One Star Review

Luna downloads A Relationship (Or Something Like It) to her Kindle. Suzanne said that she needed to read this because Alyssa, her old college roommate, based a character on her. Suzanne had warned, "I don't think you're going to like this, especially with the way you feel about Alyssa."

It doesn’t hurt that Leigh is very pretty, slender, with blonde hair, and big blue eyes, and a dancer’s strong, athletic grace.

Hmm, she thinks I'm pretty. What is so bad about this?

Leigh, like me, is still a virgin, but she has had a few long term boyfriends. She has had a very rough life, growing up with a single alcoholic mother who was constantly falling off the wagon. As a result, she took care of her two younger brothers and had developed a very protective instinct and a high dose of skepticism towards those she cared about. On the other hand, she has made some poor personal choices with regards to love. She had recently broken up with her long-term high school boyfriend Brad who had been in and out of prison due to drug dealing, possession, and shoplifting. They broke up when she caught him trying to sneak stolen goods into her purse.

That b*tch, what right does she have, analysing personal details of "my" life? Believe me, the woman has plenty of issues of her own. What right does she have to bash me like this? Why am I so upset, the writing isn't even that good?

I do not really want to tell Leigh and Diana about Kyle because I know they disapprove of the specifics I mention earlier in the summer. I decide to lie a little bit and say that I met someone through one of my ads, but he lives in a different state. I mention that he promised to write and call and that I have not heard from him in over a month. Leigh especially can tell I am not telling the full truth and goes into her protective mode, asking me probing leading questions. She also spouts a lot of rhetoric about it always being the best policy to tell the truth no matter what. Diana, though she suspects the same thing, is kinder figuring I’ll tell the full story when I’m ready.

***

“Who was that?” Leigh asks, hearing the tail end of my conversation as she comes home from her class. I know that I should fully disclose the truth about everything, but I feel I’m already caught too deep in the lie that I told. Even though I know things will drive Leigh away even further, I tell her that it was the guy my age from the ad calling me. Leigh just gives me a dirty look.

When my parents call that night, before I can answer the phone, Leigh picks it up and informs them that I got a special phone call that I can’t wait to tell them about. Leigh looks at me and says,

“It’s always best to tell the truth.”

But I was her friend! If she considered me a friend, she wouldn't have lied to begin with. I would have tried to be supportive whether I agreed with her or not. I'm hurt that she didn't give me the chance. The lying was what ruined my friendship with Alyssa. If only she were honest with me from the start. And it wasn't only about "Kyle," she hid other things from me, too. She didn't tell the truth that her parents paid for all of her college tuition. Alyssa justified this as she did not want to come off as spoiled. I thought she was lucky to have this support, if a little jealous. I'm pretty sure she lied about other things, too.

I know that my friend is just showing her concern for me with the same fierce passion that she has when protecting her brothers from the worst of their mother’s alcoholism, but this is entirely different. I am a grown woman who wants to make her own choices about love and I think that I am a good judge of character. I need to find a way to reassure Leigh that as much as I appreciate the way she cares so much, in this case, she needs to back off.

What right does she have to analyze me? I was and still am, mad at her because she's a liar.

I have a feeling deep down that even though things appear to be all right again between Leigh and me, it will take a lot of work and repair to get our friendship back to the way it was. She feels that a level of trust has been broken by my not disclosing everything. I wonder, though I would never say anything to her, if she rushed into her relationship with Aidan just so she wouldn’t have to face being alone and if she has been holding out some details of her own. Sometimes during his visits and phone conversations, I hear arguments between them and don’t think things are as perfect as she wants them to be.

She's damn right about that. I stopped trusting Alyssa, when she proved she couldn't trust me enough to be completely honest with me. She felt that in finally telling me the truth about "Kyle," she could erase all the bad feelings between us. It would have taken a lot more than that. This book shows that I was definitely right not to forgive.

After returning from the lobby mailbox, I see Leigh sitting on the couch in tears. Diana is comforting her.

“He was such a great guy,” she keeps saying over and over.

“What’s wrong?”

Leigh tells how Aidan just called her and told her that they needed to break up. They had had a fight the weekend before. Then today, he tells her that he thought it over and that he realized he still had feelings for an ex-girlfriend. I always thought she latched on to her relationship with him so she wouldn’t have to deal with what she went through with Brad.

Brad is a burnout and has no plans to go to college. He had both used and sold drugs and was constantly in trouble with the law. For as long as Leigh had known him, he had been in and out of rehab centers and juvenile detention homes. Similar to her background, he grew up with parents who were both alcoholics and recreational drug users. Unlike her, however, he showed no desire to work hard and break the pattern. After Leigh was detained for Brad’s shoplifting and trying to frame her, she realized that what she had with him was unhealthy and broke it off. Then she went up to school to make up her missed classes due to mono, took the waitressing job, met Aidan, and they almost immediately became an established couple before she had time to evaluate her relationship with Brad.

Diana and I comfort Leigh while she cries, and we just listen.

“This is the first time in years I am alone. I don’t think I have ever been alone before,” she cries. “There has always been someone.”

This is getting worse and worse. How could she bash my love life like that? This is a vicous attack on me. I don't know if I can stand it anymore. Maybe I should stop reading. But I need to know what else she has said. What a betrayal!

In the week before Valentine’s Day I check the mailbox every day, and there is nothing. He does not call me on the day itself. That night, I lay on my bed sobbing, and Diana and Leigh come in wondering what is bothering me. I tell them how I was really hoping for a card or a call from Kyle even though we are taking things slowly

What a pathetic loser. And she has the gall to judge me about my love life!

I tell my dad about my latest job offer. Then I take a deep breath.

“Dad, I need to tell you something. I have been hurting for a long time, and I just need to tell somebody, especially now.”

He listens.

“I am very excited about The Miami Beat, it’s the best offer I have had, but I don’t know if I can handle Florida emotionally. I didn’t tell you everything about Kyle because I was too embarrassed. The truth is, after the first night when he acted so glad to see me, he told me he had met someone else. I didn’t want anyone to know because I felt so foolish,”

I started to cry. I could hear a deep breath over the phone as if dad is trying to control his anger.

“Abigail, you are a beautiful smart woman, and mom and I are proud of who you have become. We let things go as far as they did with Kyle even though we knew things were not going to be what you wanted. You had to grow and experience meeting different kinds of people.”

I try to stop crying.

“But do you think going to Florida and living so close by is a good decision?”

Dad thinks a moment then advises, “This is the best job opportunity you have received. I think it’s worth a try. You can always change jobs if you feel it is not working out for you. Let me tell you something,” he continues. “You will go on many dates in your lifetime. A few years down the road when you are an established, award winning writer, you will meet that someone special.”

Ah ha! Proof that Alyssa is a liar and a loser and just moved to chase a love that she never had a chance at to begin with. I thought it was rather suspicious that out of the blue she got a teaching assistanship in the same state where "Kyle" just happened to live. I've read enough about her dead end love life, unexiting existance, her jealous, viscious railings directed at me, her family, and her other so called "friends." I'm not only giving this book a one star but I'm going to do a little bashing myself. I want everybody to know who Alyssa really is.