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The mail was delivered to Monmouth Manufacturing’s mailbox around 3pm every day except Sundays. Since the bottom floor once was an industrial warehouse, the mailbox was divided into 4 slender compartments with keys that open each one. Three were out of use, but the one labeled “2B” was designated for Gansey’s apartment on the second floor.
The Pig barreled down the street and crunched into the gravel parking lot to find another vehicle parked in it’s usual spot nearest the door. Ronan’s BMW sulked at the end of the empty lot, taking up two parking spots. The vehicle parked nearest to the door belonged to the mailman.
“Hello there,” Gansey greeted with his best grin, that has earned him a free appetizer at least twice.
“Ah, Mister Gansey, it’s good to see you,” the Postman replied, affording him the respect one might pay to a city council member. He locked the back of the mailbox, and with a shuffling of envelopes, extended a large stack of mail towards Gansey.
“Your neighbor's mailbox is getting a little full.” The Postman said in a conversational tone. “Are they out of town?”
“Neighbor?” Gansey asked, confused.
“2A.” He pointed vaguely at the mailboxes.
“But nobody lives--” Gansey started a response but the Postman was already stepping into his truck. Gansey turned his head to look at the mailbox. “--there.” He answered to himself with a flustered sigh. Apartment 2A didn’t exist anymore. It was once a considerably smaller apartment with one bedroom that Gansey had combined with the larger apartment to make the entire second floor his living space.
“Happy Holidays!” Gansey heard vaguely from the disappearing mail truck. He waved in the general direction, more confused. He spun around to see Noah standing close enough to peek at the envelopes in his hands. Noah’s fingers ghosted over the mail and he deftly plucked three envelopes with his name on them.
“You get mail?” Gansey asked. Noah sent him an of-course look, and sifted through his envelopes. Gansey looked down at his mailbox keys and his eyes fixed upon a key, identical to his own, with “2A” etched into the metal.
His thoughts immediately went through all the scenarios. Identity theft. Mail fraud. Another ghost? (Improbable.) He didn’t want to invade someone else’s privacy, but wasn’t it technically his property, therefore, his responsibility? He remembered once seeing a bin for misaddressed mail at the Post Office. Tomorrow he could drop the mail in that bin, and everything could be sorted.
He slid the key into the unfamiliar mailbox and twisted. It opened exactly as his own did. Gansey wasn’t sure why exactly but his heart was beating outrageously fast. He felt like Nancy Drew about to solve a mystery and speed off in his flashy sportscar. The door swung open on rusty hinges and a stack of large envelopes were crammed inside, barely fitting. All addressed to Mr. Adam Parrish.
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Gansey’s phone started to ring, and he was immediately jarred from his thoughts by Adam Parrish’s name appearing on his screen. He glanced left and right like Adam would somehow materialize through the phone call. He didn’t know what to do, so Gansey panicked and threw the phone to Noah who immediately disappeared and to Gansey’s dismay, his phone landed facedown on the pavement.
Gingerly, he picked up the destroyed phone. He tried to swipe to answer the call, but the screen was pretty cracked. On the third or fourth try, Gansey got the phone unlocked.
“Hello?” He was trying to keep it cool, so it might have come out more of a ‘yello?’ than he initially planned.
“Gansey?” Adam responded,
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Why does your voice sound like that?” Gansey scoffed at that accusation, and continued upholding his calm and cool demeanor.
“I’m just getting to Monmouth, you should come over.”
“Okay maybe. I was gonna get some work done here first. I still have one more final zero period tomorrow.”
“Then you’re done right?” Gansey prodded in a low-key manner. He himself had finished his finals this afternoon, completing the semester and easing into Winter Break.
“Yeah,” There was a lengthy silence, where Gansey could hear Adam still on the line. “Okay. Bye.” The call ended. Gansey breathed for the first time in minutes and frowned again when he realized his phone screen was garbage.
Gansey mused for a few seconds on the presence of mail in the 2A slot. Adam would have known that nobody checked that box. Adam would have known that Gansey hung the mail keys on a tiny hook above the coffee maker. Gansey had never considered if there was a mailbox specifically for Adam’s apartment at St. Agnes. He’d never thought to ask.
“NOAH!” Gansey screamed as he climbed the steps to Monmouth with two piles of mail held tightly to his chest.
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Aglionby Academy was actually pretty bustling at 7AM on the last day before Winter Break. Somehow, Gansey had convinced Adam to let them all drop him off for his two hour test, and then pick him up directly after. As Adam’s slumped figure disappeared through the double doors, Gansey turns to the back seat.
“We have a major problem.” Gansey spoke to Ronan, head tipped back, pretending to sleep in the back seat. Gansey, knowing he was faking it, threw his phone towards his face.
“That was rude.” Noah says from the seat beside Ronan. It narrowly missed Ronan’s face, but landed on the vinyl seat dangerously within Ronan’s reach. The phone shot back towards Gansey hitting his side and clattering to the floor of The Pig.
Gansey’s arms flailed in surrender just as several pieces of trash from the backseat hit him in the face. Gansey’s aimed his best deadpan expression at Ronan.
“You started it.” Ronan looked bored as he settled back into his fake sleeping position. “I’m listening.”
“Has Adam seemed… I don’t know. Overly stressed recently?” Gansey risked a look first at Noah then to Ronan. Noah stared at him like he knew all his secrets. Ronan didn’t look up.
Ronan’s eyes remained closed, but he answered, “He’s always overly stressed. He’s taking two extra classes to bulk up his college applications.”
Gansey twisted around in the front seat looking away from Noah and Ronan. The dead silence caused Ronan to begrudgingly open an eye to look at him.
“Well, he doesn’t have to. He doesn’t have to anymore, I mean.” Gansey rifled through his bag and pulled out the stack of mail. Ronan perked up and took the mail, holding it gently as he scanned the top one.
He drew together his brows, and said softly, “Yale.”
Noah slid the other 6 envelopes from Ronan’s hands, leaving the top one resting on his fingertips.
Noah rifled off the schools on the return-address labels. “Princeton, Brown, UPenn, Stanford, Cambridge.” Noah’s eyes lit up. “Gansey. These are Big Envelopes. Big Envelopes mean--”
“He got in,” Ronan said. “He got in to all of them.”
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Two hours later, Adam slumped out of the Aglionby Social Sciences Building and slumped into the passenger seat of the awaiting Camaro. A very large coffee was waiting for him in the cup holder, matching the cups that Gansey, Ronan and Noah also held.
“Hey,” Adam supplied, his expression strained, but he was smiling.
Adam glanced into the back seat when his greeting was met with silence. Both Noah and Ronan had their eyes fixed on Gansey who offered the slightest shake of his head that silently conveyed Don't tell him. Not yet . Adam scoffed and settled facing forward as Gansey peeled out of the Aglionby parking lot and headed towards Monmouth.
“I have a shift in an hour. Just drop me at St. Agnes.” Adam said.
“But it’s Christmas!” Noah broke the silence of the backseat.
Adam glanced back, “It’s December 22nd.”
“But it’s our Christmas. We’re celebrating today. I decided just now.” Noah explained glancing furtively to Ronan.
“I guess I can come over after work,” Adam thought for a minute, then answered surprisingly excited, “I’ll bring the fake Christmas tree from work. We’re closed through Christmas after today, so nobody will notice.” He got out of the car at St. Agnes with a casual wave as he walked up to his apartment.
Gansey turned to Ronan and Noah, “We’ve got work to do.”
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Later that day, Gansey walked up the steps of Monmouth Manufacturing balancing at least 4 boxes of various sizes and one bag from an expensive boutique slung in the crook of his arm. He stood for a few seconds outside the closed door to steady the tower of boxes. Before he could brainstorm a way to get his keys out of his pocket, a tiny box with butchers twine tied around it tipped dangerously and slid from the top of the stack. Gansey winced and waited to hear the little box clash down the stairs.
A disembodied hand flickered into view and caught the present, shortly followed by the rest of Noah, as he gently reached up and replaced the tiny box on top of the stack. He reached with his other hand into Gansey’s coat pocket. The keys to Monmouth jingled as Noah let them both in with a kick to the bottom of the door.
“Wait ‘till you see…” Noah mumbled, almost too quiet for Gansey to hear.
“What did you--” Gansey started to reply, but when the door opened to second floor entrance to 1136 Monmouth, Gansey’s ability to complete his question was lost.
Blue Sargent was standing on a barstool, hanging the last chain of obviously handmade tinsel around the large windows. The tinsel looked to be strung together fall leaves, some sprigs from a pine tree and an assortment of plant life Gansey couldn’t identify. His model of Henrietta took up most of the main area but was now covered in fake snow, tiny lights and some of the buildings were wrapped like presents. Noah hovered at his shoulder with a huge smile on his face.
“I did that,” He pointed proudly to the five oven mitts that were taped to the window as make-shift stockings, with candy canes sticking out of the tops.
Gansey set down his presents for his friends and looked back to Noah.
“Where are they?” He said softly, like it was still a secret.
Wrapped in plain brown paper with a simple red bow, Noah held up Adam’s letters.
“It’s perfect.” Gansey felt warm. He felt himself smiling before he’d even thought about doing so. He heard Ronan banging around in the bathroom-kitchen; Blue had finished the tinsel and was sitting in an arm chair with knitting needles making a hat.
“Don’t look over here!” She feigned anger and curled away from him so he couldn’t see. He hummed with warmth, it felt like home without even trying. Not Virginia, not Henrietta, but Monmouth, specifically. He’d been in and out of a lot of places but couldn’t imagine ever leaving this one.
At that moment, Adam Parrish walked in holding a three foot plastic Christmas tree with a small wrench hanging as it's only ornament.
Noah and Blue expressed extreme excitement and helped Adam set it up between mini Henrietta and the window decorations. Ronan was arranging some presents wrapped in pages ripped from the Aglionby student handbook underneath the sparse plastic branches. They all congregated on the floor in the midst of the holiday cheer.
“First thing’s first.” Noah still held the brown paper package with the red ribbon. He held it out to Adam.
Adam flipped open the card. “To: Adam, From: The Mailman” He read with a confused look. A rip to the top corner exposed the Yale return address label and he froze. He opened the rest with one careful tear. The envelopes piled on his lap as he looked up at his friends.
“You got in.” Gansey smiled and put one hand on Adam’s shoulder. Blue and Noah pounced Adam with a hug. Ronan hung back with as much of a proud grin as he could muster.
“You got in.” He repeated.