The letters
Josie has never been the type to put herself out there. The kind of girl to keep herself to herself, besides from her best friend MG, her older sister Lizzie and her younger brother Pedro. Oh, and Lizzie's boyfriend, Rafael. Except, Rafael was Josie's first boy friend, the space between the words makes their relationship, exactly not that, and a friendship, though Josie secretly does long for more and maybe if she had realised her feelings for Rafael sooner, then maybe they'd be together instead.
Josie didn't want to steal Raf from Lizzie, in fact she was happy for her, she deserved someone as kind and as understanding as he was, and so to conceal her feelings, she wrote him a letter. A letter she never intended to send.
'Rafael Waithe, I liked you first. By all rights, you are mine. P.s I still love you and that's a really huge problem for me and it's also a really huge surprise I swear I didn't know. All this time, I thought I was over it. How could I not be, when it's Lizzie you love? It's always been Lizzie.'
The letters were a way for Josie to vent her feelings, something just for her to allow herself to understand what her feelings were trying to tell her. In fact, inclduing the letter to Rafael, Josie had written a total of 5 letters.
One to Jade from camp.
One to Hope from 7th grade.
One to MG from homecoming.
One to Penelope Park from model UN.
And of course, Rafael.
Despite most of these letters being from a young Josie Saltzman point of view, re reading the letters reminds Josie of just how powerful her emotions are, how consuming the thoughts of another can be. Lizzie would most probably tell Josie that she is being dramatic but maybe Josie just secretly lives for the drama.