𝒢uys like Ricky don't date freckled girls with silly braids. Ricky strolls through the hallways with his arm around a different girl every week, and honestly, you were a little envious of those girls with long legs and bleached hair who laughed so hard at his jokes.

Sometimes you imagined yourself with him in his convertible, cruising down an empty highway, arms in the air, the wind blowing your hair out of your face, while he gazed at you with adoring eyes. Nothing could be further from the truth, a reality that only existed in your pubescent and immature imagination.

You loves his thick eyebrows, the way he smokes, the curl that falls over his forehead, the way he smiles sideways, how he leans against his car while waiting for his friends, and how good he looks just… existing. But a girl like you is invisible to a guy like him. Not because you were ugly, you were just too young and naive for someone like him, as your own friends told you when they saw you sighing in his direction.

Valentine's Day, the school walls were covered in cheesy decorations, in the hallways you saw couples exchanging flowers and kisses, some girls squealed with joy when finding love letters in their lockers. Didn’t think you would be one of those lucky ones, the luckiest of all.

When you opened your locker, a note slid out, which you picked up from the floor, a small red envelope, and it had written in black ink: Ricky Cooper. Ricky. Your Ricky. The same Ricky who had you sighing and watching from afar, wrote you a note detailing a meeting in the yard that afternoon. You didn't miss it, and you waited for him with your big smile that faded after 15 minutes.

He stood you up. On your way back to class, feeling humiliated, you saw him coming out of the boys' bathroom with his hands in his pockets and that unbothered look on his face. Without thinking twice, you confronted him, holding the letter in your hand.

— "Someone played a joke on you, doll. This isn't my handwriting." — he said after inspecting the letter. — "Sorry 'bout that..." — he handed the letter back to you with an apologetic smile.

You should have known.