Angel In Progress

3. Of Childhood Enemies and Breakups

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To give you an idea of the traumatising history Ethan Draven Walsh and I shared, I'll have to go all the way back to my best friend Priyanka Kapur's fourth birthday party where I first met him.

Priyanka's Mom, Mrs. Kapur, had planned an extravagant party for her four year old daughter and her friends - it was princess themed and took place in their backyard. Four year old me had been beyond euphoric to dress up in a pretty pink dress and to wear a tiara, and my twin brother Caleb had dressed up as a knight, just like every other four year old boy at that party. Mom had actually curled my brown hair to make me look all pretty and princess-like, and for once I had been super proud of my appearance.

When I had walked into the party, I was thrilled to see that all of the other kids there looked amazing in their princess and knight costumes, especially Priyanka, who had dressed up as Cinderella (Blonde wig and all. She regrets it immensely now). So there I was, at my best friend's birthday party, eating chocolate ice cream when a boy I didn't recognise came over to me. He had ruffled dark brown hair and annoyingly pretty green eyes, but that wasn't what had caught my attention. He wasn't dressed up as anything for the costume party, he was casually strolling around in just a normal shirt and jeans.

Four year old me was appalled. How did this kid have the guts to not dress up? And the pretty eyed boy glanced at me casually, eating his ice cream like it was the most normal thing in the world, before he said the following sentence that basically crushed my entire heart- "You look really stupid."

To begin with, my self esteem crumbled and I was beyond offended. How dare he say I looked stupid? Unfortunately, what happened after that involved the action of me throwing my ice cream right at his pretty little face, and then we got yelled at by our respective parents.

So yes, our relationship hadn't started off very well. Ethan and his family had moved into the house next to Priyanka's that year, which meant that I would be seeing a lot of him, and he would be starting kindergarten with us. And let's just say the strong hatred we had for each other in our little hearts would carry on well into elementary and middle school.

Ethan had always been that mischievous kid in class who was adored by everybody, who got away with trouble because even the teachers loved him. Clearly, I was the only one who despised him, because I was convinced that he was the biggest asshole to walk this earth. The passion he had all throughout elementary school and middle school to annoy me was astounding. It was almost like a war - if Ethan and I were ever in the same room, rapid banter or the destruction of public property was bound to occur. Priyanka, who was my friend as well as Ethan's, was always stuck in the middle. Everyone was weary of the hatred we had for each other, and made sure to stay away whenever Ethan and I got into a heated argument (which was basically all the time).

But thankfully, high school came around. And suddenly, we had very different schedules so we barely saw each other. Even when I went over to Priyanka's house, Ethan was never home. Like I mentioned before, he was the definition of popular, charismatic, social, etc. We stopped obsessively annoying each other (thank goodness) and Priyanka was relieved that I stopped bitching about how much I loathed Ethan. All hate wasn't lost though - he always smirked or passed a snarky comment if he saw me in the hallway, and I never missed a chance to roll my eyes at him. There was always something about Ethan that really got under my skin, but I never understood what it was.

My twin brother, though, started hanging out with Ethan a lot in high school. Caleb (who was as popular as Ethan had the same social circles, and I fail to understand why) always thought it was plain ridiculous and funny that Ethan and I hated each other, and I felt backstabbed when my own twin brother decided to go and become Ethan's friend in high school. Caleb and I had extremely different social circles at school, which thankfully kept me as far away from Ethan as I could manage to get. But still. There's the sibling code and Caleb blatantly broke it.