Devils Roses 01 - Cursed

he said the words, but I stopped breathing.
    He bent to kiss my cheek. He lingered at the side of my face. “I do love you, Aimee. I have loved you since we were five and you saved all the worms on the sidewalk when it rained in kindergarten. I’ll never forget you putting them into a plastic pail. Hundreds of creepy slithering worms put in a pail, under the back deck at your house. You stayed with those dirty bastards until it stopped raining and then you released them.”
    I laughed into his chest as he continued, “I loved you in grade seven, when that girl Robin got picked on by the mean girls. You found the maxi pad colored with red felt stuck on her bag, and before anyone came around the corner, you grabbed it and stuck it to your bag. You think no one saw, but I did.” I remembered that and the merciless torture I got for it.
    My head was spinning but he continued, “I loved you in grade ten when Grace Mellotti's dog got hit by that car and you carried him three miles to the vet's office. You saved his life, even though Grace had made your life hell.”
    He kissed the other side of my face. “I loved you last summer so much, but when your mom got killed, I couldn’t bring myself to ask you out. So I went to your sister and asked her about you. She told me you were madly in love with that Blake kid and I thought I had missed the boat. I panicked while asking your sister about you and accidentally acted like I wanted to ask her out.” His voice was filled with regret. “I am so sorry I never manned up and just asked you out.”
    I laughed nervously. “You make me sound like a saint. I have done bad things in my life, FYI.” My head was swimming in the emotions.
    He raised his eyebrows in doubt.
    I shrugged. “Okay, well not bad, but stuff. I’ve lost library books and let my sister take the blame. I wanted to try to peroxide my doll's hair lighter than it is when I was in eighth grade, but I was nervous about doing it. She was my fav. I thought the bleach might ruin her hair, but I wanted it to match mine. So one night I filled a spray bottle with water and peroxide and I sprayed Alise’s hair. In the morning, her hair was a tacky color of copper brown and all streaky. When my mom yelled at her for trying to die her hair, I never fessed up that it was me. It cost my mom a fortune to fix it and Alise got so confused, she tells the story now like it was her idea.” I still felt a small bit of shame for that one.
    Shane laughed. “Your sister was an evil brat, so it isn’t hard to imagine her doing bad things like that. Surely your mom knew she was evil.”
    “ Yeah, my mom knew. Her sister is exactly the same.” I looked him deeply in the eyes. “Shane I am so lucky to be with you.” I meant it.
    He smiled. “Ditto.” We hugged and danced slowly, enjoying each other. I loved the fact that he was my history. He knew everything about me and remembered the things that made me proud of myself.
    We danced for a few minutes before he stopped again and looked at me very seriously this time. “Where is that Aleks guy? Have you seen him?”
    I nodded, trying desperately to keep my emotions under check and not reveal anything in my looks. “I’ve seen him a few times, but he’s not the bad guy. I know you want him to be, but he’s really not. I saw the guy that day—he had a different face than Aleks. Besides, Aleks is leaving town, tonight I think.”
    "Good." he nodded processing the information. “Speaking of bad guys. I am joining the police force. I write the test in the city in two weeks.” He said it and left it out there for me to think about or comment on.
    I smiled at him, proud of him for making a choice that would better himself. Even more so, I was desperately grateful we could stop talking about Aleks. “Nice, good for you. That’s a great fit for you, I think.”
    He watched my reaction, letting a smile grow on his face.
    We had covered a lot of relationship areas in one night. It was a bit intense for my first dance, first boyfriend, and first love.
    “ Will you wait for me?” he raised his eyebrows and smirked.
    “ Yes of course. It's only six months of training, isn’t it?”
    “ Yeah, it isn’t exactly a huge wait. What if I end up being a city cop?”
    I shrugged. “Cross that bridge when we get there?”
    "Okay. It’s a long ways away. I’m not even guaranteed to get past all of the tests. They’re pretty intense.” He kissed my hand. “I just want us to be