Author and Columnist
I have been perhaps harsh at times in responding to you. So far, I am judging you on reconstituted letters, meant for an audience of one or so. You are not writing your journal proper, so it may come off that I am sitting on the sidelines, snickering at your letters to and about your girlfriend. I will try to be gentler going forward, at least until you are writing to the world (and thus may invite criticism).
I am responding more sternly too because you represent glaring bad habits that I have worked decades to break, ones that might be harder for other people to notice.
With the bad habits, I do notice things about you that I like or envy. That grip of passion and hope you experience is thrilling, even in retrospect. I wish I could live your life with my hard-won knowledge (even a few small tweaks, not more than would fit on an index card) but, of course, I cannot.
Failing that, I wish I could spectate your life more directly, that you wrote more and took more pictures.
Tina has left James. She felt horrible about it. But they were just getting irked with each other too much and their relationship wasn't strong enough to deal with it all.
All this late adolescent drama is, however, kind of funny to me. I have not seen Tina in years, since visiting her apartment (possibly with Kate) over a decade ago. As for James, he will eventually and briefly date one of your best friends. Then, he seems disconnected from emotional connection, so it is difficult to imagine him irked. As far as I can picture, one could break up with him by saying, "This union has not been successful. Please click this button to confirm you understand. Thank you."
I don't remember how long they were together, if this was a significant interaction between them or a passing fancy.
My timeline is uncertain here and I cannot reconcile it. This should be before she dated Stevehen, except I recall hanging out with him at Kate's house, something that shouldn't have happened much after we were in college. But, years after this, Melissa will sleep with Stevehen to get him away from Tina (which starts a branching path that may contribute to Melissa's life ending by fractions until she overdoses).
Melissa is what ends your friendship with Tina, as she feels you are to blame, even though you tell Melissa to stay away from Stevehen and let him fix her up with his friend Rob. And Rob is the man who, years later, she is engaged to marry. (This is not to imply she is faithful with him, either, but it does seem that she could have prevented a lot of grief by not seducing a man in a relationship yet again as a way to boost her ego.)
It is all incestuous in the Hudson Valley, people dating one another's exes and contriving soap opera plots. I had even dated Tina for a few weeks of fondling at fifteen or sixteen before I broke up with her. Aside from Kate, I dated two other of her close friends, Virginia and Sky.
She also left him so she would have more of a chance with a certain homosexual. That much I knew would happen. That much I predicted. For I am wise.
Are you? I don't remember Tina being bi-curious. I cannot say she wasn't, only that I cannot pull up any evidence. She didn't date Charlotte. I don't think they had other than friendly interactions, but I can't promise this. Even at its peak, your friendship with Tina was never that of emotional intimates.
And Liz will not be there. I made very sure of that. I didn't want Kate getting upset.
Who is Liz? Why would she get Kate upset?
There was a Liz, a friend with whom I made out a few times until she revealed that she was dating someone else and wouldn't be leaving him. That occurred likely two years before meeting Kate and never after. I doubt Kate and that Liz ever even met, so it cannot have been her.
I find this mystery compelling, this passing suggestion of more drama. Liz would have to be close to Rob, the maker of horror makeup and props, and Venessa, his slight girlfriend. The Liz who cheated with you, though geographically proximal, wouldn't seem to have known them.
There was a Liz you befriend when you live at a boarding school, years later. You have a cousin Beth, whom you would never refer to as Liz. At 14 or so, you flirted with a Liz at a gifted program, speaking with her on AOL Instant Messenger a few times and never seeing again. Melissa had an unhealthy attachment to a Liz, but you would never have seen her without Melissa around and she was never a threat to anyone, nor would she know Rob and Venessa. None would fit this threat.
I can't imagine what would upset Kate, certainly enough that you had to check a guest list, except the suggestion that someone might have intentions on you. Who was this woman who loomed large for a moment and vanished thereafter?
