Charlie, the narrator, opens his first letter to his anonymous “friend” whom he’s never met, by saying: “I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn’t try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have” (2). Charlie says that he doesn’t want his “friend” to find out who he is, so he will change the names of the people he mentions in the letters and he won’t include a return address. In this way, the letters he writes to this friend function as a diary for Charlie because he just needs “to know that someone out there listens and understands” (2).

He says that he is “both happy and sad”(2), and the latter of these feelings was exacerbated after he found out his friend Michael committed suicide. He is forced to see a guidance counselor after the news. When the counselor asks him how he feels, he says, “Michael was a nice guy and I don’t understand why he did it. As much as I feel sad, I think that not knowing is what really bothers me” (4). When the counselor suggests that maybe Michael had problems at home, and perhaps that’s what led to his suicide, Charlie starts crying and screaming.