Austin,

Hey, what’s up? Feels weird sending a letter to your work. I’ve tried to text a couple times and didn’t hear back (though really I didn’t mean to send you that last one) and this is the only address I could think to send it. It was either this or an email, and I’d have to get your email from Luke. I get it’s uncomfortable to talk to me because I ‘ve wanted to talk to you about things that happened, as you’ve probably guessed. There are some things I just want to clear up. I’m not mad or anything.

To get right to it, Timothy said he did some of those things to me that I told you about because he believed me to be a liar after the conversation he claimed you guys had. He said I lied about who I was, my dating history, and a bunch of other things and that’s what propelled him to create those fake profiles about me. One posted fake nudes of me and linked them to my Facebook. I had a bunch of creeps sending me messages, and if you Googled my name, that came up! I closed my account. I got that link taken down thankfully and last I checked the website was removed altogether. But I still get calls from telemarketers across the country every day because of that fake Grindr profile where he gave away my number.

I know I freaked out when he was first messaging me on Grindr that day. That’s not his picture and he claimed he knew you. I never even suspected it was him at the time. I hadn’t heard from him for a couple weeks. I thought it was a friend of yours or something. That’s why I asked you about it because it all seemed odd. I didn’t even think you were on there. I didn’t get pissed off at you until I saw you’d de-friended me on Facebook because then I didn’t know what the hell was going on. It all felt like some kind of sadistic game someone was playing.

I later found out that he talked to a couple other guys I’d pointed out on his Grindr that we both knew—one I keep in semi-contact with and he’s the one who told me about it. I don’t know how he found you though. All I remember saying to him was your age and that I met you right before, even though I started messaging him first.

Crazy thing is we were never even close to being exclusive, and he kept insisting he might be moving at the end of the summer. He was starting to get possessive though and I told him I didn’t think it was working out. He got pissed at me, but when I found out he was the one behind everything it was still surprising. But it at least made more sense. As far as I know, you had no reason to badmouth me. I hardly knew you. I give you the benefit of the doubt that you didn’t, but since he tried contacting me again recently, I just want to know what happened. It still eats at me and I keep worrying he’s going to do something else. I don’t think I’m at fault for that—he tried to mess with my life and really freaked me out.

It’s hard for me to be upset at you because it seemed like you were going through a hard time. Not at first, but I could always tell whenever you talked about your ex your mood changed. Then all that FB stuff when you declared how unhappy you’d been and then a few days later your fam was on there worried because they hadn’t heard from you. Maybe it was nothing, but it seemed strange because you didn’t come off that way. We were supposed to hang out a couple times, but then I’d not hear from you for a while. I never really took it personally. I get it was maybe awkward and I can try too hard to be a good friend at first. I can be bullheaded. But I respected you just wanted a friendship. One thing though, I shouldn’t have asked you out again. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t because I acted so distant and uptight when we met. I regret asking that, but that always bothered me because I know how I can come across at times.

Then that whole thing happened just a couple days after that, which is why I thought maybe you’d put someone up to it. If you want to know the truth, Austin, even if you did say something to Timothy about me, I wouldn’t be angry. Not anymore. But I’d be curious to know why or what was said. I do know that he misled you into believing he was someone else, so I don’t know how things went down, and how he chose to respond by doing what he didis all on him. He didn’t even ask me about it. People always make up shit on there (it’s the nature of the beast) and I can’t imagine you would do that to deliberately cause any damage to someone. At least I hope not. We all say things that don’t make sense at one time or another. And like I said, maybe you were going through something.

Lastly, I want to reiterate, no matter how pissed off I get, I’d never do anything to humiliate anyone in return. I’m not an asshole. If anything, I feel I can be too nice. Which is why I feel I didn’t deserve all that drama in the first place. I don’t like to create it, I don’t like to be on the other end of it. Timothy can forever kiss my ass and will never hear from me again. But I would, however, like to hear from you now that everything has settled. Last I heard, he said he actually did move so that’s a plus.

After the shit I went through, I feel I deserve to know at least your side of things so I can get some clarity. I’m not confrontational about it and I wouldn’t judge you for anything. I’m far from perfect myself. I come down to Chili’s on University Parkway every Wednesday night to chill with my Payson buddies. And I also just got a part-time writing job right next to the Gold’s Gym by the Orem mall. Maybe I’ll stop by sometime. Hope you are well.

Take care,

--Andrew