The Shame of My Life

Once upon a time I was ten years old. I was popular enough in school and I had many friends. I made the acquaintance of a young girl who was the same age as me named Rachel. She lived very close to me, but we hadn't spoken much before. In truth, the only reason that I made friends with her was because I had fallen in love with her brother, who was very, very handsome and was thirteen. His name was Anthony. One time, she invited me to have dinner at her house that night. What good news! I dressed myself very well so I could look chic for Anthony. We ate with almost her entire family - uncles, grandmother, cousins, and aunts. I sat next to Anthony and we talked during all of dinner. Rachel's mother served us a lot of food, like mushrooms, salad, appetizers, tomatoes, and a roast. Everything was going well, et for dessert she served us a big cake, chocolate with a covering of nuts. I took an enormous piece and I ate it without problems. It was delicious! I took a second piece, not as big. After having eaten this cake, I started to feel a bit bad. I had a stomachache and it was becoming a bit difficult to breathe. But I didn't want to tell anyone that I didn't feel well. Eventually, it was too horrible to bear. We went to the hospital, where I learned that I had a nut allergies, almonds in particular. The doctor told me that it was extraordinary that I hadn't eaten almonds before. I stayed at the hospital overnight and was too embarassed to eat dinner at her house again. Also, I didn't have the courage to talk to Anthony. I was lucky, however; their family moved three months later and I never had to eat dinner there nor eat almonds again.