Ten Things I Hate About You

10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU

I HATE IT WHEN YOU CALL ME BY NAME. It subtracts from the "us" that we have established and lessens the importance I have in your heart. My name is what anybody ordinary calls me. And regardless of whatever comes your way, you will never be ordinary to me.

I HATE IT WHEN YOUR VOICE DOESN'T SOFTEN WHEN I CALL. Your tone has turned harsh, your words fail to project warmth. When I was your girl, you exploded joyously at the caller ID indicating my call. "Was" your girl ...sometimes I forget.

I HATE THAT OUR CALLS ARE PUNCTUATED W/ "BYE" INSTEAD OF "I LOVE YOU". Couples have the tendency to punctuate their calls with those three words, but I always knew it was different with us. Even after being said, silence would fill the air until one of us stupidly said "Hello?" We hardly ever just hung up after the words because of the craving that followed to hear them again.

I HATE THAT YOU FEEL YOU HAVE TO PUT UP A FRONT. When will you - or any guy, for that matter - learn that dropping a few tears doesn't make you less of a man? You may be male but you're human more than anything else. Exploiting true feelings may be a sensitive act, but keeping your emotions bottled up when you're in front of you friends should make you wonder; if you can't be real with them, then they can't be your friends.

I HATE THAT WE GREET WITH A KISS ON THE CHEEK. It takes a great load of will-power and self-restraint not to turn your cheek and kiss you where I have been doing so for three years. It makes things awkward, leaves us speechless, and feeling disturbed because I end up thinking that there's something missing. And I know that if I can feel the thick tension in the space between us, you're likely to feel it too.

I HATE WHAT WE'VE DONE TO MY "FOURTEEN". In the very beginning, it all looked so perfect. Fourteen was my birthdate number. Fourteen times two was Twenty-Eight, your birthdate number. 11-14-03 added up was Twenty-Eight. 11-14-03. Valentines Day and my Birthday were especially celebrated. November had your Birthday and our Anniversary, and April had my Birthday and Jayden's Birthday. And now, my Birthday is devalued and I hate knowing I'll have to endure the Fourteenth of every month on my own from now on. Whereas your Birthday stays intact, but I know for a fact the Fourteenth tugs at your heart strings like it does mine.

I HATE THE MEANING BEHIND OUR CELL NUMBERS. Your bright idea, you nut. To devise each of our cell phone numbers to