Crush-ed

He was going to tell her today.

He had it all planned.

He'd stretch up and ring her doorbell, then wait for the click of her shoes echoing down the hall as she came to answer the door. Once she opened it, he'd get down on his knee just like he saw in 'The Kid' and like his sister told him to do, and he'd ask her to be his girlfriend.

Knowing her, she'd probably smile down at him with the nice smile he had instantly come to like, say yes, and bend down to give him a quick peck. Similar to what happened in those roman movies his sister loved to watch. Afterwards, she'd invite him in for cookies and soda!

These things he was sure of. Just as he was sure that one day he'd marry Miss Emilia Peers, who in turn of their marriage would become, Mrs. Dario Alvarez.

His falling in love with her had started at his birthday party last year.

She'd brought her daughter, him Batman, Superman, and Spiderman action figures, the ones where you could change their capes and hang Spiderman from the bed, and laughed and kissed his cheek after he had accidentally dropped a cupcake on her. From that day forth he was smitten.

To him, Miss Emilia was the next best thing to popping frogs, chocolate cake and SpongeBob SquarePants. Because he liked her so much he had become friends with her daughter, who in his opinion was a spoiled brat, a buck-toothed idiot, and several fries short of a full box, as his brother put it.

Fixing his plaid shirt and mussed hair, from sprinting across the street to her house, he stretched his arm upward and rung the doorbell. Turning around quickly to see his sister still standing in their doorway, she gave him a thumbs up sign, which he returned with a curt head nod.

In a coaching voice he'd learned from his brother, he lowly remarked to himself that 'he could do this'.

The sound of the door unlocking and opening, since she was expecting him, made him turn around to see a tall guy standing in the doorway.

Flabbergasted; that would've been the correct word to describe how he felt right then, if he had of known the word. But he didn't. The same way he didn't know what to think as he was invited in.

The door being closed behind him, he stared up at the big, tall doofus when he called Miss Emilia from the back and and told him to stay there while he walked up the hallway.

A short laugh followed by a 'shut up' heard, that reminded him of when his sister was talking to her boyfriend on the phone, he looked up to see Miss Emilia walk around the hallway corner with the same smile he had thought was solely given to him.

"Oh, Dario! I'm sorry, Adam kept you in the hallway!" she remarked over her shoulder a bit raised, as though she wasn't talking to him exactly. "Jenna's in her room waiting to play, so go ahead and go in," were her continuing words as she started to shoo him in the room with a hand on his shoulder.

At that point in time, he didn't care if Jenna was in her room and he also didn't like her touching him as he usually did. So shrugging her hand off his shoulder, he turned around and asked, "Was that your brother?" The tone he used was a curious- and rather angry- one.

"Brother? Who?..." She looked confused for a moment, then abruptly laughed, like she was laughing at him, which he believed she was. "You mean Adam!... Oh, no!.. No.. No... He's my fiance."

That word alone, was the onstart to his broken heart.

His face slowly lowering and his hopes being crushed before his young eyes, Dario looked up at Miss Peers, saying, "I don't think I want to play today." Turning around before the woman could say anything or see him start to cry, he squared his small shoulders, opened the front door, and walked down the house walkway to cross the street.

Never would he let Miss Peers know how she broke his poor heart he was ready to give to her. Nor would he let her know she deserved him better than she deserved that guy she was with.

A quick note:

A pretty worthless short, but I came upon the inspiration to write it when I thought of my first crush. That, like poor Dario, was on an older guy who lived down the street.

By the way, the part where I put roman instead of romance, may seem like a grammar mistake, but it isn't. I deliberately put that word to give off another hint he was a kid without making it directly apparent. Somehow I noticed through my younger siblings, they always seem to get a word wrong when they either dislike it or don't care for it.