“I kinda want to break up with Kirk,” she mumbled unsteadily. “What do you think?”

“Kim,” I told her. “You are better off without that sorry excuse of a boyfriend. He is preventing you from being your best self and you deserve better.”

She thought for a few moments, then admitted, “I know, I’ve been thinking about this for a few months actually. Can I show you something I wrote recently?”

“Of course, I’d love to see it.”

Kim offered a smile and climbed from her carpeted floor. She walked over to her bedside desk, rolled out the drawer, pulled out a blue, leatherback notebook, and flipped through until she found her desired page.

“Here,” she said as she handed me the open book.

I looked down at the neat, weaving cursive and read:

__

__

_I told my friends from across the country how much I liked you. But that was before you lied. I told my mom how I liked to hold your hand. But that was before you shrugged me off with that cold shoulder of yours. You are making it difficult for all of our friends because of that shoulder… none of us knows what’s going on with you. All we understand is that you are mad at me for no reason, I did nothing wrong. I am my own harshest critic and would apologize immediately if this wall in our relationship was my fault. But it isn’t and we both know._

__

__

_I am frustrated that you had the nerve to tell everyone in our friend group that you stopped “liking” me, except for the girl you told a month earlier that you loved her. Then you lied to our friend, saying that you had told me. No, you did not and I’m still waiting. I was in shock when the friend shared it with me, but I’m glad that he did. The hard silence without explanation from you was killing me._

__

__

_I will choose to forgive you, but not trust you. Everyone deserves respect and kindness, you aren’t any different. But I want you to realize, I don’t have time for your crap. So if you still want to be friends, that’s nice, but you’ll have to shape up because that ship has sailed. I will not deal with this any longer, I am not a tic in your belt to be counted._

I peered back up at Kim, who was staring at my face confidently, searching for my advice.

“I think someone will be ready to jam ‘Single Ladies’ with me soon enough. When are you telling him?”

She beamed, hugging me tightly.

“Tomorrow morning. I want to see what my life will be like without him as soon as possible.”