Book Read Free

Gena/Finn

Page 5

by Hannah Moskowitz


  to: Genevieve Goldman

  date: Wednesday, March 5 12:18 AM

  subject: RE: charlie

  You are making me feel so NORMAL right now. Thank you.

  from: Genevieve Goldman

  to: Finn Bartlett

  date: Wednesday, March 5 3:25 AM

  subject: RE: charlie

  yeah? i think that’s probably the first time anyone’s ever said that to me.

  i don’t know. i’ve just never met anyone i wanted to actually spend a lot of time with. i mean, i like people, but most of the time i’m with them i’m just waiting for them to leave so i can take off my pants and flop down with my laptop and not have to be anything. i like sneaking out and making out and being totally average outside and then coming back and being my weird version of fandom-famous inside and also just being ALONE. this is sounding really depressing or something but i’m really happy doing this. i’ve got my life all drawn and quartered.

  from: Finn Bartlett

  to: Genevieve Goldman

  date: Wednesday, March 5 12:31 AM

  subject: RE: charlie

  Maybe that’s my problem. I’m sure I’ll get married SOMEDAY (maybe) but I like having things that are just mine for now. I live in Charlie’s house. I hang out with Charlie’s friends and family. Mine are all back in Iowa. Fandom is MY thing. I don’t know.

  March 26

  CONVENTION ALERT! This year’s Up Below con is happening in Chicago and passes are selling for a mint! You will not get one, don’t bother trying.

  BUT! Through a combination of hard work and good fortune, I’ve got a lead on an online auction for a set of six passes. Right now the bid’s at $600, and these are the GOOD passes, y’all, the ones with the admission to the Q&A session, the afterparty, and you can even get a picture with Toby! (Or Zack, if you’re into that.)

  Does anyone want to go in on this? Split the cost six ways, if we can get enough people.

  8 Comments

  popstotheweasel

  IN.

  Tumbledown

  Um, dates?

  Tylergirl93

  First week of July

  Tumbledown

  No can do, sorry

  Third_The_Bird

  How high do you think the bidding will go?

  Tylergirl93

  No idea. You’d have to commit before we bid it up, though.

  finnblueline

  I’d consider this

  Tylergirl93

  Cool, well, let me know.

  from: Finn Bartlett

  to: Genevieve Goldman

  date: Wednesday, March 26 10:02 PM

  subject: chicago con?

  Hey, you never told me about your Tylergirl93 drama. Is she awful? I don’t know if you saw her journal, but she’s trying to get a group together for the Chicago con, and I could stand to get away for a while, but not if she’s too unbearable.

  from: Genevieve Goldman

  to: Finn Bartlett

  date: Thursday, March 27 1:46 AM

  subject: RE: chicago con?

  ugh, it’s this huge thing. we used to be friends, not like share intimate stuff friends, but like talk a bunch every day, do races to meet word count goals, whatever. she never learned my real name, for whatever that’s worth. anyway she decided to have this big comment-fic thing--people leave prompts, other people come along and write short things, they’re a lot of fun--and she wanted me to help draw in a crowd since i knew a different set of people--jake people. so i brought them in, and you probably know that we’re this ridiculous minority, but maybe that was what had us so amped to be together and we produced a ton of shit and it was awesome. we were almost 50/50 for tyler-centric and jake-centric. perfect, right?

  except then she messages me telling me that, and i am not paraphrasing here, all of the jake fics are MAKING HER SICK because there are so many of them, and this was never supposed to be a jake space and blah blah blah and at first i thought she was blaming me for it, but then i realized what she actually thought was that i was going to just AGREE with her. that underneath i was also thinking that jake fics were making me sick because of course TYLER’S THE ONE WHO’S OBJECTIVELY BETTER.

  Like, she thought that i liked jake the way people like store-brand cereal or something. like i picked it because it was easier to grab and it was cheaper, not because i didn’t KNOW that the brand-name stuff was better. tyler’s lucky charms and jake’s that marshmallow hunt in a bag that’s one marshmallow for every thousand little frosted hamster food pieces.

  well then you know what, mallory? i guess i’m a fucking hamster.

  how would you explain going away to charlie, anyway?

  from: Finn Bartlett

  to: Genevieve Goldman

  date: Wednesday, March 26 11:11 PM

  subject: RE: chicago con?

  That was YOU?

  Holy shit, I heard about that. A bunch of people were blogging a few months ago about how Jake people take over everything, and someone mentioned that Tylergirl93 (mallory?) had a comment-fic thing going on that she “had to” shut down because people kept posting Jake stories there. The way they described it, it sounded like it had been established specifically for Tyler stories. You’re saying she actually invited Jake people and then changed her mind and kicked you out? Wow, that’s really pathetic of her.

  I think I still want to go to the con though. I’ve never been to one. And the package is for six people, so maybe somebody cool will go.

  Do you ever go to those things?

  I’d tell Charlie the truth. I’m not gonna go out of town without telling him where I’m going. I can’t be that girl.

  from: Genevieve Goldman

  to: Finn Bartlett

  date: Thursday, March 27 2:20 AM

  subject: RE: chicago con?

  are you willing to have that conversation, though? god, i’m making it sound like you’re admitting to a murder, i’m sorry. i really don’t think it’s a big deal. i mean, kids at my school know i write fanfic, but they don’t get my username because bitches don’t need to know about my profanity problem.

  no, i’ve never been to a con. i know someone who goes to a lot of them who i don’t really want to run into. it’s a long story. they didn’t murder my aunt (she’s fine, so) or anything, it would just be kind of awkward. plus aren’t those things wicked expensive? i just bought a $300 espresso machine, so i think it might be time to lock my wallet up for this month.

  from: Finn Bartlett

  to: Genevieve Goldman

  date: Wednesday, March 26 11:25 PM

  subject: RE: chicago con?

  It isn’t so much that it’s a BIG DEAL. I know it’s not. But it is a weird hobby, let’s call a spade a spade, and the thing is that this is CHARLIE. I don’t usually waste a lot of energy worrying about what people think about me, but he’s different, you know?

  ...Okay, I really do have to tell him, don’t I.

  Oh my god, this is stupid. He’s not going to care, right?

  How do I explain it to someone who
’s not part of it, though? Hi, Charlie, guess what, I’m drawing pictures of fictional characters in fantasy situations for my internet friends. It sounds like I’m talking about porn! Oh, hell.

  from: Genevieve Goldman

  to: Finn Bartlett

  date: Thursday, March 27 2:27 AM

  subject: RE: chicago con?

  yeah most people who talk about fanfic talk about porn. i’m pretty sure non-fandom people think that’s all it is. thanks, 50 shades of grey, appreciate it.

  from: Finn Bartlett

  to: Genevieve Goldman

  date: Thursday, March 27 12:23 AM

  subject: OMG

  I told him.

  from: Genevieve Goldman

  to: Finn Bartlett

  date: Thursday, March 27 3:39 AM

  subject: RE: OMG

  tell me everything. (this is not a request. I decided we’re at that point.)

  from: Finn Bartlett

  to: Genevieve Goldman

  date: Thursday, March 27 12:58 AM

  subject: RE: OMG

  It’s so awkward right now. I might have made a huge mistake. Fuck.

  We were watching last week’s episode - Charlie’s a casual fan of the show, I have no idea how that’s even a thing - and I mentioned that there’s a con happening soon. I think he was kind of surprised I knew that, because I’m usually not that plugged in to organized events (I couldn’t tell you when ComicCon is happening).

  So anyway, he asked if I wanted to go to the con, and I said I’d been thinking about it, and he went and got on his computer and started looking up plane tickets. And there I was thinking I’d completely lucked out, and my boyfriend was a dream come true, and he says -

  “It’s about $500 for two round trip tickets to Chicago.”

  He thought I was asking him to come WITH ME. Oh my god, is that something I should have remotely considered? I don’t want to be fangirling over Jake with Charlie sitting next to me looking all indulgent (or worse, NOT indulgent) and thinking I’m like that girl who jumped on Toby and practically started having sex with him at that con a few years ago.

  (Did that really happen, or is it fandom urban legend?)

  So anyway, I said I was thinking about going with some people I knew online, and he got SO judgmental. How did I know these people? Why did I want to go on vacation with random internet people? What if they were actually fifty-year-old rapists?

  (Are you actually a fifty-year-old rapist?)

  I tried to explain the journaling and the fic writing and the fucking depth with which you know someone, but the truth is, he’s right, we DON’T know each other and Tylergirl93 and even you could really be anybody.

  Anyway, Charlie’s sleeping now and I can’t and I have work in two hours. It’s going to be a treat.

  -me

  from: Genevieve Goldman

  to: Finn Bartlett

  date: Thursday, March 27 4:06 AM

  subject: photo evidence

  picture of me

  jk that’s a picture of a creepy guy i got on google images. this is me actually. note the sign that says “hi finn.” and i’ve skyped with tylergirl, she’s a real person. she’s even PRETTY, which is just annoying.

  i’m so fucking sorry it’s awkward. but it’ll get better, yeah? maybe you should go to the con with him. get all the awkward out in one hit.

  but yeah, that might totally suck.

  ugh, real life people.

  from: Finn Bartlett

  to: Genevieve Goldman

  date: Thursday, March 27 1:17 AM

  subject: RE: photo evidence FullSizeRender.jpg

  I don’t WANT to go to the con with him. I’d have to pretend to be all casual about the show, and what would be the point?

  I think I’m gonna go with the tylergirl group. The price is ridiculously low.

  Come? What are the odds you’d run into the person you know? Thousands of people go to these things. I’d love it if there was actually someone I get along with there...

  I just realized I might be a 50 year old creeper asking you to meet ME. Attached is a pic of me holding the original of the Mad World drawing I did for you.

  from: Genevieve Goldman

  to: Finn Bartlett

  date: Thursday, March 27 4:24 AM

  subject: RE: photo evidence

  i’ll definitely consider it...how long do you think i have to decide? i need to look at dates and stuff, i guess.

  and i know you’re not a creeper, i creeped YOU on facebook the day you told me your last initial. you are, in fact, friends with a creeper. now friend me. Goldman, although I guess you know that from the email address. seriously, how did you not look me up?? you’re one of those people who never tried to hack their middle school enemy’s email, aren’t you.

  from: Finn Bartlett

  to: Genevieve Goldman

  date: Thursday, March 27 1:26 AM

  subject: RE: photo evidence

  Creeper! Friended.

  The auction ends soon, so we have to decide asap. Pretty please?

  from: Genevieve Goldman

  to: Finn Bartlett

  date: Thursday, March 27 4:27 AM

  subject: RE: photo evidence

  I’ll think about it.

  folded between the pages of Les MisÉrables

  To the graduating seniors of Stoneyhall Preparatory Academy:

  Congratulations on nearing the end of your high school career! We’re so proud of all of you, and we’re sure the skills you’ve learned and mastered here at Stoneyhall will lead you toward great success through college and beyond.

  We would like to take this opportunity to remind you, however, that the school year is not finished yet! For these next two weeks of exams, please remember to get a lot of sleep and plenty to eat, and, above all, use every scrap of mental energy you have! Remember, you have a nice long summer to recharge before college.

  We’d also like to congratulate the following seniors who have already received acceptances to top-tier colleges and universities! Please remember to come sign the wall outside the admissions office—a tradition since Neil Radcliffe was our first student accepted to Harvard in 1932, three years after we were founded.

  Robert Abandcus – Princeton University

  Sophie Balway – Bromhill University

  Magnolia Carson – Lenore College

  John Cromwell – Harvard University

  Eric Doleweather – Harvard University

  Genevieve Goldman – Oakmoor University

  Maria Jenkings – Cornell University

  Alana Jones – Crestland College

  Jane Kenwood – Fairland University

  Isaac Levine – Crestland College

  Keisha Ojukwo – Yale University

  Jasper Quentin – Princeton University

  Rebekah Samuels – Stanford University

  Tamra Tul
ler – Harvard University

  Martin Victor – Lenore College

  Christina Xavier – Harvard University

  Joshua Zimmerman – Harvard University

  Text with Alanah J.

  they spelled my fuckin name

  wrong. 7 years, man.

  i didn’t know levine got

  into your school

  yea if i lonely-bang him

  you have to promise youll

  shoot me

  lol

  best friend obligation

  Apr 9, 6:19 pm

  i’ll be in RI girl, im gonna have

  to hire a representative to do it

  yea but youll come visit all

  the time

  Apr 9, 6:26 pm

  yeah of course.

  from: Seth Goldman

  to: Genevieve Goldman

  date: Thursday, April 10 4:43 AM

  subject: (no subject)

  Hey, Bug--

  Your aunt told me about Oakmoor! Congrats, kiddo. We’re so proud of you. I bet all you’ve learned at Stoneyhall’s gonna make you top of your class the first WEEK.

 

‹ Prev