February 14th was extremely frustrating for Amy. She hated being one of those negative people that told everyone who would listen that Valentine's day was just a stupid day to sell greeting cards. There was always someone who felt it necessary to damp on other's moods when it was just as easy to shut up. Those people were awful and Amy didn't want to be one of them, but she did hate Valentine's day.
Through her entire 27 years she never had a boyfriend to be with on Valentine's day. She was attractive. She was sweet. She was a good person. She had boyfriends all the time, but whenever February 14th came about she would find herself single or alone.
Amy's first Valentine's day was the closest she had to actually having a boyfriend on the one day you really wanted on. She was 15 and she heard that Owen Traeger had a crush on her and was probably going to ask her to the Valentine's dance after school. She asked her friend Jenny to find out where he would be so they could run into each other at random.
Jenny told Amy that he usually walked home along the baseball field in the back of the school. Amy left everything in her locker, figuring she could pick it up after she randomly bumped into Owen. She stood behind the equipment shed behind the dugouts and waited for Owen to come around the corner, but when he did he wasn't alone.
Owen was holding hands with Camille "Cami" Musgrave. It wasn't Amy that was going to be asked to the Valentine's dance, it was Cami. Amy's heart was broken, as 15 year old hearts usually are at such circumstances. She didn't even go back for her backpack but ran all the way home and spent that night crying in her bed, which would soon become a Valentine's day tradition for her.
When she was 18, Amy's boyfriend broke up with her on February 7th. She heard from his brother, that didn't really like him and had a crush on Amy, that he wanted to leave February 14th open in case any other girls were interested in hooking up. They were going to college in the Fall anyway and he figured he would make it easier this way.
When Amy was 21 she did have a boyfriend on Valentine's day, however they were in the throws of an intense break-up. It was the second worst Valentine's day she could remember, next to her first, because not only was she alone at the end of it but she was crying and angry and sad all mixed in one.
From the afternoon all the way until 11 at night they fought and spilled their built up anger for each other. His words cut her deep and made her question so many things about herself. He left and slammed the door so loud Amy's pictures fell off of the walls. The only other time she saw him was when she was ordered to small claims court for burning the belongings he left at her place. Thankfully that day was not anywhere near the middle of February.
Last year she had a boyfriend and they were still dating on Valentine's day. The problem? He was thousands of miles away.
She had met him when she went home for Thanksgiving to visit her parents. He was someone from high school that stayed in touch on Facebook and saw she was coming home. He asked her out for drinks and they got along really well. They spent the weekend together, outside of the actual holiday, and reconnected again in over Christmas. But on Valentine's day there wasn't enough of an excuse to fly across the country to see each other, and with him being on the East coast and her being on the West coast there was a bit of a drag in the time difference too.
They had a phone date but Amy didn't like the idea of staying stuck to her phone all night. The day was depressing enough and actually having a boyfriend on it but not being able to spend the day together almost made it worse than not having anyone. She went to bed early and the curse of Valentine's day doomed the relationship. By the time summer came around they had already broken up and she figured it was just better to stay single and not worry about finding a boyfriend.
When she got home from her day at work on Valentine's day 2019 there was a package waiting at her door. It was from her friend Jenny back home.
She opened it up and read the card:
I know you don't have anyone this year and all of your Valentine's Days have been pretty awful so I'm giving you the only thing you need.
xoxo
Jenny
Inside the box with the letter was a Hershey Chocolate package. It was in the shape of a man and along the top it read, My Hershey Boyfriend.
Amy had a short chuckle to herself, "that will go well with the bottle of wine I plan on drinking tonight."
She got to the bottle too.
Amy poured herself a very full glass of white zinfandel and kept the bottle close by, she nearly decided to skip the glass entirely and drink straight from the bottle but she didn't want to be quite that far gone yet.
"That'll be for when I'm in my 40's and single," she muttered sardonically.
Sappy romantic comedies and texts with Jenny filled the next couple of hours. She took a bute but ended up not feeling like eating so she laid on the couch and her eyes felt heavy from the near half bottle of wine she worked her way through. It wasn't nearly 7 pm but she felt tired and drifted off to sleep.
Amy was jolted awake after what seemed like a few minutes, but when she looked around she really had no idea how much time had passed. It was dark outside and fairly quiet. The TV was on the 'Are you still watching?' mode of Netflix. The lights seemed slightly dimmed as well, which was very odd.
After sitting up she reached for a piece of the chocolate Jenny had sent but it was gone. She didn't remember eating the entire thing but there weren't even any crumbs or specks of chocolate left.
"Did I lick every piece off of the table?"
Her head felt a little hazy and she may have been drunk, which didn't help when she was startled by a voice calling out from down the hall, "hello? Amy? Are you awake?"
"Who the hell are you?!" She didn't recognize the voice at all. It was a man and fairly deep sounding.
"Amy, Amy, it's okay. I'm coming out. There's no need to worry. Just calm down."
As the voice was talking it sounded as if it were coming down the hall. Amy's eyes grew wide and she leaped off of the couch and ran into the kitchen when she saw a life-sized version of the chocolate Hershey boyfriend standing in her hallway.
"What the fuck are you? What is going on?!" Amy screamed from behind the kitchen counter.