I took the idea for this post from a current trending topic on twitter. Not sure WHY exactly I'm doing this but... what the hey.

Dear (not saying names!),

For a long time it hurt too much to think about you. I wasn't sure I'd ever get over you, and there were days I didn't even want to get out of bed because I was so heartbroken by what you did. You lied to me. About a lot of things. Important things that you should have been honest about. You lied about what I meant to you, while you knew how much you meant to me and that it would crush me if you didn't feel the same. Did you really think lying would be less hurtful than just being honest with me? You promised you would always be there, but you never were. And you lied to me about her. Did you really think I was naive enough to not know what was going on? I let you get away with a lot of it because I didn't realize I had a choice. And when I finally started to open my eyes and voice my concerns and feelings, when I finally dug up the courage to call you on your lies you tried to turn the tables (which you are very good at doing, you'd done it a lot to me over the years we knew each other) and make me the bad guy. You never could just man up and be honest, with me or with anyone in your life. There are people in my life now who know you, or knew you, and they don't realize I know you. They think you're wonderful. They think you're one of the sweetest guys on the planet. Oh, if they only knew... you play your games so well, you probably even believe the lies you tell from time to time. Is it hard keeping your stories straight? Do you lose sleep over all the guilt I KNOW you harbor for the lies you've told people who think they know you and that you're a friend to them? You let them think they're extra special to you with your stories... but the truth is you tell everyone these things that you "don't usually tell people about". You do it because you feel like it gives you the upper hand, because you feel powerful and in control. And it did work for me too, I fell for all your lies and that stupid love song. But I was one you couldn't fool forever. And when I called you on it, you lashed out at me and tried to make me feel like I had done something wrong. All I did was fall for you, knowing deep down, all along, that I should have spent all that emotion on someone else. I know now the man I came to love was just a character - he was not real. He was not YOU. He was just a role you were playing. Perhaps he was the man you want to be but you don't know how.

Despite it all though, there is still some part of me that will always love you and care for you. I will not deny that. Despite everything, all the things you put me through made me stronger. I thought for quite a while that you'd broken me. But you didn't. You don't have that kind of power or control over me. You hear that? You DON'T. You had some control over me for a brief moment in time, but I broke free of that. You do NOT control me anymore. And you never will again.

I thought I hated you for it. But now that it's been a couple years, and now that I am with the right man for me, I realize that if you had not put me through all that I never would have learned a lot about myself and life and love. You may have been awful to and for me in a lot of ways, but at the same time you were somehow good for me in other ways. 

I never thought I'd reach this point, but I truly do wish you happiness now. I don't think you will ever find it unless you grow up (you are plenty old enough those words should not have to be spoken!) and stop playing these games with other people's minds and hearts though, and I don't think that you are capable of that yet and I'm not sure you ever will be. I feel sorry for you for that, for knowing that your chances of true happiness and love are so slim because they are dependent upon things I know you are not willing to change. Yet still I wish good things for you. And if things ever do change for you, I like to think you will think of me and remember me fondly for how I poured my heart out to you. But this is silly, I know, because I know you probably do not remember me even now. I am likely, at best, a vague memory, perhaps a whisper of a face without a name to you. But know that I will always remember you, and I will always remember everything that happened between us, both good and bad. And despite everything I will always hold you in a special place in my heart and wish you nothing but happiness.