I dare you to move.
My foolish, foolish friend. You sit there, moping, because to you the world is over.
You're wrong.
Shall I tell you a story, Tommy? A story that means more to you than me? It starts with a little girl. She had bright red hair and a big, wide smile and liked to play with girls and boys equally, until the first day a boy told her girls couldn't play basketball because they had cooties.
She didn't get it. But too late, her eyes were open, and she realized there were a lot of people who hated other people. She was a nice girl, though, with a heart two sizes too big, and she just let it go. After all, what could she do? Certainly not fight them--they were adults, they had to be right, and she wouldn't like it if someone told her not to think something. So why should she do it to someone else?
And when she realized she liked girls, she let that go too.
Finally, though, the day came when this little girl's mind made itself known. It was too strong and powerful for anyone, including the little girl, to lie to it, and it knew the little girl would fall in love with another girl. So the mind presented all the evidence.
The girl rejected it.
The mind played the final card: Tessa.
Suddenly, the world exploded in color. At first the little girl couldn't handle it. She was still a child, after all. The astounding beauty was side-by-side with the astounding hate, and that hate was aimed at her.
She tried to live under it, and found that she couldn't. But she also found something else, something just as amazing. When people hated her for falling in love, she got angry. She'd never hurt them or told them what to do. Why wouldn't they let her be?
When she got angry, she did things.
She started by learning. She wanted to know why people hated, then maybe she could help them. So she started reading every psychology textbook she could get her hands on. It wasn't there.
Oddly enough, it was in her father. He drank morning, noon, and night. Why? He wanted control. Just like everyone on the planet.
What if haters felt the same way?
That was one mystery solved. But the next one was harder. Why did her mother, who knew full well she didn't need control over the girl, still insist on pushing her into that hateful lifestyle, where Tessa was excluded?
She realized that was just control, too, and in despair, gave up and moved to college.
But when she was there, she saw an astonishing thing. She saw a bunch of people wearing underwear and running a marathon. When she asked why in the world they would do something so unfashionable, they laughed, although not at her. It was because they could, they explained to her. They ran around in underwear because they knew that they were adults, and according to most of humanity and the US Constitution, as long as they didn't hurt anyone, they could do what they damn well pleased.
The little girl was stunned. She spent days wandering aimlessly from class to class, wondering if she could try that, too. If she could be anything but perfect.
Tessa's image stood in front of her, daring her to move.
Finally, she picked up the phone. She never once looked back.
So, Tommy, do you understand now? Do you get it? You weren't in love with Katherine, you were in love with Kimberly. You were a Power Ranger who spilled his guts to me one drunken night, you were a romantic and an idiot and a friend. But you never, ever should have been the one who listened to the haters.
You can do whatever you want, and tonight, I dare you to move.