Dear Mrs Valentine

Chapter One

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I hate Valentines Day. I effing hate it. For me, it's the most miserable day of the year. Forget New Year's! Forget those 'special' occasions where relatives who you didn't even know existed, suddenly appear and smother you in hugs and kisses. Forget Mondays too; Valentine's Day is the worst, hands down.

It's the one day of the year that where ever I go, I am reminded that I am a sad, single human being, while the rest of the world around me have found their soul mate, and are making out in the rain under a street lamp.

It's also a joyful day that gives all of my friends, the constant opportunity to rub in my face the fact that they're in picture perfect relationships with these super hot guys, while I stuff my face with Ben and Jerry's ice cream whilst watching Titanic or The Notebook.

So by now, I think that you've guessed that I have never been in a romantic relationship with a guy (or girl for those who were wondering). Nor have I ever received flowers, heart-shaped chocolate boxes, poems with endless stanzas about how perfect I am to my boyfriend, or had a romantic candle-lit dinner at that fancy restaurant in town. Nor have I ever had a cute snuggle evening and take-away with 'the bae', a word that I am absolutely sick of hearing, mainly because I am unable to use it for anyone special in my life.

Actually, thinking back now, I recall one Valentine's Day, my grandparents bought me this little teddy bear holding a patch-work heart. I think they felt sorry for me, being single for the 16th year in a row (yes at age 16, I was still wonderfully single). Or maybe they had just heard me complaining about how all my friends were going to receive these amazing Victoria's Secret gifts from their perfect boyfriends. So I actually did receive something for Valentine's Day this one time, but it was from my grandparents, so that probably means it doesn't count.

Anyway, back to the point. I seem to have forgotten to introduce myself, not that it's important or anything, it's just I feel it needs to be done.

Hi, I'm Cass Howard. I'm 18 this year, sometime around July, I'm socially awkward and I hate Valentine's Day, I'm forever alone, blah, blah, blah. Now, let's talk about how I am planning to miraculously change all of that by introducing the brilliant plan I came up with very recently.

I seem to have developed a rather humongous crush on this very out-of-my-league kind of guy. He is, as far as I am aware, single, (but knowing my luck, watch how he already has a girlfriend and I embarrass myself majorly), as well as possessing the most gorgeous facial features, jawline, shaggy mop of brown hair, and not to mention one hell of a six pack underneath his jacket.

Dylan West. 5ft 10 of muscle, good looks, and a good brain to go with it all. Did I mention that he plays rugby? He's really good at rugby, I've seen him play a couple times, when I went to watch my brother play in matches and tournaments.

Again, I'm rambling on and drifting away from the point. This Valentine's Day, I don't want to be spending it alone again, I want to be spending it (hopefully) with Dylan West. And in order to achieve this impossible goal, I had to make the first move, which was to casually start a conversation. If you remember that earlier, I mentioned that I'm socially awkward, so starting a conversation with Dylan West is a lot easier said than done.

On a scale of 1 to 10 of social awkwardness, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest, my social awkwardness is easily a 20 out of 10. See my problem? Plus I didn't know how to start a casual conversation with one of the hottest guys on the planet. Still, if I wanted to spend my Valentine's Day with the likes of Dylan West, I'd have to try.

So I've planned it all out. It took about a week to plan what the conversation would be about, where it would take place (my plan was to nab him alone, when no one was looking, so that I wouldn't embarrass myself on a much larger scale in front of him and his friends or the rest of the school). So I had a plan, and I'd rehearsed in front of the mirror countless times, I felt ready.

However, I forgot to prepare myself for every situation. I'd prepared myself for what I thought was every situation. The typical "Oh sorry, I've got training," or the "Sorry I've got a girlfriend, catch you later" and finally the "I'm busy, sorry, maybe some other time," situations.

So yeah, I was caught completely off-guard when he came back with his reply, that Wednesday lunch break, two days before Valentine's Day...