The first time I saw Derek Hill, I rolled my eyes in righteous indignation at his cliché bad boy pretense. He reeked of stupidity. Julia had said he was "quite a catch" and although he was good looking, 'quite a catch' was hardly the phrase I would have used. He was a tall, lean, dark guy with bushy eyebrows and a huge zit on his left cheek.

Jules had spoken about him for days on end and they had hung out at least twice so naturally, I'd been curious to meet him. But there was nothing interesting about him. Not one.

We were trekking home with a group of friends and he was walking side by side with my flawless friend, whispering incoherent words that had her giggling loud enough to wake the dead. I watched all this from my spot at the back, grateful there were too many people around for their embarrassing, obvious infatuation to be noticed.

Derek never gave me the time of day the whole way home. He didn't speak to me or acknowledge my presence. I wasn't even sure he saw me at all. But it didn't matter. Because I saw him. For what he truly was.

What sort of guy pursued another guy's girlfriend? A gigolo, that's what. From what I'd heard, he was bad news and I highly disapproved of everything he stood for. His stupid smile, his sterling bad boy reputation, his fancy walk, and the ridiculous brown bag he slung over his shoulders. I was also mad at my friend for being so gullible and attention-seeking. She and Sam had been on and off for a few years, and she was obviously just attracted by the newness Derek brought to the table. But he was the wrong choice, and she needed to understand that.

So I was pretty proud of myself when I had a sit down with Jules later that night and nipped the disease at the bud before it got out of hand. I reminded her of Sam's devotion to her and Derek's rumored fleeting attractions.

"You don't even know the guy," I remembered saying. "For all we know, he's got some poor girl knocked up and is too cowardly to own up to his responsibilities. Or he could just be an escaped convict who dabbles in serial killing for fun. Honey, don't be the girl who throws away years of a relatively happy relationship for a guy they just met."

That had the desired effect. Jules quit stringing him along and that was the end of the seductive Derek Hill. Or so I thought.

The second time I saw Derek Hill exactly four months later standing next to his bicycle in my school campus, engaged in what looked like a casual conversation with a girl called Thelma, the phrase 'a bright summer's day" danced around my mind like a freaking white stallion in the sky. It was not that anything physical had changed about him — he definitely looked the same. It was the way he looked at me — no, stared at me. 

At first I thought it was a look of contempt, but God it wasn't. It was a look of pure interest.

I knew then that I was a goner. Like Lois Lane when Clark Kent saved her for the first time. I thought that would terrify me but if anything, I welcomed it. Liked it even. And that terrified me. I turned around and headed in the opposite direction, but he yelled, "Kimani!" and I remembered thinking, shit.

As I watched him prance up to me in his blue shirt and white khakis, his heels not exactly touching the ground, I remembered reading somewhere that there was always some form of fascination behind every repulsion. Looking at Derek then, I knew that was the gospel truth.

"Kim is fine," I said when he came up to me, half surprised that he even knew my name.

He flashed me one of his stupid smiles. "I've never been a fan of nicknames."

"Then you must hate being called Dee."

"Oh, yeah," he'd said with a repulsed look on his face.

I smiled to myself and folded my arms. "What brings you to my school, Dee?"

He shook his head at me, his eyes sparkled with a gentle chiding and I realized they were a beautiful deep brown, two pools of melting chocolate.

"It's my school now," he'd said simply. "I just transferred."

I saw Derek a lot after that day, mostly through one too many accidentally-on-purpose meetings. We'd started talking and I realized I was mostly wrong about him. He was an ass, but a lovable one. He cared for those around him and was so incredibly sensitive. We actually had a lot of things in common. We shared the same affinity for history, had the same birthmarks on the exact same spot, and we never got along with our parents. We also really liked chocolate.

See, under all the layers of pride and flirtatiousness was a decent, smart guy. One who had begun to grow on me.

I often wondered what his life with Jules would've been like if I hadn't set them apart. I would usually tease him about his prior interest in her and he'd say, "You forget, I'm an idiot. I didn't know any better. I didn't know you."

I also wondered what his constant presence in school would mean for Jules, but she never seemed to mind. Jules and Sam's relationship wasn't what it was before. They were in a good place, and I could not be happier for them.

When Derek asked me out on a hot summer's afternoon while we were alone in the cafeteria, it didn't come as a surprise to me. I had practically encouraged it. Excitement and consternation filled my thoughts as I subtly played the hard-to-get game.

"You know I have a boyfriend," I'd told him. To be honest, 'boyfriend' wasn't exactly the right term. Alex and I didn't really have much of a relationship. We barely saw each other as we were both in different schools and even when we did, we barely spoke. None of us knew the other at all so as a result, we had the kind of relationship that was highly uncomfortable and made talking feel like a chore.

Derek simply replied with what I already knew. That there was something between us. That we both felt it. Still, I remembered thinking it was wrong. The universe was playing some kind of sick joke. Somehow, somewhere, I had swapped places with Julia. I was the girl being pursued by a beautiful gigolo while already involved with another. Karma had come to bite me in the ass.

If I broke up with Alex and dated Derek, wouldn't that make me the world's biggest hypocrite? Turned out it did because a few days later, under the Moringa tree outside our school, I said yes. And that was the first time I kissed Derek Hill. A nervous, sweet kiss that moved my seventeen year old soul.

News that Derek and I were an item spread like wildfire, and was met with more disapproval than appraisal. But I didn't care. I loved Derek. And he loved me. We were happy. As happy as any high-school sweethearts could be. I'd never had so much fun and excitement in all my life.

But nothing ever lasts.

Jules and I got into a huge fight over something I couldn't recall, and she told Derek what I really thought of him the first time he showed up. How I was the cause of their separation. I'd never forget the crack in Derek's voice when he called me soon after, asking me to confirm or deny the allegations. Everything went to hell after that.

I could not believe how insensitive I was about everything. How could I have thought Jules would be OK with me dating Derek after I had poisoned her against him? Granted, I hadn't done what I did out of malice. On the contrary, I was protecting my friend. But I could see clearly how that made me look. And Derek, he would never be with someone who thought so low of him.

The last time I saw Derek Hill, his eyes were moist and distant. There was love there for me, but love I could tell he no longer wanted to feel. He said he needed time. I told him to take all the time he needed. I wanted him to be okay, and I understood his reluctance to come back to me. I had broken his trust — albeit before I actually got to know him, but I knew he needed to feel what he did in order to fully get past it. I would give him space even if I hated the very idea of it.

That was a year and six months ago. 

A/n: What a sad, sad thing. Let's show Kim our love by voting for her.