Aimee and the Heartthrob by Ophelia London

song, “Raspberry Beret.” “Here’s an idea, why don’t you tell me a tragic, brokenhearted story?” He laughed. “Be my inspiration again.”
    Aimee’s mouth went dry, then tasted sour. “No thanks, I have too much experience with that.”
    Miles stopped playing. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean about me.”
    She laughed and threw a handful of grass at him. “I didn’t mean about you either, Miles. Try to keep that ego in check.”
    “Sorry.” He glanced down and smiled. “But…you do have other experiences? A bad breakup?”
    She so didn’t want to talk about it, but she’d opened this can of worms. “My boyfriend last year. He was the first guy I really, really liked—oh, I mean, except…” She could only nod at Miles, too mortified to say the words. But he nodded in return and let her go on. “He was an exchange student.”
    “From where?”
    “France.”
    “Figures. The guy was a literal Romeo, eh?”
    “Romeo was from Italy. Don’t your private tutors make you read Shakespeare?”
    Miles chuckled. “Damn, girl.”
    “Anyway. I was really happy with him.” ( And happy to finally be over you , she could’ve added.) “He was sweet and funny and really cute—”
    “About the breakup,” Miles interrupted.
    Aimee pushed her hair back. “Yeah, well, Jean-Luc had to leave Pali High at the end of the semester, in December, but he wanted to come back. He swore he’d try, he promised me and he said he loved me and…” She paused to control her breathing. “I believed him, but he didn’t come back.”
    “That could’ve been for a lot of reasons. Maybe he didn’t have a choice.”
    “Then why did he promise me? I know how the world works, and when you’re fifteen you can’t just announce to your parents you’re moving to another country. But I believed him and I was hopeful…and so brainless to believe him.”
    “Aimee, that’s not really fair to the guy.”
    “I’m not finished with the story. Anyway, a few days before we went back to school after Christmas break, Becky called me and was all ‘Have you checked Insta?’ When I did, it had totally exploded with pix of him and another girl. It was his girlfriend in Paris. They weren’t even broken up when we were together. Freaking cheater, and he’d been lying to me the whole time.”
    “Wanker.”
    “Yeah, he was. And I’d been so excited ’cause someone I liked finally liked me back. Anyway, it taught me a lot about myself, that I’m insecure.”
    He snorted under his breath. “No, you’re not.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “I don’t know how you can be when you’re so beautiful.”
    Aimee’s breath froze in her chest, and she didn’t know what to say. Miles thought she was beautiful.
    He went back to strumming his guitar, tunelessly, no more Prince. “I mean, what do you have to be insecure about?”
    “How about everything? How about making mistakes and falling for the wrong guys and trusting when my gut told me I shouldn’t? That has nothing to do with the way I look.”
    “Okay, okay. I get what you’re saying. What else did you learn about yourself?”
    She inhaled then pushed out a deep breath. “I’m not going to fall for the wrong guy again. If there’re warning signs or red flags, that’s it, peace out. Just because love isn’t always supposed to last forever doesn’t mean I should let myself get hurt on purpose. It was too hard and I was too sad for too long, and I just never want to have my heart broken like that again.”
    “How do you know if you’re falling for the wrong guy?”
    “Well, for starters, I want him to actually live in the same city as me, let alone the same country.” She looked up when Miles stopped playing. “What?”
    “Nothing. It’s just… I guess I can’t blame you for wanting that. Especially after that guy lied and hurt you and moved ten thousand miles away.”
    “Yeah. So, do you think that’s enough fodder for a sad song?”
    “Definitely. But I’ll