It has been so lovely to get to know you, Tara, and while my breakup with Justin took me out of the loop for a while, I hope that this final stretch of high school can offer us the time to really learn about each other.
You and I share a best friend, and I bet once we spend more time together, we will find out that we have a lot more in common.
Thank you again for being so openhearted with me. For taking time to reach out to me over and over again. That means a great deal to me.
Hope all is well,
Stacey
Stefanie,
I am assuming you told Stacey Simon everything and that is why she wrote me a condescending, manipulative note?! Wow. Just WOW!!
Your Ex-BFF,
Tara
Tara,
Not that I owe you a response, because god knows I don’t . . . but no. I have said nothing to Stacey about you. I have said nothing to Stacey about you and Chris. I have said nothing to Stacey about Chris cheating on you. And I knew NOTHING and KNOW NOTHING about Stacey and Matt Bloom.
Goodbye, Tara.
Stef
To the Kid Who Thinks He Looks Like Keanu,
Did someone send you from some heartless, evil planet to come destroy my life!? Who on earth (my native planet) do you think you are, Matt Bloom??
At every turn you have taken my life off course. Every single turn!!
I asked ya to transfer schools. Is that really so much to ask a life-destroyer?!
I swear to god it’s as if your life before South High was spent plotting a way to ruin mine. One can’t help but think you are in cahoots with people to just . . . what? Wipe me out? Well, wiped out I am. I am tired. Oh so very tired, Matt, but I will not be stopped. I will win this chess game. Yeah, for a minute there the ball was in your court, Kid, but now . . . now you don’t even have a court!
Not sure if you’re aware that because of you I have lost my best friend. You aware of that? Huh? Because of you I am staying with a boyfriend that is cheating on me. I have to wear a friggin’ claddagh ring from a cheating boyfriend because of you, Matt.
So let’s just cut to the center of this Tootsie Pop, k? Enough with your ridiculous “I’m so private . . . Stacey and I are such private people” nonsense. You’re at South High, Matt. The place where a giant Freshman girl who works at a candy shop found a note and nearly killed my lifelong-built reputation. Nothing is private in this joke of a town. NOTHING. So stop fronting like you’re this super sacred person.
How long have you and Stacey been goin’ out? Did you become official boyfriend/girlfriend and then start sleeping together or did you start sleeping together first and then become boyfriend/girlfriend? Are you goin’ to Prom together and have you already rented a tux? Knowin’ you I bet you’ve already picked out your cummerbund. Doin’ a solid color, Matt, or a more actorly one with paisleys? Huh?
You think I have the time to deal with all this? Well, I don’t. I’m packing my bags for Nashville, and I am goin’ to clear my head (some of us meditate, Matt), and I am gonna win everything at Nationals. EVERYTHING!!
You’d better answer me, Matt. You owe me that much. I will review your note on the plane, and when I return to this town a winner I will take action.
Write Back or Else,
Tara
Dear Tara,
Woah! Seriously . . . woah! There is so much here to discuss, but let me try to help you make sense of some things.
I was not sent here from another planet to destroy you. I know you’re joking about that (at least I’m hoping you are . . . sorry for using your parentheses), but no, I wasn’t sent to South High to hurt you in any way.
I’m not transferring schools. So you can stop asking me to do that. Again, hoping you’re joking about that, but I’ve gotta tell you I can’t really detect when you’re kidding and when you’re not. You didn’t say j to the k, so . . .
I am so confused about you and Chris. Last thing I knew you asked me to call you when his friend in the Pinto was at his house. I did that. I called you. You thanked me because you wanted to surprise them. I thought that was so nice of you, to surprise him. Then you told me you had stuff to share with me and that you would do that at Camel Lot, but you canceled that plan and have been angry ever since.
Don’t think I don’t see you giving me the finger in the hallways. I see it. And I also see you mocking the way I blow my hair out of my face.
And the whole Keanu thing . . . I’m my own person, Tara, and I like me. I’m not trying to be Keanu. It’s not my fault I am Hungarian and Russian, which is why I sort of have Asian eyes. Believe me, I got made fun of for my eyes a lot when I was a kid. People said I was adopted and that I should go back to China. I cried about that a lot. But my mom and dad always told me I was a beautiful boy with beautiful eyes, and my brother always beat the crap out of the kids who made fun of me. One time David
