Perks of Being a Wallflower | Page 8

crying and wiped his eyes and saw me.
Then, he walked up, patted my shoulder, and said, "This is our little secret, okay, champ?"
"Okay," I said.
And Dad picked me up with the arm that wasn't holding the sandwich, and carried me to the room
that had the television, and put me on his lap for the rest of the television episode. At the end of the
episode, he picked me up, turned off the TV, and turned around.
And my dad declared, "That was a great series."
And my mom said, "The best."
And my sister asked, "How long was it on the air?"
And my brother replied, "Nine years, stupid."
And my sister responded, "You ... stupid."
And my dad said, "Stop it, right now."
And my mom said, "Listen to your father."
And my brother said nothing.
And my sister said nothing.
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And years later I found out my brother was wrong.
I went to the library to look up the figures, and I found out that the episode we watched is the highest
watched anything of television history, which I find amazing because it felt like just the five of us.
You know ... a lot of kids at school hate their parents. Some of them got hit. And some of them got
caught in the middle of wrong lives. Some of them were trophies for their parents to show the neighbors
like ribbons or gold stars. And some of them just wanted to drink in peace.
For me personally, as much as I don't understand my mom and dad and as much as I feel sorry for
both of them sometimes, I can't help but love them very much. My mom drives to visit the cemetery of
people she loves. My dad cried during More"inA"inSo"inHave, and trusted me to keep his secret, and
let me sit on his lap, and called me "champ."
Incidentally, I only have one cavity, and as much as my dentist asks me to, I just can't bring myself to
floss.
Love always,
Charlie
October 6, 1991 Dear friend,
I feel very ashamed. I went to the high school football game the other day, and I don't know exactly
why. In middle school, Michael and I would go to the games sometimes even though neither of us were
popular enough to go. It was just a place to go on Fridays when we didn't want to watch television.
Sometimes, we would see Susan there, and she and Michael would hold hands.
But this time, I went alone because Michael is gone, and Susan hangs around different boys now, and
Bridget is still crazy, and Carl's mom sent him to a Catholic school, and Dave with the awkward glasses
moved away. I was just kind of watching people, seeing who was in love and who was just hanging
around, and I saw that kid I told you about. Remember Nothing? Nothing was there at the football game,
and he was one of the few people who was not an adult that was actually watching the game. I mean
really watching the game. He would yell things out.
"Can'mon, Brad!" That's the name of our quarterback.
Now, normally I am very shy, but Nothing seemed like the kind of guy you could just walk up to at a
football game even though you were three years younger and not popular.
"Hey, you're in my shop class!" He's a very friendly person.
"I'm Charlie." I said, not too shy.
"And I'm Patrick. And this is Sam." He pointed to a very pretty girl next to him. And she waved to
me.
"Hey, Charlie." Sam had a very nice smile.
They both told me to have a seat, and they both seemed to mean it, so I took a seat. I listened to
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Nothing yell at the field. And I listened to his play-by-play analysis. And I figured out that this was a kid
who knew football very well. He actually knew football as well as my brother. Maybe I should call
Nothing "Patrick" from now on since that