Once Upon a Cliché

Prologue

Prologue ~

          “You’re just a kid.”   

          Essentially, that was the reason why I started hating the word “kid” in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, I’d been called a kid plenty of times before. Just not by the guy I’d been crushing on since I got over my “ew, boys with cooties” phase. Even then, I’d never seen him as just a boy. It was kind of like saying, “Oh, it’s just Taylor Lautner. No biggie.” In my eyes, Hale was pretty much his equivalent, minus the taking his shirt off every five minutes of screen time thing.

          Which is probably why the rejection stung. Just a little.

          Not the taking off his shirt part, of course. No, it was the fact that he’d also denounced any sort of semi-friendship between us and warned me that he’d never acknowledge my existence again. Ever.

          Having the fragile heart of an eleven year-old only added to the painful blow. I couldn’t remember feeling so devastated since my teacher had told me Pluto was no longer a planet, and I’d misheard her and thought she meant that Pluto, the cartoon dog, was dead.

          If only I’d known Hale’s true feelings the morning before I decided to sneak out of elementary school to see him. It’s not like it was hard to sneak out. They didn’t even have a gate. And I doubted the yard duty would’ve noticed—she was always too busy scarfing down bags of Corn Nuts she’d confiscated off the students.

          Oh, and if only I’d known that morning, I wouldn’t have carved a heart out of that apple I refused to eat and made a tiny H + E out of the leftover peel.

          But I suppose that’s why they’re called “if only”s.

          Like if only Hale wasn’t giving me that look right then. If only I wasn’t tearing up like a huge baby. If only the carved apple wasn’t still sitting in my backpack. And if only he hadn’t decided to go on and make me feel even more horrible than I already did.

          “Emica…” he said guiltily, kneeling down so he was at my height. “Don’t cry.”

          Even sixth graders had their dignity to protect. “I’m not crying,” I sniffled.

          “Oh yeah?” He swept his finger up to wipe away a tear from my eye. “Then what’s this?”

          My face contorted into a grimace as I tried to hold in the waterfall that was threatening to flow. “It’s sweat.”

          A trace of a smile shadowed his features. But even then, it was pained. “I’m sorry, Em. It’s just that…I’m in high school now. You’re still in grade school. You’re just a—”

          Don’t say it.

          “Kid.” Twice. He’d said it twice.

          “B-b-but,” I blubbered, “we can’t still be friends?” For gosh sakes, I couldn’t believe I was saying it. It’s not like I proposed or anything. I didn’t even tell him I liked him! All I did was run up and hug him…right in the middle of the busy hallway…in front of all his friends…

          Now that I look back on it, it probably was a bad idea.

          “Don’t look at this as a bad thing,” he continued. “Now you can hang out with friends your age.”

          My lower lip began to tremble. “But you and Hailin are my only friends!” And I was pretty sure sisters didn’t count.

          His guilty expression only looked guiltier. “Maybe it’s time to make some new friends.”