Darling, I Don't Love You!

Prologue

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Prologue

Ariah POV

I loved him more than anyone.

He was my first friend.

His name was Gale Hunter. As a kid, I was awkward and quiet. This got me picked on a lot. I met him when I was 6 years old. I was playing alone in the sandbox because Kiara, my biggest bully at the time, deemed it so. 

At the time, I never knew why she hated me, she just did.

"Why you all alone?"

I looked up to see an angelic form. Blonde hair, greyish blue eyes and a beautiful smile. 

"Are you an angel?" I had blurted out stupidly.

He looked confused, "What? No. Are you?" he asked rather rudely.

I blushed, "I'm not."

He gave me a weird look but asked again, "So why are you alone?"

"You shouldn't be here. Kiara and the others hate me. She'll hate you too if you don't leave."

"Who's Kiara?" he asked genuinely confused, "If a kid decides to hate me for playing with someone, why should I care? You shouldn't care either." After that, he plopped himself right next to me and helped me finish my pathetic excuse for a sandcastle.

It was that simple. That's how it all started. We played together every day during recess. I never understood why he didn't have friends at school at the time. When we entered the 2nd grade, the both of us were in the same class. I found out the reason why the other kids didn't like him. It was because he was poorer than the rest of the kids at this school. Most students here had affluent parents, the ones that didn't, were considered outcasts. The 'outcasts' were smarter amongst their peers from average families and made themselves their own group to protect themselves, but Gale's economic status was even low for them. They were already low on the social food chain and their parents made sure they understood that they needed at least someone under them in this school, and that unfortunate person was Gale.

Though I could hardly call him unfortunate, because they never once messed with Gale. No one did. Everyone would just ignore him or maybe even sneak glances at him. It was an unspoken rule that he was untouchable.

The area and the school were filled with wealthy socialites. Gale's family was only here because Gale was smart enough to enter and his mother was now a nanny to a really wealthy family. I was blissfully unaware that the family his mother served was mine. I never knew my new nanny, Heather, was Gale's mother until she showed up one day to deliver his lunch.

My parents always fought at home. All the yelling and the screaming got to me sometimes. They almost always threw things. The servants just ignored them and kept their mouths shut; no one outside the household should know the family was anything but perfect. Heather was amongst the few that could calm them down, though even that could take a while. Only Heather was my solace at home, my parents hardly paid attention.

As time went on, I found out from my peers that Kiara and her posse hated me because my family was one of the most affluent ones in the neighbourhood. Their parents' apparent jealousy rubbed off on her. 

The years went by and Gale and I were becoming closer and closer. I started noticing that girls stopped caring about his social status and started noticing his looks; he was becoming more and more handsome. They still wouldn't talk to him much more than a greeting. In the 4th grade, it even became some kind of a dare to go up and say hello to him once.

I mean I would be one of the few that could always greet him with a smile. Some even pinned me as brave for doing so. To me, he was always beautiful, though I could never really tell him that because I didn't want to ruin anything. 

And well...

I learned that he has a unique personality. He liked teasing people a lot, especially me. He's sarcastic and rude sometimes and would no doubt torment me mercilessly on such feelings. But he was still my best friend.

I could never tell him that he's my first love. I shivered at what horror may have awaited me. It was like setting oneself up for slaughter.

At the age of twelve, he started pushing me away. He'd make excuses to not see me. I thought things were tough at home because even happy Heather looked more tired than usual.

The last time I saw Gale, I could have sworn I saw his eyes flaming with hatred at me as we said goodbye.

That was the final time I saw him and his mother.

Heather quit the next day and his family moved.

I felt betrayed. No formal goodbye. I had never even got to confess my obsessive feelings for the boy to at least have some form of closure to my first love. After days of not leaving my room, until I was forced out, my feelings twisted into some form of weird dislike, or if we could go harder: hatred. 

How dare he all of a sudden get angry? And just leave? I didn't even get an explanation for either event. I at least had deserved that much. 

Screw you, Gale Hunter.

From that day forward, I decided to change myself. I became more outgoing, made friends who were powerful and helped me reach the peak of the food chain. I also became mortal enemies with Kiara, but I made sure she could never touch me again. I became popular at the end of middle school. Goodbye, my old self and Gale.

A month before I was supposed to go to the private high school that was connected to our middle school, some idiot got the wing burned down from overheating an oven. Don't ask how, because I have no clue.

It was the only private high school within miles. Some turned to home-schooling, but most parents wanted them to go to an actual school.

Now all of us so called rich  or academically gifted kids had to go to school farther away with commoners. It was the same school Gale was going to go.

For the first two years, Gale and I ignored each other. He started missing school more often for a while, but then he was back regularly, and his grades stayed on top.

He didn't talk much, make friends, or even make eye contact with anyone but he was hot, which made every girl go crazy.

During Sophomore year, he got into a fight once with a senior. The senior had to go to the hospital. After asking many witnesses, it was confirmed the senior was the one to start it, so he couldn't sue Gale.

But that fight made all the girls call him the school's official bad boy.

To me, he was just a loner. I was popular now, had friends and didn't need him. I didn't care about him anymore. Or at least that's what I kept telling myself.

Then I found out my first love was a male stripper at a nightclub...