March 2, 1998

Today was an awful day. At lunch, Steph had detention or something, so I sat with Jenna, Lisa, and Michelle. Lisa told me that Emma, Catherine, and Hailey think I am a slut, and that they told her that if she doesn’t stop hanging around with me, they are not going to be her friends.

Luckily, Lisa stayed sitting with us, because she is just so cool.[…is she?]

Right now, I really regret going to third base with Zach. I didn’t know what I was doing.

I know Zach doesn’t love me, because my sister’s friend has a locker right next to Amanda Collins’s locker, and she said Zach and all the 7th-grade girls were hanging around there making fun of me.

I almost cried when I heard that. We are not soul mates. How could I ever think that? It has taken me too long to realize that I don’t love him. I can’t dump him now, because then people would think I am even more of a slut than they already do. How could one mistake cause my life to crumble like this? [Spoiler alert: it’s about to get worse.]