something subtle, but relevant.

Holly is living by herself in an apartment in Queens.

I don't know why this is significant, but it is, for Ian has just repeated it for the second time. I don't know how to react to this, since I don't know Holly and I've never been to Queens. It does give me a mental picture, one that is sure to be as far from the truth as possible. The Holly in my head, she has a cat. Named Chavez.

I call him Ian not because that's his real name, though his real name does have three letters. Some other writer before me called him that, so I figured it was some sort of writing rule that I didn't know about. I asked for a list of the writing rules once, but was ignored.

I knew a guy named Ian in high school, or rather I knew of him. He was rather unaware of my existence, because he was the senior star football player while I was a freshman, and even I know the rules about that. I was unconcerned about his lack of concern about me. A very funny, though chubby girl on my basketball team was in love with him, though he did not reciprocate. She was just his funny friend, because this was still high school, and the funny girls don't get their revenge until their twenties, when the football stars realize which girls they should have been dating. I know that rule, too.

But this was not the same Ian, since it wasn't really even an Ian at all. This was just a pseudo-Ian, a guy in an IHOP at midnight, telling us that Holly was living alone in an apartment in Queens.

This Ian, he wore Chuck Taylors. I did too. He complimented me on mine, and I on his. That's another rule. The Ian in high school would never have worn Chuck Taylors. You can't play football in those.

Holly does not wear Chuck Taylors either, of this I am sure. They are funny girl shoes. I try to look at the Holly in my head, at her one bedroom apartment in Queens, and focus on her feet to see what she uses to cover them. Flip-flops maybe. She is not a funny girl, she is not waiting for her revenge. She will always be the type of girl that boys should be dating.

I think Holly is beautiful and unconcerned about the fact, like having beauty is the same as having elbows. I am not beautiful and am slightly concerned about that fact, but then again, I'm not living alone in an apartment in Queens either. Nor do I have a cat.

I'm just a funny girl waiting for my revenge.