I'm so awesome I turn boyfriends into stone

I was bored, the internet wasn't working, and there was a blank WordPad document on my netbook.


I was taking a walk with my boyfriend when it happened.



I know, taking a walk with your boyfriend? It's the epitome of "cheesy chick flick". But that's the thing with me and Hugh. We are the epitome of "cheesy chick flick". Last Christmas, he walked all the way to my house in a mini-blizzard to give me a beautiful necklace. Well, okay, I'm basically right across the street from him, but it's the thought that counts. And the Valentine's before that, he came to school carrying a gigantic teddy bear--the kind that's five feet tall and they sell at Dollar General for twenty bucks--and a box of Russel Stover chocolates. And my birthday before that (January 5, if you're taking notes), he walked into the school cafeteria carrying a rather large brown box that I would later find out contained an irresistibly cute beagle puppy.


"You know, you look beautiful tonight," Hugh said, interrupting my memories of past Christmases, Valentines, and birthdays. "Especially under the moonlight."


I rest my case. If this night got any cheesier, we'd be flying around on cheese hoverboards while eating parmesan straight from the container.


"Hugh, cut it out." I giggled, taking his hand. "Do you even know what street we're on?"


"Of course I do..." Hugh trailed off.


I laughed, pulling out my GPS-enabled phone. "Alright, I'll take that as a cue to get out the map." I scrolled through the list of destinations. "Hey, so summer's almost over and I think we should talk about how we're going to see each other if we're taking completely different classes senior year--ouch, Hugh, stop squeezing my hand."


He didn't reply.


I groaned, my eyes still glued to the map (I was never good with directions), "Seriously, Hugh, stop goofing arou--OW! Hugh!" Finally, I lifted my eyes from the phone and shot him a death glare.


But he still didn't say anything. In fact, it seemed as if his lips were cemented together so that he couldn't speak, period. And his eyes...they weren't bright and alive like I always knew, but dead and gray and...


Suddenly, the moon came out from behind the cloud it was previously cowering under and I finally got a glimpse of reality.


I screamed.


What else was I supposed to do? I was a seventeen-year-old girl, one who shrieked when confronted with a spider in the bathtub, and here I was in the eerie darkness at nine forty-five at night looking at the boyfriend I'd had for three years.


Who had just turned to stone.