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Derrick

When she was eight and I sixteen, she had a tremendous crush on me It was easy to see in the way she’d follow hborhood, or the way she’d always show up every tio shoot hoops outside in the basketball net I had set up above e door

Everyone in the neighborhood seeht it was cute I didn’t irlfriends were around, which she seeht have put some of them off It was so persistent

I’an, I don’t even knohen she and her fahborhood, but I knew they were new here It seems like one day she was just there At first, I paid her noaround with kids her age, but she was so silent in her approach that it was hard to ad

I did notice after a while that she seemed to have a keen sense of where I’d be and when, until it became more and more obvious that she had a constant watch on my house, which wasn’t that easy from her home which was down the street and around the corner, whichon the sideatching my front door and driveway for my appearance

I didn’t discourage nor encourage her little girl crush I didn’t go out of uess it wasn’t that is that happen in life I did resent her just a little bit, though when irlfriend

So I did not find in the least bit funny in this day and age with grown-ass s progressed, I foundto bite back harsh retorts whenever I’d catch her shadowing me

As ht it up to her in frustration, she was just a lonely little girl, and there was no har unease and soer

It helped that she never really said anything much to me, and in all honesty never really invaded my space It’s just that she was always there, on the outskirts of ht’ve been borderline creepy if she wasn’t so adorable After a while, I came to see the whole situation the way mom had explained it, just a harmless little crush, and who doesn’t have those?

Funnily enough, it was only after I accepted things that way that she opened up She got closer and closer and so hoops by myself, and it rolled towards the street

So far, though, her conversation consisted of hi and bye Anythingback towards her house I’d watch her and laugh, shaking e the fee

As time went on, she lost some of that ti me in an odd ith her head tilted to the side and a faraway look on her face, a look that seemed way beyond her years I never asked her what she was thinking, choosing not to know

Then one day, she got bold enough to coht out and tell me how she felt Her cute little face was red as a-sunburn that pert little nose of hers wrinkled in theto marry you one day”

I stopped with the ball in my hand, ready to shoot and looked down at her as she sat on the edge of one out of s, she was just a kid after all, and though she was still underfoot, I wouldn’t say she was intrusive For whatever reason that day, I decided to play along with her

“Okay, when you grow up, I’ll marry you” When she smiled, those di beauty that I was sure would one day break many a heart

“Really? When? How old do I have to be to be a grown-up?” See, that’s another thing about Jenny, she’s about thethat question in this day and age, the days of computers and social media where kids would be lucky to escape with their innocence intact after one foray through Facebook; it’s one of the reasons I never minded her too much