Dear Stephanie Grant:

I'm sure the friendship will survive, but there are some things I will never tolerate and this is how I'm built. As much as I would never allow anybody to say bad, denigrating things about you when I was with you, I will NEVER tolerate a person saying bad things to me about Kelsey. This is called loyalty. Loyalty is a concept you don't seem to get and nobody around you really values you for that quality: Not Len, not Harun, Not Ezra Prior, not anybody.

I value you as a friend and support you as best I can. I appreciate the help you've given me. You may call ME anything you want including the "dumb ass" you called me for moving to Richmond in the first place. I'll accept that.

I told you once, though: Touch Kelsey and I'll come down on you like a ton of bricks.

I am visciously protective of her and will NOT tolerate your words.

She has never done anything wrong to you and has acted, 100% in good conscience at all times. While there was some question about the events on that one night about why she would call the police, I am satisfied that she acted out of concern and was playing it safe in a situation in which she could not now my state of mind. She did not have your 2 years of experience with me to know that I would never have harmed anyone and my anger was words, only.

She did the best she could with a guy that she had been in a 2 month relationship with. My actions were based on a mental break down that YOU know all to well and can understand, but you have FAR more information to work with than she did.

You have no right to judge Kelsey Thurber. Kelsey has ALWAYS done well by you and has treated you well. You, my ex-girlfriend, have always been treated well by Kelsey.

So have I.

Kelsey has been a solid source of support and love that is completely unmatched by anybody in my past including you. I KNOW she will be there, tomorrow. I KNOW I can trust her and that she ALWAYS tells the truth. I know that she ALWAYS tries to make the right decision and does not use people. She does not give merely to people that are useful to her.

Stephanie Grant, you told me never to contact you because I called you on an unfair thing that you said about my love. The one person I NEVER have problems saying, "I love you" to. You attacked her and I attacked you because you were unfair and without cause to say the things you said.

I'm sorry if that loses my friendship with you, but frankly, a "friend" is not somebody who demands the right to trash Kelsey to me. A friend is NOT somebody who is here today and gone tomorrow. A friend is NOT a person that dances in and out of a person's life on a whim and a desire and a need to be right and unjudged.

Your help with money does NOT make you a friend... it merely makes you a person that has helped me. If you want a friendship, you'll have to learn that there are some beliefs that I WILL hold to: Kelsey is NOT to be touched. Not by you. Not by anyone.

Your choice, my "friend."

There's a wind that breezes through the attic and it sings a song of lonliness
There's a mask on the ground and it was painted in the air
A model posed the picture and I published it one day.
The mask is still lying there. The make still lies there.

There's a vision that three women turn to me in a cornfield row
I'm holding the camera tightly not to shake it.
The each wear the one mask and snap their heads toward as one,
"Why did you let that poor girl look back? Do you know what you did?"

They say it in chorus to the camera. Say it as one.

My dreams are art. They are a torture. They are vivid.
My dreams go onto paper when they can.
My dreams destroy the lives of all around me
and I fear to wake with my hands.

Once upon a time there was a Troll King grieving.
There was grief in the Troll King's eyes.
A princess came out to wipe the tears and cried.
It was the princess that cried and not the king.

The ugly troll, a monster, they say, rubbed her back.
Listened and wondered, "What is love" as she had asked
In a notebook full of thoughts and full of aspirations...
all scattered about the floor with her tears.

"Get up," The Troll King Said. "See how my life is?"
I get up every day despite this and to escape this:
Being the Troll. It sucks.
"Get Up. You're beautiful. You're brilliant. We'll make it."

She came back on a metro after having gone home.
She decided on that day to be with the Troll.
She decided that she could BE the person
If only the Troll King could escape being a troll.

Once upon a time, there was a life.
Two of them, in fact.
Once upon a time, two people started walking forward.
Once upon a time they slept.

There is a river through the land and it's called "James."
The Princess snored softly through the first freeze of the year.
Blankets. Huddled in the car. Finding the comfortable place for the hips.
Day One.

It's always Day One.