The following is a column posted as a MySpace bulletin on October 15, 2008. My modern day commentary can be found after my italicized signature.
Waiting
Whatever happened to the days when my life was simple? Kathryne was my girl instead of my ex, the name 'Bianca' wasn't even in my vocabulary, Chris still had a crush on Long Beach (Alyssa), making out in the hallway was the only reason I liked 6th period, football games were packed with people but it was just Kathryne and me, and it wasn't an awkward situation when we 'accidently' called each other "babe"?
This week has definitely been a relationship mess for me. As most of you may know, I have been waiting for Kathryne to break up with "The rebound she accidently fell in love with" since around the end of school last year. I waited all summer, May, June, July, and fall. I waited and waited and when I was done, I waited some more. It wasn't until this week that I thought that maybe I was waiting for nothing to happen.
I met a girl named Kathleen at the beginning of this year. We invited her to hangout with us at the table during lunch and she stuck around. I couldn't help but wonder what would a relationship with her would be like. There's not really much to be said about a girl that has never had a boyfriend. Well I guess I'll just say it, that all changed on Monday. I asked her out in the lunch line and she said yes.
That night I texted Kathryne to tell her and she told me something in return. She broke up with "The rebound she accidently fell in love with" the night before and was going to ask me out after school. If I had just waited 2 more hours, I would have had my girl back. After 5 months of waiting, I was 2 hours away from my goal. I felt like such an asshole. I'm not really one to put myself down but I couldn't help it. I have never met Jack Daniels but I was seriously considering introducing myself. All this just a few days after my best girl-friend, Sandra, moved away (I'll save this one for later).
How do you break up with a girl after just a few hours? Isn't "Putting a relationship on hold" breaking up without saying the words? It seems like I've been doing the break ups around here the most. Have you heard that new song by Katy Perry called Hot 'n' Cold? "You change your mind like a girl changes clothes" is she talking to me or what?
-Brendon Joshua
For this commentary, let’s just focus on Kathleen. I never really liked her and I only asked her to be my girlfriend because I was desperate to tell everyone that I had a girlfriend. I asked her out after about 3 days of knowing her which began a very interesting course of events in my life, and we only ‘dated’ for about a week. During that week, I met her younger sister, Vanessa, and got her phone number so I could call Kathleen who didn’t have her own cellphone. A few weeks after we broke up, Kathleen moved to Alaska when her mom and dad divorced while Vanessa stayed in Beaumont, my home town. I found that information out in a letter that Vanessa handed me one day in between classes which she claimed to be from Kathleen. It explained how she and Vanessa were half sisters and she wished she could have hugged me and given me a proper goodbye. She continued that she would also be seeking cancer treatment in Alaska because she had stomach cancer and was worried she would die before saying she was sorry to me. At the bottom of the letter was a phone number. She wrote that she would like to hear from me if I could 'find it in myself to forgive her' so she could explain everything.
I didn’t think anything of her leaving without saying goodbye. At that point in my life, there were 10 or 15 girls I was in love with, so I quickly pursued the next one after Kathleen stopped coming to school. After school on the day I received the letter, I called her. She answered immediately in a gravel voiced tone. She coughed through the entire call and recounted her rigorous chemo and radiation schedule where she claimed to be at that moment. After a few minutes, she stopped responding and the phone disconnected. The next day at school, I was surprised to see Vanessa in such good spirits. I ran to her and asked if she had any updates on her sister’s condition. She asked me what I was talking about. I recounted the entire phone call to her and Vanessa rolled her eyes when I was done. She informed me that the whole thing was a lie. She wasn’t related to Kathleen, they just happened to share a last name, albeit an uncommon Spanish name. She said they had only met that year in a class and formed this story about being related for fun. She thought Kathleen took it too far and apologized on her behalf. I never spoke to Vanessa again after that except for a casual smile and wave when we passed each other.
I was scrolling Instagram during COVID to see how all my old high school friends were doing since we would not be having a 10 year high school reunion when who do I find? Kathleen Uncommon Spanish Name hyphen Common Last Name. Not only was she alive, but married with kids. I tapped on her profile and a picture of her and Vanessa drinking wine and laughing popped up first. The caption; “Wine-ing about quarantine with my sister.”
-Brendon
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