Love and Broken Hearts

It was the biggest mistake of the year.

Ben.
6th grade.
It was February, and I decided to have a party. Of course, we played Truth or Dare, it was a party game. Someone dared my friend Tyler to kiss me (those bastards). As he leaned in and I turned my head so that he would kiss my cheek, I noticed Ben looked away.
The next day, Allie, Brandi and I got on the internet to see who was on MSN Messenger. Ben was on, and right away he asked me what to do when you liked 2 people. I told him to pick the person who he liked the most and tell them.
We all sat around on the kitchen floor after we signed off, wondering and discussing who this second person could be (we all knew the first person was Amber). I thought it was Brandi, Brandi thought it was Allie, and Allie thought it was me.
Later that very same day, Brandi logged on and told me that I was the one Ben liked. I said I didn't believe her, but Ben showed me a poem about lovers. I think I gagged, and ran outside to the comfort of my swing so that I could listen to music and think about what had just happened.
Later that night, Ben told me that he liked me. I said nothing. We were still friends, but it was akward when he called me beautiful. He wrote tons of poems about me, and I felt so bad for him. I kind of liked him, but I liked the funny, witty Internet Ben, not the akward, not-so-good-looking, non-Internet Ben. He continued to call me beautiful and write poems about me. He was obsessed, and it really scared/disgusted me.
He got to the point where he was beating himself up about me not liking him, so I asked him out. Actually, I had Amber ask him out for me. Obviously, he said yes. Then he logged off the Internet. For a half hour. I realized what a mistake I had made, so when he logged back on, I broke up with him, saying "This won't work. We're better off as friends." He whined, his words being "I should've known." I felt bad, but I really didn't like him. I told him off, right then and there.
But that didn't phase him, he continued to like me, and he still does to this very day.
So I learned that friends should stay that way.
At least some of them...