Karen Noble

You look forward to nights you can go out with friends without them.

If you were in a relationship? It’d only slow you down.

You believe they are really talented and they also think you’re something special.

You find yourself lingering on stuff that smells like them — their T-shirts, their sheets. When you catch a whiff of them, you feel happy and safe.

You wanted things from me and you knew how I felt about you and you used those feelings and you used me. So I want you to know how I feel now, since you knew how I felt then.

I dated sporadically and unsuccessfully in college, fluctuating between a lot of tears and frustration and not being able to understand why I was so unlovable and gleefully listening to other people b-tch about their relationships while I wore full-on acne masks to bed in a comforter covered in Cheez-it dust.

So what is your aim? I really want to know. Is this a game to you? Is it like, “Hey, let’s see if this chick is still willing to respond to me.”

I will never be the person you want. Not really. I can be a shadow of that person, striving really hard to actually get there. But I never will.

Is it possible to be 100 percent honest all the time and not hurt the other person’s feelings?

They’ll literally be in the middle of talking about puppies or rainbows and then they’ll turn, vitriol spewing from their gnarled mouths, yell “Yankees suck!” with a vengeance and then turn back pleasantly to the conversation at hand.

“I’m already over it.” Like “I’m an adult,” that’s one of those statements that saying out loud makes not true.

Aside from his parents, you’re the one I need to impress the most. Don’t make it hard on me. I’m already bugging.

They come to your art show. They encourage you to practice with your band. They don’t get jealous or upset when you have to work late. They genuinely want you to succeed.