THE ONE WHO BROKE MY HEART

I had always been a romantic at heart. A long time ago my life was like something from The Highschool Musical, just without the singing and dancing.

I wasn't like the popular girl in school, but I was the new girl in the neighborhood got lucky.

Dad quit his job as a journalist to start his own business. We had a shop dealing with antiques on the first floor. Every treasure tells a story! Our home was on the second floor.

We moved next to Fred, our high school's quarterback and his mum's flower shop.

Fred's best friend, Marco and his twin sister Mona lived on the other side of the flower shop. Their dad owned a cafe.

I know Fred's dad died as a soldier in a rogue attack when Fred was really young. I don't know what happened to Marco and Mona's mum. They had never talked about it and I had never dared to ask because every time our conversations veered too close, Marco would change the subject.

The town we lived in was in the Red Packlands. Sometimes we might see some Lycan type but more often than not, it would be just some humans trying to act Lycan. Ever since the defeat of the rogue king, Lycans had come to the forefront of business and the media. And now it's pretty cool to be Lycan. It turned out that there were a lot more Lycan in this world than we had assumed, looking just like humans, living really ordinary lives.

But Red Packland Lycans usually stayed in their own towns and went to their own schools, so I had only seen them from afar.

The only people the Lycan came to talk to were important people like our mayor or other notable men in office or business.

Fred's football team captain was Shilem, the mayor's son, and he would hang out with us sometimes.

He was my first boyfriend. He asked me to be his girlfriend at the end of our freshman year, and then to marry him at the end of senior year, at our prom, on stage, and everyone cheered. Fred got really drunk that night and woke up the next day in Mona's bed. Marco was furious and punched him in the eye.

Mona came over crying her eyes out because Fred said he didn't love her. He was just too drunk that night. But he was her first time. I think she was his too.

I walked Mona back home when she ran out of tears. Her dad gave me some freshly baked banana muffins which happened to be Shilem's favourite.

No one asked me but I didn't have the best time last night either. I mean, the proposal was crazy and I was so happy Shilem proposed that I cried, but after the dance, Shilem started kissing me in the car instead of taking me home, and then he suggested we spend our first night at a hotel. I said no. I had a 11pm curfew that night.

Shilem got really angry. He shouted at me in the car and called me a selfish b****. I cried and he scolded me for crying, "Now I feel like the bad guy. I'm sorry alright? I'll send you home now."

I got home at 11.30 and dad was furious that I broke the curfew. I tried to break the good news to him that Shilem had proposed. Dad didn't stop being mad, he just frowned even more and criticized Shilem for not asking him first, and that we were way too young, and that I had to finish college before we got married.

I burst into tears again and went to my room. Mum came in later and said my Dad's feeling sorry. They were happy for us. Dad's just finding it hard to let me go.

So yeah. At breakfast, Dad actually apologized. He told me to graduate from college and he would throw the largest wedding party the town had ever seen for us.

I decided it would be a good time to apologize to Shilem too. So I brought the muffins to his apartment (yes, he had his own apartment. His dad bought it for him on his 18th birthday.)

The door was unlocked. I was thinking I'd go in and surprise him. And if he still wanted to continue where we left off last night, I guess it was okay, since we were engaged now right?

I was really nervous. It would have been my first time. But my underwear happened to be nice that day and well... We were already engaged right?

I didn't even notice till I walked right into the apartment and saw Shilem and Shelly, one of the cheerleaders he hung out with in school doing something. I'm not sure what, but they were both naked.

I surprised them. I also surprised myself. I just said very calmly that I was sorry for interrupting, I brought muffins to say sorry for last night, and then I put the muffins on the nearest table, along with the engagement ring and left the apartment.

I didn't even cry.

Then I went home and told my parents that they were right, I was too young to get engaged and that I had decided to accept the scholarship offer from Gate City Business College. Yes, all the way in the Green Packlands on the other side of the continent. Yes, I'm very sure.

I didn't cry then either.

That night, I met Fred, Marco, and Mona, because it was a Saturday night and Saturday nights was when our local TV broadcasted the Central Coven Fight Cages live. Fred and Marco were very into fight dogs. Fred's favourite was a fight dog named Keys because he was "classy".

Please. The guy didn't even wear a shirt.

Anyway, Marco saw me let myself in and asked, "Where's Shilem?"

And then I cried.

I really regretted that. I think I must have cried so pathetically that Marco and Fred decided that Shilem and them were no longer friends.

I mean, Fred was caught in Mona's bed this morning, and they were all still friends.

"It's different." Marco said, "I found out that Mona was the one who spiked Fred's drinks last night. What Shilem did was inexcusable."

After that we did have a slight problem. Marco was going to Blackforest University's business school. He had a scholarship with the Mayor's office. But he decided to drop it in the last minute because he didn't want to work in the same place as Shilem.

I told them I was going to study at Gate City's Business College because they were the only scholarship offer I had.

Marco nodded, "I got a scholarship offer from there too."

"You must be the only guy I know who collected scholarships." I joked.

Fred said, "Then I'm going there too."

Mona said, "Me too."

So the four of us "self-exiled" to the far corners of the Green Packland's Gate City. And I started reading a lot of webnovels. I guess I was escaping my own disappointment at how my own life played out.

My favorite were werewolf love stories. I think it was because Shilem was always a smooth kind of guy, always smiling and pleasing everyone. And because Shilem was a cheater.

And werewolves were the opposite. By the time we stepped foot onto Gate City Business College Campus, I had convinced myself that I was destined to mate a hot werewolf.

Unfaithful human guys could just got to hell.