PROLOGUE

Two slaps and a Curse.

“Do it, man!”

Rick Rexley was suddenly pushed in front of a surprised hazel eyed girl. She tucked a loose strand of brown hair behind her ears before raising a questioning eyebrow at her boyfriend of three months. At the young age of thirteen, the word boyfriend still gave Abyline Greene the giggles.

The young boy shot a glare at his crowd of guy friends huddled behind him before giving Aby his trademark lopsided smile. It was that smile which she believed she fell for at the beginning of year eight.

Rick’s big grey eyes searched her face before he blurted out the last thing Aby thought she’d hear coming from his lips. The same ones which had pecked hers shyly only just last week.

“Aby, I-want-to-break-up!”

Rick’s group of cronies behind him burst out in laughter as Aby’s jaw felt like it’d just hit the ground.

“W-what?”

She knew she didn’t sound too intelligent right now, but she had a reasonable excuse. She thought she’d just heard the B-word. But seriously, it couldn’t be true, because Rick liked her, right?

Rick scratched his neck sheepishly as he shot his boys a small glance. One of them, which Aby recognised as his best friend gave him the two thumbs up sign and nodded his head in Aby’s direction.

“Well, I mean, we’re both young, right?” he started off slowly.

Aby pursed her lips and put her hands on her hips, trying to look taller. “Yeah, so?” She had a feeling she wouldn’t like the way this was heading.

“Well, the boys and I were just talking, and I mean, dating is a game, and if I’m only dating you, then I wouldn’t be having much fun, right?”

Aby shot a glare at the boys standing behind Rick. Drew, Rick’s best friend returned her glare with a smirk.

“What are you trying to say?” Aby demanded.

Rick looked taken aback but continued on nonetheless. Aby’d never snapped at Rick before, but she guessed there was a first time for everything. Including this.

“I’m just saying, maybe we weren’t meant to be together? I’m too young for commitment, you know?”

Aby rolled her big hazel eyes, her most favourite feature on herself. At thirteen, she was just old enough to realise that she was short for her age and a late developer in her womanly areas. A fact which Rick now threw back at her.

“And also, whenever I look at you, I only see a girl with a washboard sized chest. And it’s kind of unappealing, you know.”

No, she didn’t know. If Rick thought Aby was going to take his insults lightly, then he really mustn’t know her well enough.

“Well, I can say the same for you as well,” she snapped and shot him ‘a look’ to which he blushed bright red. Rick being dacked in front of Aby last week had only been funny then, but now she had solid evidence to throw back in his face about his little friend ‘down under’. Aby wasn’t going to go down without a fight first.

Rick’s friends chortled and choked on their own laughter as his grin turned into a glare.

“Well at least I’m not fat like you!” he spat out to which his friends voiced loud ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ to.

Aby, shocked beyond doubt, looked down at her own body. She wouldn’t have called herself fat – maybe just a bit chubby, she still had some of her baby fat on her – and the fact that Rick had stooped so low was enough to make her angry.

“Well at least I don’t have buck teeth!”

Rick’s hands flew up to cover his mouth before shooting another glare at Aby. His eyes were now burning with hate and all feelings of guilt from breaking up with her had ceased.

“Well at least I have friends!” he snapped.

“I do have friends!” Aby retorted angrily.

“Just one. And his definitely gay, so he doesn’t count!”

“He does!”

“’Does not!”

“Does too!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Shut up!” Before Aby could stop herself, her hands had risen up automatically by themselves and landed squarely in the middle of Rick’s small chest. She’d never pushed someone over before, but the satisfaction she experienced as Rick stumbled backwards and tripped over his own feet was greater than she’d thought it’d be.

Aby smirked down at Rick as he looked up at her in surprise. His face soon broke out into a snarl as he swung his foot outwards towards her, making her lose balance. As she fell onto her ass with a soft “Oomph!” – a loud bark of laughter streamed out of Drew Stanton as he helped Rick to his feet. The two newly broken up couple shot each other glares as Drew spoke up for the first time, sounding as if he was enjoying the situation a little too much.

“I told you she’s not worth it, man. Now, Regina on the other han-” The boy was quickly cut off by a high pitched scream as an angry pit bull by the name of Aby charged at him – hands outstretched, talons out – and slapped him as hard as she could across his cheek. It seemed like the whole scenario was going in slow motion as a shocked Drew finally registered what had happened and took a threatening step towards the panting girl with fire burning in her hazel coloured eyes.

“Rick, your bitch just slapped me!” Drew snapped, scrunching up his face and reaching up to touch his left cheek, which was slowly beginning to show signs of a hand print. “Aren’t you going to do something about it?!” He shot Rick a look.

Rick turned his attention back to Aby, who had finally caught her breath and was much calmer than before. The slap felt good, and she felt more confident and energised than before.

“I think you should apologise to Drew,” he stated coldly, grey eyes hardened with no emotion.

“Why should I?” Aby snapped. At thirteen, she believed she was allowed to be as stubborn as she willed. “He deserved it.”

Drew snarled but Aby ignored him.

Rick rolled his eyes. “Gosh, I guess Drew was right. You are so childish. You’re thirteen, but act like you’re three.”

Confused, Aby frowned and wrinkled her nose. “What are you trying to say?”

“That I’m breaking up with you because you’re still a kid.”

“Are you…are you serious?!” she demanded. Drew snorted from beside them and she shot him a glare in which he gladly returned.

“Yes,” Rick confirmed coldly.

Not helping her with this situation at all, Aby automatically stomped her foot. “Fine. If that’s the way you want it, then fine! Our relationship was quite a bore anyways!”

This seemed to surprise Rick as his eyes widened a little. “No way, you loved every minute of it!”

Aby shook her head. “It was a drag, really. And you were pretty crap on our dates.”

“How so?!” he demanded. “You have nothing else to compare it to!”

“I do too!”

“Who? I know I was your first!”

“And you didn’t leave a very good impression, did you?”

Rick snorted. “You are so childish.”

Aby put her hands on her hips and lifted her chin into the air. “Well, news flash genius. Last time I checked, we were thirteen, not thirty. I have a right to act childish. And besides, if I say you weren’t good, then you weren’t good.”

Rick shot her another glare. If his eyes were made of fire, Aby would have died by now, but luckily, she knew Rick was at least human.

“Well, with a personality like yours, I highly doubt you’d find someone who is good enough for you.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“That I highly doubt you’d experience another relationship like ours. I doubt you can even last this long with another boy. I mean, three months, wow, I just wasted three months of my life on you.”

Livid, Aby’s hand met another cheek that day. Rick’s grey eyes widened in surprise as they swimmed with tears.

“Are you trying to curse me, Rick Rexley?!” she demanded. He didn’t reply but shot her another glare as he and his cronies turned on their heels and walked away. Aby looked down at her throbbing hand as she tried to hold back her own tears of hurt. “There’s no such thing as a curse, right?” she mumbled to herself.

Oh, what a naïve child she was at thirteen.

Author's Note: This is the new, revised version of Three Month's Curse. I was rereading the other chapters and realised how bleeh they were. So out comes version two. Also, I've just changed my username from pepperr. to la elle. So I'm not trying to steal my own work, because that's just ridiculous. Don't accuse me of plagiarising myself, because I will laugh at you. Nicely, of course. :P

Drop me a review if you can! I love getting feedback, especially criticism. I know this chapter is a bit blaah, but it's just the prologue. You'd be surprised how many times I've rewritten this chapter just to come up with this copy of the prologue. It was surprisingly hard to write.