I'm Michelle, and I may be one of the more messed up people you'll ever want to hang around with. You laugh, and say that I don't seem very messed up. After all, you just spent the evening playing pool with me, and putting quarters in the juke box, so I could listen to my favorite songs--especially that one, over and over.

Thanks for taking care of me tonight. I didn't want to go home. Not after the way I just blew the only real friendship I ever had. If you hadn't made the evening so pleasant, I probably would have spent it crying on the porch. Instead, you and your friends helped me forget all my troubles. I'm not so great at long term relationships. These one nighters are really my specialty--and I don't necessarily mean that in a sexual way. People are just more interesting when their newness hasn't worn off.

Is this your motorcycle? I don't think I've ever been on a motorcycle in the dark. Will you take me for a ride? Please? Oh wait, I can't. My author says I need to get back in her Nano book where I belong. She's totally annoyed at the way I was so much more likeable at first. I could have told her that would happen. I'm a high maintenance person, and trying to shove me into the role of a minor character was just asking for trouble. She says I can't have a bigger role unless I'm more sympathetic. You know, I do my best. I'm not a bad person. People like me. But I always have this uncontrollable urge to get out of their life before they can hurt me.

That's cool with you, right? We'll bring it back sort of, so we're really only taking it for a spin. He'll hardly notice it's gone.

I guess it was watching what happened to Heather and Sierra that really did it. They're my cousins, and they lived right down the road from me. No one was surprised when Heather got this amazing boyfriend--he had magic, just like her brother. She was pretty and sweet after all. But he turned out to be a fake. He used her to steal a magical orb from her brother, and then he killed her sister when she tried to stop him. It was awful, so I can't really be upset that the only one who thought to comfort me was my English teacher. It was kind of a rush, to think that he was willing to put so much on the line to be with me. I kind of got addicted to that rush, I think. And when he broke up with me by telling me he'd really always liked Jenny, but she was the good one, and so he'd settled for me, I vowed never to let anyone get close enough to hurt me again.

Men suck, I know. I grew up with a bunch of them, and not the nice kind. They're all thieves, some cruel, some less so. Are you sure this new guy is all bad though? I had given up on men when I met one good one, the only problem is that he is in love with someone else.