The Perks of Being a Wallflower

activities planned. At least that’s what I’ve heard.
    The reason I am thinking so far in advance is because school is terribly lonely. I think I’ve said that before, but it’s getting harder every day. I have two finals tomorrow. History and typing. Then, on Friday, I have finals in all my other classes like gym and shop. I don’t know if there will be actual finals in these classes. Especially shop. I think Mr. Callahan will just play some of his old records for us. He did that when we were supposed to have a midterm, too, but it won’t be the same without Patrick lip-synching. Incidentally, I got a perfect on my math final last week.
    Love always,
Charlie         
    June 13, 1992
    Dear friend,
    I just got home from Bill’s house. I would have written to you about last night this morning, but I had to go to Bill’s.
    Last night, Craig and Sam broke up.
    It was very sad to watch. In the past few days, I have heard a lot about the prom, and thanks to those twenty-four-hour film places, I have seen what everyone looked like. Sam looked beautiful. Patrick looked handsome. Mary Elizabeth, Alice, Mary Elizabeth’s boyfriend all looked great, too. The only thing is that Alice wore white stick deodorant with a strapless dress, and it showed. I don’t think that kind of thing matters, but supposedly Alice was paranoid about it all night. Craig looked handsome as well, but he wore a suit instead of a tux. That’s not why they broke up.
    Actually, the prom was supposed to be very nice. The limo was really great, and the limo driver got everyone stoned, which made the very expensive food taste even better. His name was Billy. The prom’s music came from this really bad cover band called The Gypsies of the Allegheny, but the drummer was good, so everyone had a nice time dancing. Patrick and Brad didn’t even look at each other, but Sam said Patrick was really okay about it.
    After the prom, my sister and her boyfriend went to the after-prom party the school organized. It was at this popular dance club downtown. She said that it was really fun with everyone all dressed up and dancing to good music played by a deejay instead of The Gypsies of the Allegheny. They even had a comedian who did impersonations. The only thing was that once you went in, you couldn’t leave and come back. I guess the parents thought that it would keep the kids out of trouble. But nobody seemed to mind. They were having too much fun, and enough people smuggled in liquor anyway.
    After the party, it was about seven o’clock in the morning and everyone went to the Big Boy for pancakes or bacon.
    I asked Patrick how he liked the after-prom party, and he said that it was a lot of fun. He said that Craig had rented a hotel suite for all of them, but only Craig and Sam went. Actually, Sam wanted to go to the after-prom party the school organized, too, but Craig got really angry because he already paid for the hotel suite. That’s not why they broke up.
    It happened yesterday at Craig’s house after Rocky Horror. Like I said, Mary Elizabeth’s boyfriend, Peter, is good friends with Craig, and he kind of stepped into the middle of things. I guess he really likes Mary Elizabeth a lot and has grown to like Sam quite a bit because he’s the one who brought it up. Nobody even suspected.
    Basically, Craig had been cheating on Sam ever since they started going out. And when I say cheat, I don’t mean he got drunk once and fooled around with one girl and felt bad about it. There were several girls. Several times. Drunk and sober. And I guess he never felt bad.
    The reason Peter didn’t say anything at first was the fact that he didn’t know anybody. And he didn’t know Sam. He just thought she was this dumb high school girl because that’s what Craig always told him.
    Anyway, after he got to know Sam, Peter kept telling Craig that Craig had to tell her the truth because she wasn’t just some dumb high school girl. Craig kept promising he would, but he never did it. There was always some excuse. Craig called them “reasons.”
    “I don’t want to ruin the prom for her.”
    “I don’t want to ruin graduation for her.”
    “I don’t want to ruin the show for her.”
    Then, finally, Craig said there was no point telling her anything at all. She was about to go away to college anyway. She would find a new guy. He was always “safe” about other girls. There was nothing to worry about in that way. And why not just let Sam remember