Pen Pals

She sat here within the vortex of pulsing activities for nearly three hours. She hadn't been this close to people for too many years to count. The voices were beginning to break through her well guarded defenses. Damn it, she shouldn't be here at all. Pete's words of warning made Michelle, or Mich, as Pete so fondly nicknamed her all those years ago, wonder how loud her friend would yell if he saw her here.
Please be here to yell at me, Pete. Nothing she tried would silence the warnings over Pete's welfare. Even now, being so close to Dan, his grandson, the feelings were getting stronger, clearer than any she felt from him before, and none of it felt right. She had to take the risk.