Meredith confessed a crush on Stacy

For Meredith, the thought of being in an RV with Stacy for a week was especially painful. Over the last four years, she blamed herself for the friendship falling apart. If she had only been able to understand her hormones and sexuality better when they were in ninth grade, but there wasn't a manual. Meredith had become convinced she was in love with her best friend. They were so close they'd sleep in the same bed during monthly sleepovers and it was never weird. At least, that was the case until Meredith made it weird. One late night she was trying to fall asleep, but Stacy would tickle Meredith every time she started to nod off. It became exciting, so they got into a tickle fight. At one point, Meredith was on top of Stacy and had her pinned and the urge to kiss her friend became overwhelming. She'd felt it before, but had never acted in it. Not this time though. This time, with Stacy held down, Meredith moved in and pressed her lips against her best friends.

The thing that has always bugged Meredith about that moment is Stacy gave in. Their lips parted, their tongues met, they both gasped. Meredith was sure it was a full minute before Stacy shoved Meredith off of her. "Get off me, dyke!" Stacy yelled as Meredith fell backward. She chased her friend out into the driveway as Stacy was calling her parents. Meredith was in tears, apologizing, saying she didn't mean it, she just wanted to know what it was like to kiss anyone. Stacy kept her back to Meredith the entire time. As Stacy's parents pulled up she turned to Meredith and told her "I'm telling everyone."

And she did. Being a small-town high school it didn't take long for the rumors to spread that Meredith was not only a lesbian but also a rapist. Oddly, Stacy found her bullying and alienation of Meredith to somehow lift her status. She became one of the cool girls while Meredith was pushed farther and farther into the losers club. By the time they were Seniors most of the school had forgotten the original reason why Meredith was alienated. It helped that Meredith had overcompensated for her Freshman year reputation by completely fabricating multiple boyfriends who she supposedly met at summer camp over the years. While most teens would make up one boyfriend Meredith would come back to school bragging to anyone on the clubs she was part of who would listen that she dated anywhere from three to five different boys. She never said she'd slept with any of them, but the rumor mill would add plenty of details to her lie. This backfired by earning her a completely different reputation as "Summer Camp Slut."

The self-fulfilling reputation made Meredith a mark for the geekier boys she'd hang out with to start rumors that they had slept with her.

Meredith had long held a grudge against Stacy for her reputation. Everything she did to try to dig herself out of the hole made it worse, so her only option was to compete in class. Meredith took all of the same classes as Stacy and they constantly competed for the top of the class. These spiraling reputations made any chance that Stacy and Meredith would be friends again highly unlikely. Meredith was toxic.

Stacy, on the other hand, had landed herself one of the most popular boys in school during her Junior year. Tyler Mason came from one of the best families in town, excelled in multiple sports, was devilishly handsome, received top marks in all of his classes, and was an absolute gentleman. They were considered a perfect couple and were elected prom King and Queen. Tyler even selected a school only 100 miles away from Stacy's school so they could be close to one another. Everyone expected they'd get married after college - or perhaps even while in college. Everyone except for Stacy.

Dating Tyler was exciting at first but she soon found him to be absolutely boring. All he thought about was sports, good grades, and one day marrying her. That was it. He constantly talked about how they were soul mates and saving themselves for marriage. She stayed with him because he was good for her. He helped her stay focused on classes and remain popular. Plus, it was what everyone expected. People were constantly talking about how they were such a great couple, so it became part of her identity and she hated it.

And that unhappiness is how she found a secret friend online, but more on that later. Now, the girls are all packed and, against their wishes, ready to start the cross-country trip to college. Meredith offers to drive first.