"Hello... Are you...." A small blond opened the door to Dree's old house. She seemed nice, but trust was not in my personality.

"Yes, Libby." I decided to cut her off. She smiled and welcomed me in. I found out within the first couple of minutes that she was Tatum, the NEW girl that Dree had written me about. I remembered back to when Dree had told me about this guy she was dating, Herbert or something strange like that.

Tatum invited me to join her for dinner and offered to whip me up a sandwhich. I couldn't pin anything on her and it bothered me. I wanted to hate her for being unusually beautiful, like the bitches that tormented Jordan and I, but, yet there was this openness about her. She seemed naive, maybe, or too friendly.

"So where are you from?" I asked timidly. She turned from the fridge and looked invaded a bit but answered: "Crates."

"Oh, what made you choose Cambridge?" I really didn't know were Crates was, but I knew that it was a larger city in western New York near the border of Canada. She went on to tell me that her parents, of whom she didn't elaborate on much, were paying for it and it had the majors she wanted.

"How about you?" It was an innocent remark, but I felt the tears welt up inside me. She apologized for upsetting me and I just tried to smile.

Later on, in her bedroom, I saw an old wooden box of items and pictures of a young Tatum, a young boy, and an extremely tall black man standing by an enormous tree. All of them were holding bunnies. I asked her what it was all about.

"It is a long story Libby, do you have five years." I nodded and she sat down and told me about living in Crates. Once through, I had this amazed respect for her. She hadn't blossomed within herself individualistically in college, like most girls, she, instead, had when she was so much younger, 9 or ten. I felt close to her, not as a possible lover, but as a possible friend. She had the same personality features as Jordan and I felt compelled to tell her my story since, within hers she had revealed that the tall balck man was, in fact, gay.

She listen closely thoughout. Half way through, I ran to my room to retrieve my journal and showed her. She showed me hers also. It was like this painful game of show and tell. Before we both knew it, Mark had got home and Dree was hollering for me downstairs. As I grabbed my things, she asked if I would like a hug. I accepted of course. Unfortunately, from then on I had this attraction to Tatum as a person, as a fellow girl just trying to figure out things.

I fell in love with her that night and unlike the love I had for Jordan, I was willing to keep it only to me to keep Tatum and myself, from more hurt.