The novel opens with a flashback to one year earlier, when the narrator is twenty-one years old. He is living with his grandmother and aunt, two women who gossip about him. The narrator tells his sister that he is ugly, but that he has found a way to get a man who is good looking. He tells her that he will buy her clothes and take her out to fancy restaurants. He also tells her about his first girlfriend, a quiet, sweet girl who was older than him, but who was sensitive. He says that everyone talks about them like it is weird that they are together, but he tried to do the right thing in his middle school years. He admits that his heart went cold when he realized that he was not in love with her. He explains that he did not blame her for her lack of confidence because she lacked self. He adds that she is too caught up with her own feelings and opinions to care about how he feels. He thanks her for everything she has done for him, and they part ways.