(my second post about friends hurting friends lol... but different story) What is something that could be seen as hurtful that a friend would write in the journal about another friend? Context: my MC (the POV character) writes down everything in her notebooks. One of her notebooks goes missing and winds up in the hands of her best friends grandmother. The character is college aged. The best friend is a guy and they've been friends since they were 5. The guy is poor, from a broken family and without the means to go away to college. The girl is the opposite. she's well off, one parent is a doctor, the other is a prominent physicist; both attended the same school so she's a legacy..... then, she gets into that great college and changes her mind, dropping out in the middle of her freshmen year (the friend secretly applied to the same college as my MC but got rejected, and never told her... so as far as she knows, he just didnt go to college because he didnt want to) Another thing is, the best friend has liked her for years, but the girl has always focused on school and getting into a good college. In her notebook, she wrote how much she didnt want to go to college (feeling like a fraud). She also writes somethings about her friend in it that the grandmother reads and finds hurtful (or would hurt her grandson if he read it). now, I'm no angel.... but I just cant think of something potentially hurtful that she would write
If the grandmother knows about the crush, then something that let's her know the feelings aren't shared. It would kill the friends hope for something in thr future.
Charity is one of the worst things one friend can do to another...mention in diary that dude didn't have lunch money again and she had to sub, or sitting like a loner freak so she had to leave the popular table to sit with him...she feels sorry for him and makes some kind of sacrifice out of pity rather than just because it's what friends do, which can reflect a momentary feeling of exasperation rather than making her generally unlikeable.
It's hard not knowing exactly what notebook the grandmother has, whether it contains thoughts from high school or from college. Let's say it from her start in college. You could have her all bubbly about finally going away and getting away from everyone. But especially from xxx. I mean, since we were little he's been right there. He's like a bad cold you just can't shake. I'm so glad he couldn't afford to go here. He probably can't afford any college. You could then later in the notebook have the grandmother read the following perhaps after she's been mean to the girl or told her grandson. Just for the added drama effect. I hate this pretentious college, everyone here is just full of shit. No true feelings among any of them. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really miss xxx. I know we're different and I don't have the feelings for him that he does for me. But he was the best friend anyone could ever have. I miss you xxxx )-:.
Pull a Daisy Buchannon: Your MC wishes her best friend had a better family background: she loves him, but rich girls don't marry poor boys.
She could write in her notebook something along the lines of how much easier her friend has it because no one really expects much from him or expects him to amount to much. I could see how her venting about this sort of thing in her notebook could come across hurtful when his grandmother reads it. And this could really work because as she's writing this sort of thing in her notebook it's clearly not because she's trying to be mean, but it could easily come across that way. The other thing is that you said this guy applied to the same college, but didn't get in. Wouldn't he have applied to more than one school? It's sort of hard to believe that he wouldn't get into any school. And if he did want to go to college, there are loans and scholarships. Or he could even work while taking classes at a community college or something. It just seems a little weird that he would only apply to one school and that getting rejected from there would be it for him. Just another thing to think about.
He only applies to her college, no others. Its not unheard of.... my brother was that way. While I applied to dozens (even threw my hat in to an Ivy League, too), he only applied to his top choice. He wanted it so bad that when he didnt get in, he was depressed and actually gave up. Yes, this character does have those options. He's figuring it all out and keeping it to himself because he's too embarrassed and ashamed to tell his friend. I will say that this character DOES actually get into a community college and plans to start in the fall and works two jobs and has it life somewhat figured out by the time the MC comes home in the middle of the semester.... but the she inadvertently screws it up for him. Which leads to the grandmother's animosity toward my MC, her reading the MC's journal and confronting her, and my MC finally finding out about her friend's situations
Spot on! I like this, too! I'm torn between this and the charity suggestion.... but at least now I have some direct!
What about a time when he embarrassed her in front of her family or at an upper crust crowd party and he didn't even know about his faux pas. She wrote that she was mortified, and maybe someone even gave her a hard time about it and made her feel bad. She knew he didn't mean to humiliate her, but she couldn't help being furious at the time she wrote about it and wished he were more sophisticated or had "better breeding" or something hurtful like that.
I don't know if you have any use for this, but being dismissive of something the other is passionate about does some damage. Back when I was of an age where things still mattered, I had a friend who was really into basketball. Damn good at it, too. I was never gonna be a basketballer, but I could see the skill and sportsing stuff about it. At one point during a night out, we almost came to a physical fight because he thought I'd told a girl he wasn't actually that good and had just been humoring him. Turned out in the end that the girl had said something that suggested it, and the alcohol did the rest. Anyway, you already had a spot-on answer, and I'm just mainly using this as a lead in to ask if I could take a closer look at your profile pic somewhere. I think I may have asked about it before, but it keeps drawing my eye.
I've been on the receiving end of that unfortunately... being dismissed by a friend. we didnt come to blows, but I did count it as the straw that broke the camels back in our friendship and ended it. lol, I use Doll Divine.
Which I now remember asking before and playing with then. I also remember my girlfriend's words when she caught a glimpse of my screen: "Not watching regular porn?" Anyway, thanks.
