Happily Ever Afters

by Elise Bryant

They look like the cast of a CW show posing on the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

Tallulah felt nothing.

And he’s a brooding, skinny white guy. Why am I not surprised?”

i feel attacked…

“No,” she says, sounding offended. “I left out a makeover ’cause you already look good.”

queenie!!!

Make him jealous—love triangle possibilities?

i do NOT like that idea because i just KNOW sam is gonna get hurt

Ride a Ferris wheel together

okay simon moment !!!

“Other people’s opinions of me aren’t really my business. And I think that situation says more about them than it does about me. So I’ve let it go.”

I’ve assumed a lot about Sam because of the bad hair and the dorky clothes, and I feel like a jerk. I hate when people do that to me—because of my skin color, because of my awkwardness. Maybe I need to let Sam be whoever he is, zip-off cargo pants, Hawaiian shirts, dad shoes, and all.

word

real soulful. I can tell.”

Though I know even that doesn’t make a difference most of the time.

I don’t want to know the end of that sentence.

You can’t learn without critique.”

We always find our way back to each other for him.

I don’t wish I had straight hair or lighter skin. It’s just that, to most guys, my kind of pretty isn’t the same as Poppy’s kind of pretty—even with the gray hair. I’m an acquired taste, and Poppy is, like, pizza. Pizza doesn’t have to worry if people are just ordering it to look cool or complete some type of image. No one goes through a pizza phase. Pizza is universal.

I have never felt more seen in my entire life

I wonder what it feels like to be a girl like her.

“Call me if you get lost.”

iykyk

I’ve never had even a sip of alcohol before.

Tessa gets it!

a Kanye West song is blasting through the speakers (of course, since white guys love Kanye).

no literally

All my insides feel like they’re doing a dance, one with high kicks and twerking and shoulder shimmies.

“The Last Airbender or those creepy blue things?”

Does it make me a terrible person if my love story can only exist by taking down someone else’s love story? Does it make me a terrible person if I want it anyway?

Um yes it does tessa

Last year was our best yet: Cher and Dionne from that old movie Clueless.

I’m pretty sure this is how horror movies start. And you know who dies first in those.

HELP OMG

This is one of those moments when I’m very much aware that I’m surrounded by white people.

no EXACTLY

Everything here is very expensive. You sure you’re in the right place?”

no like it would've been on site

“You’re worth it,”

“What, are you going for white ally of the year?”

“I really need you to stop talking shit about my friend.”

“I’ve got all the lines for you, as many lines as you could possibly dream of, because you are deserving of lines from here to eternity.”

Or she loves me because she knows me.

“You say it as if it’s easy.” “It’s not,” he says. “But it’s necessary.”

Sam is so unapologetically himself. Someone who knows his worth—even when it came to me.

“I love you, I miss you, I’m sorry.”

This is something I love, please love it too.