To Whom It May Concern

9 | Sydney

Monday, September 21st, 2020

Dear Connor,

    I really appreciate your apology. I'm sorry if my last letter was rude, but at the same time, you have to understand my frustration at what happened. Getting drunk texts from your boyfriend when you're hundreds of miles away sets off red flags.

    But I'm really thankful for your apology and hope that the party on Friday night was fun. You're amazing and I know that you wouldn't get yourself into any bad situations. We've been together for three and a half years at this point, I think we know each other pretty well.

    But on a happier note, I got the apartment! I'm going to be moving in with Justin, Adrian, and Lucy tomorrow and I could not be more excited to get away from Alyssa. I think that she's started sneaking into my room in the middle of the night and watching me sleep, like Eddie from that one episode of Friends. It's terrifying, and I think she wants to kill me.

    But the new guys are nothing like that. I met them in person before they offered me the space (I learned the hard way that I should have done that with Alyssa) and all three of them are super nice and put-together. Adrian and Justin are cousins who are both pursuing Broadway roles and Lucy is Justin's friend from high school who is a dancer for the Rockettes (which is completely insane!). So we're all in performing arts, which is super neat and definitely something to bond over.

    Speaking of performing arts, my rehearsal schedule for the NYCSO is crazy. I have rehearsals on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays with the full ensemble and sectionals every Tuesday and Thursday with the violins. Mondays and Wednesdays I'm at the rehearsal hall from 5:00-8:00 PM, Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm there from 10:00 AM-12:00 PM, and Saturdays I'm there from 10:00 AM-1:00 PM. That's thirteen hours of playing the violin every week.

    But I'm getting paid to do it, so that's different from high school.

    How's the gang doing? And how's peer mentoring? I just realized that you've been doing that for a few weeks and I haven't asked about it yet, which makes me a complete dork and terrible girlfriend. Are you just mentoring one person or do you have multiple?

    And going back to the (darker) topic at the beginning of the letter, I don't want you to think that you can't have fun. You're in college, you're young and hot and all that fun stuff. I don't want you to think that you have to be a sober prude all the time just because you have a girlfriend. I want you to be able to party and have a good time, but the reason I was so upset is because it affected me. Which I know sounds selfish, but at the same time...babe, I look forward to getting your letter every other day, and I love to be able to read about your life. It's so much more real than texting and all that, because it seems like I'm really getting you. And your drunk letter gave me something that was completely and totally not you, which upset me. And also the fact that you didn't know who I was when I texted you.

    So, overall, I just don't want you to think I'm controlling you or anything. I just worry.

    I'll see your letter on Wednesday! I love you so much and hope we can plan a trip to see each other soon.

Love,

Sydney Porter

So I totally forgot that if you guys don't have the published version of Dear Sydney then you haven't seen Connor and Sydney fight before so I apologize for the entire book because it's gonna be a shock to the system after the gushiness they usually have.

I'm an author with over 1 million reads and I just used the word "gushiness". Is that even a word?

And thank you all so much for your super sweet comments on my prom picture! You're all the greatest and I love you guys.

-Katherine