Growing up, the men in my life were annoyingly present to chase away the simplest of appreciative glances from any random boy. What they didn’t realize was that I was in love with one of our own, and had been for as long as I could remember.
Kaden Marek was the boy who set my heart on fire. Although when I was younger, I hadn’t realized the feeling swirling around inside me was love. I chalked up my desire to be near him to nothing more than us being best friends. And best friends want to spend all their time together, right?
Things slowly changed when we were ten. At first, Kaden would break our plans to hang out with his buddies, telling me I couldn’t go because girls weren’t allowed. Then the excuses switched to those of not wanting his friends around me. I thought he was embarrassed of me, but as it turned out, there were other motives for him leaving me behind, reasons I didn’t understand until we were older.
My feelings switched for Kaden, or rather, came to light, when we were twelve. I caught him kissing Jenny Kishall behind the 7-Eleven and I cried all the way home; the sight of them locking lips unleashing a mixture of jealousy and devastation.
For the following month, I avoided him at all costs, but eventually, I concluded the only reason I’d been upset in the first place was because I hadn’t kissed anyone yet.
We went back to our normal routine and he was none the wiser.
Until the day of my fourteenth birthday.
Kaden caught me crying behind my house. When he asked me why I was upset, I told him that Brad Killian never showed up to my party. When he looked at me funny, not understanding, I informed him that Brad was gonna be my first kiss. As soon as my confession left my mouth, Kaden’s blue eyes darkened right before he hauled me to my feet.
“He’s not good enough for you, Ry,” he’d said, using the nickname he’d given me when we were little. “No one is good enough for you.” Then without any warning, he leaned in and pressed his lips against mine… and I forgot how to breathe.
Everything that happened between us since that day shaped the way we saw the world and us in it. But keeping our relationship a secret for fear of what my dad would do took its toll.
Everything came crumbling down around us.
We never stood a chance.