Betty had left for her summer camp yesterday. Ever since we were kids she and her sister would leave for three weeks to some horse riding camp in Pennsylvania. Leaving me behind to do whatever it is lonely boys do in the summer. Ding dong ditch got boring after a while. That new kid at the corner was quiet and only liked Pokémon, but he got cooler a few years later and we'd go to the beach at night and see how many ghost crabs we could find.
        The year I turned 14 Gavin and I had learned to skateboard and we'd practice all August until the sun was long gone at the skate park and our moms called for the fifth time.
        Betty tried it once when she returned to Georgia. It wasn't her thing, but she'd always stay up late at the skatepark with us while we tried new tricks. Soon those tricks weren't just for fun. When I turned 15 I couldn't wait for her to come back from camp. She'd tell me about her new favorite horse and I'd try to impress her with a new flip I had learned from one of the college guys Gavin and I met the night she left.
        Last august I had practiced with Gavin almost everyday on asking her to be my girlfriend. He would laugh at me every time, chucking a hermit crab at me and telling me to stop being a wuss. She'd said yes that September and her dad called me "Son".
        Betty left again. I was thinking about her. How I was ready to take the next step in our relationship. We're 17 now. And I've been thinking a lot about being with her more than hand holding and sloppy young teenage kisses. That's when she pulled up next to me as I was walking home from Gavin's house. My skateboard was in my hand, my feet crunching with every step on the old cobblestone dead end street.
        "James," she said as she rolled down her window. "I haven't seen you in a while. What's up? We're heading to The Hole. Wanna come?"
        I looked to her blue Chevy car and noticed Trek was with her lighting a cigarette in the passenger seat. She waited for my answer. My thoughts about Betty getting me hot as I looked at her larger chest and full red lips. Her hair was darker than Betty's but just as long. And instead of that white cardigan I'd always find under my bed, this tall brunette with smokey  grey eyes had on ripped jeans and some band tea. And in that moment, nothing seemed sexier and my dick was in full agreement.
        This was the night I had made a mistake. I was holding a curly haired girls heart in my hand and as I took a step towards the car to the girl who looked at me with a dark hunger in her eyes... I dropped that heart on the dirty stones beside my feet.
        Then Betty came back like she always did. And when I'd come to my senses and remembered where I'd dropped her love just three weeks before, somebody else had taken it upon themselves to pick it up.
I was determined to get that heart back. And when I did, I'd never let it go again.

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