To The Girl Who Thinks I Stole Her Boyfriend

Don’t call me Jolene. Your life isn’t a Dolly Parton song. Don’t make me the villain in your story because you need somebody to put the blame on. I may have those flaming locks of auburn hair and eye of emerald green that Dolly sings about, but I didn’t take your man just because I could.

He was never your man to begin with. I may have him now, but he was never really yours. Sure, for a while he would stay over at your apartment until the early hours of the morning a couple times a week. You would talk, drink a little Jack Daniels, make out, he would tell you he liked you, then you would do things you regretted. But you know he was thinking about me. You even told me yourself. He whispered my name instead of yours once. I couldn’t believe you actually admitted it. So forgive me if I won’t ever believe that I “stole” him from you. He wasn’t ever yours.

He rarely spoke to you in public. He didn’t want anyone to know he would stay at your apartment. You often questioned if he was embarrassed of you. I don’t know if he was, but he didn’t show you off. But he’s not embarrassed of me. He took me home to meet his parents. He introduced me to all his friends. He told me he loved me.

Those were all the things you wanted from him. But he gave them to me instead. I still didn’t take him from you. Whatever the two of you had ended long before things between he and I began. He may have already wanted to be with me, but you pushed him towards me more than I ever pulled him. I was taken by another man at the time. Unavailable. He couldn’t have had me even if he wanted me. But you still brought me up to him all the time. If I wasn’t already in his thoughts, you put me there. So don’t blame me – blame yourself. You lost him — I didn’t take him.

I know you feel like you play second fiddle to me. You feel like you’re competing with me. Well, I’m not competing with you at all. I’m not worried about you at all. I’m just living. Maybe you should try that, too. Maybe then you won’t feel like you lose everything to me in a game that I’m not even playing.

That’s something you’ll have to get over yourself. Don’t make me your enemy just to make yourself feel better. We don’t live in a sad country music song. Don’t call me Jolene.