Member-only story
To All The Women I Have Hated
Danny was everyone’s crush in my 6th grade class, including mine and my two best girlfriends, Lily and Anna. He was skinny and pale, but he had long, wavy hair that fell over his right eye in a way that was just too cool for any 6th grade girl to handle. Also, he was older, okay? He was already 12! I didn’t care it was because he had to repeat 6th grade. So what he was lazy? He didn’t just wear Nike and Adidas, but designer brands my 11 year old brain had never heard off. Calvin Klein boxers, the band showing over his baggy Levi’s that fell just so over unlaced Timberland’s. A white Guess T-shirt under a black Helly Hansen ski jacket, a narrow gold chain around his neck. He was older. He was rich. He was cool. He was a boy who wore jewelry, okay?
We decided that since we all liked him, there would be no other way than to have him choose which one of us he liked best. It was some fucked up kids version of the Bachelor in our classroom, where the three of us giddily positioned ourselves on a desk in front of him, asking him to pick his new girlfriend. Everyone else was looking on, as we all struck our best pose, clumsily imitating what we thought models would do in this situation. I was wearing my nicest no-name jeans with a cartoon character shirt laying flat against non-existing boobs, and an unbuttoned denim shirt over it. Denim on denim was a thing, dear god. I had a deep side part with my…
