile. I figure maybe he will find a way to accept it and create a better life for himself. We shall see I suppose. Like I said we haven't talked in years so I have no idea where he might be. At least you don't have to deal with all that. Siblings can be a blessing don't get me wrong, except when they are like him. I thought maybe if I had a sister instead things would be better or it could have turned out the same way. Who knows. I will say this about Issac he is a very compassionate person regardless of his actions. If there was something he loved, he would do anything in his power to protect it. I remember this one time we were out in the woods just wondering around aimlessly when we stumbled upon this litter of puppies. We saw that the mother they were huddled closely against had died. Probably defending them from another animal. Issac immediately without any second thoughts told me to help him carry them back to the house. I complied obviously because who can resist tiny puppies. We hid them a few yards away in this disheveled shed that was on our property and Issac spent every single day out there for hours when we would get home from school just taking care of them. He managed to find them all homes too. Good guy, just a little messed up. But aren't we all?

Sorry kinda went off on a tangent there, but to answer your question about what it is like, it's definitely interesting. You constantly get stared at and asked so many kinda of questions like 'can you read each others minds?' or 'do you swap classes to take each others test?', things of that nature. It does get old after awhile, but thankfully when we got older people left us alone. We never made up some language or anything like that and as for 'reading each others minds', we did, but I wouldn't call it mind reading. It's more that you spend so much time with each other that you know that person extremely well, so it's not too hard to take a guess at what they might be thinking. To me it's just like having another sibling, nothing else. Enjoy not having any siblings, it makes life so much easier.

I shall stop here for now. I hope all is well for you!

- Mateo Salucci

P.S. I forgot to ask you. What's it like living with 3 other girls? I can't imagine it being easy. Do you like all of them? Or are they crazy? Haha Most women I know or have met seem to always have drama.

With that, he slid it into and envelope and set it into his mailbox.​

 

[Shelby]

It had become another surprise to her when she had opened her p.o box to see that there was a single letter sitting in it, almost as it had the last time she had checked it. Well, actually, that was a lie. A few times she had checked it over the week, wondering whether or not Mateo ended up getting her letter, wondering whether or not he was going to respond to it. Would he be just like her other pen pal and bail on her? For reasons unbeknownst to her, she hoped not. He seemed interesting, or at least to her from that one letter, and she found herself wanting to know more about him, and she wanted to write to him more.

Of course her roommates still had no idea of the little exchange, mostly because Lee hadn't brought it up in anyway, and even now as she pulled the letter from the box and closed it back she knew that she still wouldn't say anything about it.

Just like last time, before she even made it to her apartment she had already read the letter a few times over, herself not paying attention once again to her surroundings as she went to open the door, closing it behind her, and then heading back towards her room. "Hey Lee," called out a voice, causing her to stop for a quick second as she looked up, raised her brows, and then smiled in the direction of the girl who sat one the couch in the living room, one arm stretched out across the back of the furniture.

"Hey Joey." She gave a little wave, and then proceeded back to her room, shutting the door behind her and then going through the normal routine of her throwing her backpack somewhere, knowing that she would pick it up at some point so that she wouldn't trip over it, taking her shoes off, and then heading over her desk to sit down in the chair in front of it before setting the letter in the place that the other had been the week before. Okay, once again with the writing thing, except, this time, she didn't feel as completely as odd about, though there was still this oddity to it. Oddly enough, she liked it.


Dear Mateo,

Ah, I'm happy to see that you think I'm interesting enough to reply back to as well. You can only imagine my surprise to see your letter in my p.o box. My one time curse with that one pen pal has been broken! ... Alright, enough with the weirdness. Anyway, I am happy to see that you did reply. I hope you're doing well.

But being an introvert isn't too bad. I know a few people like that, and, while I don't normally see them that much for obvious reasons, I always think that having alone time is good for people every once in a while. And whether or not you want to spend time alone all of the time or not is dependent on the person and it shouldn't give anyone a basis to judge them negatively about it. People are people, and people are odd creatures no matter how anyone looks at it. Besides, I like to think that I might have been a little bit of an introvert when I was in high school, though I blame that on the fact that during those years I spent the majority of my time either holed up in my room or at the library so that I could focus on my studies. I was just completely focused on getting good grades, and I felt that in order to do that I had to close myself off to a lot of people, and, in a way, it worked. I had a lot of time to concentrate on things since I didn't go out much, but I do have to admit that it did get a little lonely at times. I guess you can say I'm not really an introvert anymore, but there are sometimes when I wish I did have more time to myself. I would love to be able to just stay in the apartment and not have homework to worry about or studying to do and just watch movies... What do you like to cook when you do, if anything specific, and what kind of movies do you like?

Hearing you say that doesn't make me want to get on a plan any quicker, even if the cause of more of your distress was from your brother. Believe it or not, I've never been on a plane, and, to be honest, I don't really know if I'm afraid of heights or not. Never really gotten myself in a situation like that, but there's just something about planes... I don't know. I guess if I ever plan to travel anywhere other than back to where my parents live, which I hardly go to visit now anyway, then I'll have to get over that and just suck it up. A lot of people fly, and a lot of people still survive. Nonetheless, I'm not going to lie, after reading your first letter and hearing that you live in Ireland made me interested about the place, so I searched about it. Not anything in depth or anything, but enough so that I was able to see a few pictures of popular areas, and what I saw really was beautiful. So, I'll take your word on what you say. Maybe, if I ever do travel to another country at some point, I'll go there. Or maybe Italy or England or some other place that a lot of people like to visit in order to see the sights. I guess I'll just have to make that decision if I ever plan on going anywhere.

But what about you? If you could go anywhere in the world to visit, where would you go? Or would you even want to go anywhere?

Yeah, trying to be a veterinarian is pretty rough, but like I said before, I'm dealing with it. It's just a lot to learn, a lot more than a doctor, but thanks for the vote of confidence. Already I have more confidence from you, technically a stranger, than my parents will ever give me for this. They wanted me to go into law to be a lawyer, or to even become a doctor, maybe a pediatrician my mom had said to me once. For some reason she thinks I would be really good with working with kids, where she got that idea from I have no idea. But they always bring up the fact that, since I'm going through all this work to work on animals, why not just be a doctor so that I'll actually be 'doing society some good while actually saving lives that matter'. As you can probably tell, they're not really animal people. Never have been, and never will be so I have no idea how I got into loving the little buggers so much. I've just had this want to be a veterinarian for as long as I can remember.

My parents were even desperate enough to try and bribe me to change my major in major to law or be a med student, saying that if I continued on with my ways as a vet then they wouldn't help me pay for school. And, well, they're not helping me pay for school, so I guess you can figure out what my decision on that matter was. At least all those years or working hard in high school payed off for me getting enough scholarships to pay off a big chunk of my tuition for me. Other than that, the money I get from work goes towards my education.

Yeah, your brother seems like a pretty compassionate person because of that one thing... I don't know. I guess I just have issues with people who, for what ever reason, act like complete asses one minute, but then turn around the next second to do something chivalrous to make themselves look better. Not to be disrespectful to you or you brother in anyway I mean, so I hope I did offend you by saying that. But, I guess I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. No one can be that bad if they take that much time to help out a couple of puppies whose mother passed, as well as made sure that they went to good homes. But, it's probably like you said: everyone's a little messed up, or maybe they're just not on the right path. Maybe he's not on the right path yet, but you seem like you have hope in him, no matter if you two didn't necessarily get along that well. Maybe one day he'll get there.

But, I guess everyone really is like that in a sense; maybe on the wrong path and it just takes something, whether it be drastic or not, in order for them to find their right path so that they can figure out who they are and what they were meant to do in this worlds. Sometimes, though, I wonder whether or not this is something I should like. Like, am I really on the right path? Sure, I cannot imagine myself doing anything else other than being a vet and helping animals, but sometimes I just wonder if this really is for me. Do you ever feel like that? I don't know. I guess I just have random moments of my day when I question what my life is and question how I got to where I am through the events that happened in my life.

And another ramble of a random topic... But either way, I think I might just enjoy being an only child, though sometimes I wonder if it would be best to have another sibling if only so that my parents would have another being to pester so that they wouldn't put all of their effort into me.

To answer your question though, about my roommates, it's not so bad. I know you've probably heard things about a lot of girls living with one another being a pain, where either clothes are meticulously folded and clean all the time or strewn around the ground all the time, or whether we take obnoxiously long times in the bathroom to get ready while make up is every where, etc. It's actually not like that, or at least for us it's not. We call get along pretty well, and we've all known each other from our freshman year. Actually, it was about the end of our first year in college when we decided to rally together to find an apartment right off campus so that we could live together. It works out pretty well. Probably the closest person to me in the apartment is Joey, though her name is Jordan but she likes to be called Joey. We're actually both majoring in the same thing, which, in reality, is a pretty terrifying thing. And it's only like that because, in a way, we're competing against each other for a spot in vet school. I mean, if we both make it, cool. If neither of us make it, well then sucks for us I guess. But if one makes it and one doesn't? I really know if much animosity will be thrown around, but I just don't to see that happen.

My other two roommates are Madeline and Lana. They're both pretty cool. Madeline majors in Computer science, and Lana is majoring in Biology. We all do have set rules for the place though, just to keep things in a little bit of order, and so that we don't step on each other's shoes. Literally and figuratively.

But I think that may be enough for now. I think I may have written a little too much. My hand's even starting to hurt a little, but I guess that's my own fault. Hope you don't mind. I guess... I kind of have a lot to say. I don't know. But anyway, I hope to hear from you again soon! Take care.

-Lee Williams

​

Cracking the bones in her fingers as she leaned back in her seat, stretching her arms back as she groaned lightly to herself, Lee retracted back forward and looked over the letter. Not too bad, hopefully anyway. She gave a sheepish grin to herself before reaching up and grabbing the last envelope she had as she stuffed the letter inside and sealed it shut, putting another stamp on it and then putting Mateo's letter into the space where she had left his other letter. Note to self, she reminded herself, get more envelopes. With the nod of her head, she exited her room, replied with a quick "I'll be right back" to Joey who still sat on the couch, more than likely looking over one of her textbooks, and then headed out the door to drop the letter off.​