Great Things Come In Packages... Even Boyfriends

Chapter One

"Excuse me." I murmured quietly, struggling to pave my way through the maze of the hallways of my high school. Sometimes, it was worse when you left your class five minutes later after the bell rung and you had to endure the heavily packed hallways of students who were mingling socially. On top of that, it was the last period, hence the super-turbo speed of teen traffic.

"Watch it!" a platinum blonde-haired girl squealed at me as I abruptly collided into her, thanks to the pushing force of whoever was behind me.

"Sorry." I apologetically said, picking up my dropped books off the dirty tiles of the hallway floor. I peeled the gum and candy wrapper off my textbooks and sighed mournfully.

Why does this always happen to me every single time?

"Next time, watch where you're going, loser!" Sarah, the name belonging to the platinum-haired girl, screeched before scurrying off. I squinted blankly watching a pink figure storm down the hall with a high commanding presence of the hallways.

I grunted, pulling myself up and sighed as I tried to smoothen out my shirt's wrinkles. I turned to go towards my next class when I bumped into someone else, again.

"Hmph!" the guy grunted, rubbing his chest. "That hurt. Thanks a lot, flatty."

"I'm not flat!" I cringed, crossing my arms over my chest. "And stop calling me that name, Nick."

"Delia, at least it's true," Nick smirked slightly. "You have small boobs anyways."

"I do not!" I defended, squeezing my arms even tighter. "I'd rather if you left my body issues alone, please."

"Whatever," Nick scoffed. "See you back at the apartment. Still want dinner?"

"No, I'll order pizza or something." I shrugged.

"Pizza's not exactly the best health choice, Delia." Nick sighed. "Let me make you dinner."

"No." I declined. "I can feed myself, you know."

"Your parents gave me the duty of watching over you," Nick rebutted. "As much as I don't like babysitting you, they asked me to."

"Stop babying me! I don't need a babysitter. Mom and Dad are just paranoid, that's all. I have to go." I quickly blurted, dashing to my locker, leaving my only friend, alone in the hallway.

"Hey double-a," A girl I had known in one of my classes greeted. She kept up with my fast walking. "Saw you with Nick back there."

"Stop calling me that!" I groaned at the nickname. "And I do not like Nick, how many times do I have to tell you? We're just friends. I mean, after you've seen the guy getting picked on all the time in grade school, you just build up common sense not to."

"Aw, but he's cute... sort of." The girl smirked deviously.

"He may be a little cute, but he's still dorky nonetheless." I scoffed.

"Whatever. So, are you going to ask out Nathan today?" She asked quietly. I froze in my tracks.

"W-who... told you that?" I stammered nervously.

If the whole school found out, I'm going to be so embarrassed. I'll probably register under the witness protection program. What name would be better – Julia McRowe, or Flora Flo? What about Abbey Hall-

"You did, silly!" She chimed, interrupting my thoughts.

"Oh." I replied, feeling relieved. "You... didn't tell anyone didn't you?"

"Nope!" She answered happily. "So?" She persisted, nudging my arm.

"I gotta go!" I snickered, running madly away from her, towards my locker. I spun the numbered padlock to the three numbers, pulled it open and swiped the locker open in a hurry. I wiped my forehead with my hands, and sighed.

"I got your email. What did you want?" an older male voice asked behind me. I turned around to come face to face with my most recent crush, Nathan.

"Hi... Nathan." I said hoarsely, my voice cracking.

"Hi..." Nathan smiled weakly. He seemed to have his eyes set on my face.

"Delia." I filled in for him.

"Delia, right." Nathan flashed a toothy grin. "What did you want?"

"I... like you." I blurted quietly. "Willyougooutwithme?"

"Sorry, I didn't catch that." Nathan apologized politely. "Say that again?"

Why does he keep looking at my forehead?

"WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?!" I shouted without thinking.

"Er... no." Nathan answered quickly. "I got to go. Bye."

I turned around moping, to see my locker again and looked in the mini-mirror with horror. I came face to face with a piece of gum on my forehead. I groaned silently as I peeled the gum off with nauseous-ness rising in my throat, then pulling out my books and slamming the locker shut. I walked in frenzy towards the front entrance before someone called out my name.

"What do you want?!" I asked angrily.

"Jeez, I just wanted to see if you had those notes from English class." Nick shrugged. "What's shoved up your ass lately?"

"Nothing." I automatically replied. I dug into my bag and pulled out the notes he asked for, shoving them at his chest. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. Why are you all prissy?" Nick asked curiously.

"I'm not prissy at all." I disagreed.

"Wait a minute!" Nick chuckled. "You asked him out didn’t you? And he said no."

"Good bye." I muttered, opening the door and walking as fast as I could back to the apartment. Half an hour later, I was in the lobby, and pulling out my keys to unlock the mailbox.

"Junk... dad... junk... mom... junk... me?" I questioned as I stared at the envelope that had my name addressed on it. "What the heck is Love Shop and why is it addressed to me? It sounds dirty." Shrugging, I tossed the junk mail as well as the letter addressed to me before making my way to the cheap and tacky gold elevators.

I pressed the button to the ninth floor and waited patiently as the elevator rose up. Moments later the doors opened with a dinging sound as I stepped out onto the burgundy carpet floor. I passed several doors down the hallway until I reached that familiar door, with the numbers '907' nailed onto cedar wood. I reached into my pockets, moving around the pack of gum and the small lip balm to pull out my jangling keys to unlock the apartment door. Finally, I was home sweet home.

I dropped the mail effortlessly on the kitchen table, making my way to the family room where I dropped my backpack on the couch and turned on my computer that was sitting on the mahogany desk. Checking my e-mail, I went over to my junk folder and deleted all that was unnecessary, until I came across an email from the same company as the letter addressed to me, Love Shop. My curiosity took the better of me and I clicked the website link, eager to see why they were so persistent in getting me to look at their website.

"Welcome to Love Shop, catering to all your romantic needs!" the robotic voice announced through the computer and shattered the deafening silence in my apartment.

"What the heck?" I muttered to myself, browsing through the website. They had everything from accessories to clothes to makeup to kinky stuff to... "boyfriends?!"

How is this possible? I asked myself as I clicked the boyfriend tab and waited as it took me to a new page, full of names and pictures of guys. One of them at the top had a 'new!' icon flashing next to it so I clicked it out of sheer curiosity and came upon the epitome of perfection.

He was new, seventeen and you could pick his own personalities. Even better, you could buy him on trial for a week and as long as you returned him by the end of the week, you didn't have to pay for him!

"This is such a phony site." I amused, chuckling to myself. There was no way these guys were real in life. Guys were jerks, scum bags and egoistical creatures, not guys who... cook, clean, and be affectionate. "But why not?"

I clicked the 'buy now' button and registered for the trial version, and then checked off the personalities and traits for my new guy.

He's probably just a robot or a pen pal over the internet... nothing real. I assured myself as I clicked the 'order now' button and finalized everything I just had done. When I looked down at my watch, realizing it was already suppertime, I shut off the computer and ran to the kitchen to cook.

Now what do I cook? I wondered, opening the fridge and staring at its half-empty contents.

"Oh crap. I forgot to go food shopping again." I mentally hit myself.

Guess I should take up Nick on his offer... I groaned, regretting my earlier actions. I picked up the phone and dialed his number.

"Hello?" A female voice rung through the line. I gulped nervously – did Nick have a girlfriend already?

"Can I speak to Nick please?" I asked with resistance. There was some clattering and crackling on the other end after I asked.

"Hello?" A heavily panting male voice replied on the other end.

"Am I interrupting something?" I asked again nervously. Were they- oh god.

"If you count my sister nearly setting something on fire again a distraction," Nick replied in a sarcastic tone. "Unfortunately, she has decided to grace me with her presence and to nearly set the whole kitchen on fire. But thankfully I was there in the nick of time to put it out."

"Your sister is there? I thought you said she was-" I questioned before I was interrupted.

"Yes, but she's back from her so-called Europe traveling to take a break." Nick scoffed on the other end. "But I personally think she's just coming back for more money."

"Hm." I chortled silently. "Say, I was wondering if you still had some dinner left over for me?"

"I knew it-you forgot to load up the fridge again didn't you?" Nick guffawed over the line.

"Shut up dickhead. So what if I did?" I rebutted. "Can't I just have my meal in peace? Please?"

"Fine. Come upstairs then." Nick replied, hanging up. I hung up quickly and slipped on my shoes before dashing out the door quickly, the lock clicking with the door loudly as it echoed throughout the hallway.

With food on my mind and Nick's questionable cooking skills, it would seem I had forgotten all about my day today and why it was so crappy as well as that website.