Kenny Wilhelm was everything to me. I still remember the first time I met him, I remember his first words to me. "Are you using that crayon?" He asked me as I sat at the art table with all my friends. He just happened to need the exact crayon that I was using to color in my picture. I even remember that the color was a raspberry red. I remembered what he was wearing, and where he was standing in the sixth grade art room. Why do I remember? I have no idea, honestly. He just stuck with me like that. I remembered how our relationship developed over the years, and I remembered how his looks changed. He went from a slim tiny little boy to a stocky chubby boy with brown sandy hair. He had freckles splattered over his face and limbs, and his hair was almost wavy enough to have a curl. I remembered when we first touched. It wasn't a brush of the hand, or a peck on the cheek like most couples started out. I slapped Kenny Wilhelm across the face. He tried to steal that raspberry crayon from me that day when I wouldn't give it to him. It was a good slap, too. He had a red mark on the left side of his cheek for the rest of the day. In ninth grade, Kenny was my everything. He was my best friend, my worst enemy, my lover, my brother, and my pet dog all at once. I hated him as much as I loved him, which was a lot. I was head over heels in love with Kenny, even though he drove me up the wall. He was clueless, he was careless, and he lacked the common sense that I had so much of. He wasn't much of a kisser, and he wasn't gentle in any way shape or form. In a messed up way, we were perfect for each other. Until that day. I remembered the day he changed as well as I remember the day I first met him.

"Charlotte Peters?" The principal called me into his office. I was wearing my light blue shirt that I knew looked pretty on me, and a pair of tight jeans. I had on some jeweled shoes and my hair looked nicer than usual. It was the usual outfit for the day after I broke up with Kenny.

"Yeah?" I asked, sitting down in the chair across from our principal, who was a short bald man with large glasses.

"Do you know Kenny Wilhelm?" He asked me.

"Of course I know him," I said, rolling my eyes. I wasn't normally that rude or outspoken, but on a day after I broke up with Kenny, I usually had more of an attitude.

"How well do you know him?" He asked me.

"He's my ex boyfriend," I explained.

"Is there any special reason you broke up with him?" He asked me.

"He was just being a jerk, more than usual," I mumbled.

"Was he doing any drugs?" He asked sharply. I gaped at him.

"Of course not, I don't think Kenny would do drugs," I said, half lying. I could see him doing drugs, he tended to give into peer pressure. But I didn't think he could ever hide something like that from me. He wasn't a very good liar.

"Do you know Jude Wilhelm?" He asked me.

"Yeah, he's Kenny's brother," I said. Jude was about two years older than us. He was a senior this year while we were still sophomores. He was the complete opposite of Kenny in every way. He was quiet and introverted, and very intelligent. He was expected to get into an ivy league school without much trouble. He had to be the best-looking guy in the school, too. Girls were constantly staring at him and checking him out. He was gorgeous. I think the whole mysterious and brooding artist thing made him more attractive too. He was usually in the art room or hanging out outside in between classes with a small group of friends. Sometimes he would drive me and Kenny places, and he would barely say a word. He and Kenny weren't very close just because they were so different. Kenny was always giving him a hard time, and Jude would put up with it and take it with a small smile underneath his long dark brown hair.

"Would he do drugs?" He asked me.

"I don't think anyone in the Wilhelm family would do drugs," I said dryly. They were a good family; the parents had high expectations for both their sons. Especially ever since I told Kenny that I wanted to marry someone rich. Ever since that day in seventh grade, he's been taking courses and looking at colleges for doctorate degrees. Apparently that's what his parents said would make him the most money.

"Are you sure?" He asked, leaning closer. I shrunk back in my chair.

"Yes, I'm sure. Jude or Kenny would not do drugs," I said.

"Thank you, that's all," He said and I left. Almost immediately after leaving the office that day I heard the rumors floating around school. That Jude was caught hiding pot in Kenny's room. He was being sent away to a juvenile detention center and he was to stay there for the rest of the school year and the summer. I was shocked. So was Kenny. He just sat there during classes with a glazed look in his eyes, and I could tell it wasn't from any pot. From that day on, he was changed. His grades went from all Bs' to all As' and our senior year of high school he was excepted into Harvard to become a doctor. He was still the same reckless boy in some sense, but you could see something changed in his eyes. His mind seemed like it was somewhere else all the time. Kenny was slowly becoming more compatible with me, and we got closer and closer. He actually attempted to listen to my feelings and understand them, and he went shopping with me once or twice. My modeling career was slowly taking off, and he was more supportive than usual, which surprised me. He took me out to dinner occasionally, still spitting straw wrappers at people and putting sugar packets in his water. But at least we were out to dinner. He slow danced with me at prom, which shocked me out of my mind. He was thinking more about me and how I felt. I remember when Jude would visit from his "summer camp" as his parents called it. He and Kenny were closer than ever. So much that I barely saw Kenny when Jude was home. When I did, Jude would always say the same thing.

"Still putting up with this kid?" He would say in his quiet low voice.

"Do I have a choice?" I would answer, and he would roll his eyes with a smile.

"Ken, if you don't marry her, I'm going to kill myself," I heard Jude say to Kenny once. I planned on marrying Kenny. He was good enough for me. I really had no other plans or ambitions besides becoming a model and marrying Kenny. That future was fine with me. But then something we could never predict happened. I fell out of love with Kenny. I saw my friends with their boyfriends and saw how they held hands and how the girls would close their eyes as the boy touched her neck, and I longed for something like that. I started to notice that kissing Kenny wasn't exciting. I noticed that Kenny treated me like a friend more than a girlfriend. Other boys bought their girlfriends flowers and took them out to dinner, or bought them jewelry, but I got video games and CDs. The only gift that I liked that Kenny gave me was leather bracelet that I never take off, to this day. That was it, after six years of dating, the only present that I actually appreciated. I started to notice that when we said I love you it was more out of habit than out of meaning. He had never talked to me about having sex, even though I was ready for it. He was always talking about me like I was going to be his forever, which started to annoy me.

"So what are you doing for homecoming?" I remembered asking him a week before our last homecoming. He looked at me and laughed.

"I'm going with you, duh," He said, and he and he smirked some more. I crossed my arms.

"Well how was I supposed to know that if you never asked me?" I said indignantly.

"I was supposed to ask you? You're my girlfriend, that's unnecessary!" He exclaimed, still laughing. I scowled at him.

"It's necessary to me," I grumbled. "What are you wearing? I need to match my dress to you and I also need to make sure the corsage looks good with it too," I said, trying to get my mind off of the fact that Kenny just assumed he was taking me.

"Why don't you go to the mall and pick up a corsage so that you know it matches? And If you love me, you'll pick me up a tie that goes with your dress," He said as he gave me puppy eyes.

"Kenny, I really don't care that much if it matches, you can get me one," I said.

"But you know I'll get the wrong one," He said pointedly. "Wouldn't it be easier if you just got one that you liked?" He asked.

"It's not special then," I said, and I got up and walked away. The thing that really bothered me was that he forgot to ask me to homecoming. Freshman year of high school, we'd been going out for two years already. Even though we were dating, he still taped a sign to the window on the door to the chem. lab where I had a study hall that asked me to homecoming. Why couldn't he do something like that again? I thought it was adorable; I'm a sucker for that romantic crap. Now the thought of Kenny doing something romantic was unheard of. He thought that I was his forever, and that gave him permission to slack in his responsibilities to impress me. If he wanted me forever, then he should treat me like I could get away from him at any second. He thought that I was safe with him, that I would be happy with the way things were. I thought I would be too, until I realized that our relationship was stretched over time, not over feelings, emotions or passion. So the day after prom, I dumped Kenny Wilhelm.