From what I am told, ever since I was a kid, I was always going places I wasn't supposed to. Whether it be sneaking into the storage room at the town's bakery to sneak a few cookies, or wandering by the river where only the boys are supposed to play because it's "too dangerous" for girls. I just pretended I didn't hear them and went on my merry way to go play with my best friend Jacob. I liked him because he was considered just as peculiar as I was, he always fancied playing with girls over playing with the boys. He didn't mind when the girls put ribbons in his hair or practiced makeup on his face, he even seemed to enjoy it in fact. This gave him the title of the town "ladies man" by the time he was six. Which by the way is a load of crap on account he was six years old. But then again, I was considered pretty strange as well. While Jacob loved the girly stuff, I hated it, I mean I love wearing dresses, and flower crowns look cute. But ribbons, makeup, and playing princesses was never quite my style. Actually, that was a lie, I liked playing princesses as long as I got to play the prince or the knight that saves the princess. That was always fun.
But that was when we were young, now I, Aubrey Carmine is 17 and nearly an adult. I still prefer to stay away from makeup, corsets, and ribbons, but now I realize why I preferred playing the knight or prince. It's because I'd rather kiss a princess than be one, of course, I can't tell anyone in town this. They already think I'm strange enough with my lack of enthusiasm to get married to a nice man and settle down. The last thing they need to know is that I would want to get married to a nice woman instead. Only one person really knows this about me, and that's Grandma Doe. She's not really my grandmother, but she might as well be. She lives in the woods on the outskirts of town in a cottage covered in vines and flowers with her best friend Ms. Clementine. In the back, there is a beautiful garden of assorted flowers which Ms. Clementine tends to. They both have always been there for me ever since I was little and saw my interest in playing the knight rather than the princess so they happily sat me down for a talk about love and gender.
They held hands while they taught me that gender does not matter as long as the love for each other is there. While back then it didn't mean much, as all I wanted was to keep playing, but now I realize that that talk freed me to be myself, that it taught me that my feelings aren't wrong at all. It helped me grow up to be a happier person. And that is what I am, happy no matter what, even though I know that the rest of the town will never accept me, I know that Grandma Doe and Ms. Clementine will and they love me regardless, and I stay hopeful that one day I will have love as they have. I can't wait for that day.
While I have learned to love myself and thrive, I sadly cannot say the same for Jacob. As of last year, there has been a wolf stalking around the forest that nobody has been able to hunt down. We found out about it because it took Jacob while he was taking a walk through the woods. The day was like any other until we heard him scream, his parents ran to where it came from but it was too late. The wolf had already killed and had feasted on him. There was nothing left to even bury. I was and still am heartbroken, he was my best friend and we were going to take this world by storm. But now it's just me. At least I still have Grandma and Ms. Clementine.
But regardless, I am going to honor Jacob's memory and follow the dream we were supposed to conquer together. We had hopefully planned to one day travel the world and bring home all of the types of baked goods we had tried. Then buy the town bakery and start selling our foreign desserts. But even though he is gone, I won't let our dream go to die. I care about him too much to let it.