Dear Zoe

Tess tells Zoe she thinks about her less while she’s at her dad’s, especially once she and Jimmy start hanging out. Hanging out with Jimmy helps her understand what was happening between her mom and Justin. Tess doesn’t think Jimmy is a bad boy—she sees him more as “a really good guy who couldn’t help himself from screwing up a lot” (102), a bit like Tess’s father.

The night Tess discovers her father deals drugs, she hears James Taylor playing from Jimmy’s window. Using a hockey sick, he knocks on her bedroom window. He climbs into Tess’s bedroom window from his own. Frank licks his hand. Jimmy offers Tess weed, which Tess has never smoked, and they sit on Tess’s windowsill and share a joint. Jimmy teaches her how to smoke. Jimmy tells Tess he was at a school for troubled youth up in Maine, reminding Tess of her friend Kasey who was arrested. Jimmy tells Tess she’s a natural at smoking, and while they are stoned, everything is funny and they reveal more about each other. Jimmy tells Tess about his mother who died when she was 10, and Tess tells him about her mom, David, and Em, but not about Zoe.