Tell Me I’m Enough (Tell Me You See Me)
Prelude
LYDIA
I know you thought this was Simone’s book, but I couldn’t let you start reading her and Mason’s story before telling you a little bit about my best friend that she probably won’t tell you herself.
You see, my book may have fooled you into thinking that Simone is this picture-perfect girl who has everything together and is always bright and bubbly, with no problems in the world. And although that’s how most people see her—including me sometimes—she has a lot more depth to her.
She may be picture perfect on the outside, and you may think she has all the confidence in the world, but if there’s one thing I know about my best friend, it’s that on the inside…
she’s just like me and you. She craves to be loved, to be wanted, to be cared about in the same way she cares about the people she loves.
I’ve put Simone through a lot over the years, but no matter how much I pushed and hurt her with my words, she stayed beside me.
She’s fiercely loyal and deserves nothing but the best in life.
She deserves not to question if she’s enough for someone.
She deserves to be loved loudly. She deserves to be taken care of and protected.
She deserves everything she puts into this world—and she puts a lot of good into it.
I’ve never met someone with such a pure heart who puts everyone else first before herself. It’s time for our girl to find someone who will put her first now.
I’d burn this world down for her because I know she’d do the same for me.
Finding love is one of the hardest and most painful things we will all do in this life. It’s also one of the most rewarding thing when you find the right person.
We all make mistakes when it comes to love—some more than others—but we’re all just trying to find something that none of us really have a road map to. That’s where God comes in. It wasn’t until I went to him for guidance that I stopped getting it so wrong all of the time. And I got it wrong a lot.
Everyone’s journey is so different and so complex that no two people’s stories will be the same. We all go through different things, come across different crossroads in life, and make different decisions that lead us on different paths.
I hope that mine and Bash’s, Simone’s and Mason’s, and Lani’s and Erik’s stories will help you gain compassion and empathy for the ones around you.
You may judge people easily for what you see them dealing with, but when you realize we’re just all human, trying to figure this all out as we go, you stop saying ‘I would have done this’ and just understand you can’t always know or understand what someone is going through and why they make the choices they do. We’re all just trying to do our best.
Mason is someone I’ve become extremely fond of…
but you’ll have to read his story to find out why.
Even in my book, he was always a good guy and a great friend behind the scenes.
We got closer in my sophomore and junior year of college, and I’m so happy to have someone as kind and sweet and loving as him to love my Simone.
He’s like the little brother I never had, even though he’s older than me.
He’s goofy and fun and loud and the life of the party…
and he’s also so much more. I hope you come to love him as much as I do.
He’s my family now, and I will always be extremely protective of him and his heart, just as I am of Simone.
May their story inspire you, make you giggle, and give you all the feels.