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As I wait in 1B for my friends to arrive, my phone beeps with an email to my school address. It’s Mr. Love’s next response for the online advice column. As editor-in-chief, I need to approve it before he can post it on the school website. I slip out my laptop and open the email.
Dear Mr. Love,
I’m not much of a writer, so I’ll keep this brief.
I love my girlfriend. She’s awesome and great with me. But my seven-year-old sister claims my girlfriend bullies her. My sister is a prankster and lies a lot, so I don’t know if I should believe her. My girlfriend is a mess, crying every day claiming it’s not true. My parents tell me to break up with her. But I really think she’s innocent. What should I do?
Thanks for answering, man. Doing me a solid.
Desperate Guy
Dear Desperate Guy,
That’s a tough situation to be in. I’m sorry for what you’re going through. I think the only thing you can do at this point is to talk to your parents and voice your concerns. Tell them exactly what’s going on. Hopefully, they’ll be able to get through to your sister and get to the bottom of this. Is she the one lying, or is it your girlfriend? It might also be wise to not allow your girlfriend and sister to be alone together until you figure this out. If your sister is telling the truth, then I hope you know what the right choice is.
Stay strong and always strive to be the best person you can be. Because you never know what kind of effect you can have on the people around you.
Sincerely,
Mr. Love
I sit up straight in my seat when my eyes soak in the last paragraph in Mr. Love’s post. My heart pounds in my head, making me feel lightheaded. Those words…I’ve seen them before.
I reach into the folder where I’ve carefully stashed all of the letters my secret admirer and I have exchanged and quickly open it, my hands shaking so badly that I drop it a few times. Finally, I manage to get control of my hands and flip through the letters and poems. Until I find the poem he wrote to me a few days ago.
I know you always strive to be the best person you can be, Chloe,
Because you know the kind of effect you have on people around you, especially me.
The words are pretty similar. Too similar? That has to be a coincidence, right? It’s not so unheard of for two people to write similar words…right?
My heart beats stronger in my head. This is too much of a coincidence.
I open the folder on my computer, where I saved all of Mr. Love’s online responses. I guess I used to have a huge crush on him. I comb through each and every response he’s given, devouring the words like I’ve never devoured anything in my life. My heart hammers so intensely that I grow dizzy. A few of his responses are similar to my secret admirer’s.
Is my guy stealing Mr. Love’s words?
But it can’t be because the secret admirer wrote those words a few days ago. Mr. Love’s new response hasn’t been posted yet because I haven’t approved it. Which means my secret admirer couldn’t have stolen Mr. Love’s words. Does that mean that Mr. Love has stolen from my secret admirer? Which means…
They’re the same person.
No. I’m being too rash. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. It has to be. The two of them don’t even write in similar styles.
But the more I study their words, the more similar they seem. And as I study my secret admirer’s words and compare them to Mr. Love’s responses, I find many more similarities. They’re so easy to miss, unless you’re dissecting them like I am.
“Holy…” I gasp as I fall back in my seat. “Mr. Love is my secret admirer.”
“Hey, Chloe,” Ava says as she and Willow walk in and settle down in their seats. “Lily will be here soon and Liam has basketball.”
“You okay?” Willow narrows her eyes at me, studying me closely. “You look like you saw a ghost.”
“I…he…” The words get stuck in my throat.
“I’m here, I’m here.” Lily runs inside and drops down in her seat. “I held back from making out with Xavier so we could have more time for book club. So, who’s ready to discussDracula.” She says it in a spooky tone, but my head feels like it’s going to explode.
“Chloe?” Lily asks. “You look like you saw the real Dracula.”
“Yeah,” Willow agrees. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so pale.”
