I am an avid book reader, and a connoisseur of cheesy movies, preferably those in the animated or Disney realm. I have done my research. I have recognized the patterns. And after careful speculation and analysis, I have realized why I find them so interesting. They can be horribly written or acted, but I would go back for one thing.

I am a sucker for a good love story.

I'm not ashamed of it. A love story, to me, is the best kind of tale, for it weaves two people together under the strange circumstances their creators craft. It make characters in a novel and behind a screen appear as real beings with real feelings, and it is a task and a half to not be sucked into it? Why?

We all want a love story. We want a love story people will read and watch and tell their children, so the next generations believe in it. However, I had also uncovered something that unnerved me in my many years of swooning over imaginary men.

The most loved stories are the ones ... where the bad boy wins.

Now who is "The Bad Boy?" Oh he's something alright. Moody. Six pack. Dark smile. Maybe a motorcycle or a tattoo. Treats women like crap until he meets the sweet, innocent, drop dead gorgeous, virgin girl who won't open her legs for him, forcing him to actually talk to her, and realize his true feelings, and ... ugh, I'm rambling. I sound like a broken record because that is what this character is. To be honest, I think the bad boy is the most overused prop piece, but, we still cannot get enough of him.

Because, let's face it, we wanna be that girl that boy falls head over heels in love with. Even though he will play with our hearts, break them in the middle of a rainstorm only to apologize with flowers and a kiss, we want that jagged, raw, passion that nothing else but a bad boy can bring. We want him to start fist fights over us. We want him to sweep us off our feet, not care about our parents, put us in danger, get into fights with us only to rely on his model looks to get him out of our bad side. Yeah, we want a relationship tip toeing around broken glass.

Even though I have said "we" these past couple lines, I actually don't mean me. Like I said, I did my research. In a cheesy rom com or new adult book, I would be the perfect heroine for that bad boy looming in the corner; a little freshman girl who loves reading only to fall for the junior/senior bad boy on campus. Wow. Story book right there. I would get my heart broken by him a thousand times only to receive an I'm sorry and a huge make out. He would take me away from my friends because the story is about us in the end.

I would be nothing without him. Nothing. I wouldn't be able to function. You have to be kidding me, right? I don't really like the whole dependence thing. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Instead, I believe in one very true fact that the movies and books get wrong.

Nice guys finish last in the battle, but they win in the war.Bad boys do not last forever because if they are smart, they understand that love is so much simpler and harder than they know. They mature and realize that they want it more than a reputation.

I do not desire getting my heart stomped on and only having a six pack to apologize to me. I do not want to be known as the king of campus' girlfriend. I want to be (insert future boyfriend's name here)'s girlfriend and him to also be known as my boyfriend.

I'm also too lazy to spend the time taming someone. I don't want to dance around a boy, make him want me, then have my heart broken. Too much work. Too much pain. Yes, I do want passion. I want someone to lean on and someone to lean on me.

I want saying "I love you" to mean something more than drama between me and a guy that's never had a girl for more than a night. I want something simple but meaningful with a man that may not be the god of all models, but with someone I connect with.

In the end, I just want to be treated well and not be broken. It can be a nice guy. It can be a reformed bad boy learning to be nice. But real love cannot be found with a boy with a label before his name. For me, real love is found with a man; someone who has that passion but puts it toward something more than himself.

I require no drama. I just require a heart to fill and someone else's I may fill as well. There is no need to tame someone. There is no need for the labels and stereotypes.

In the end, if someone loves you, accepts you and let's you be you, what else is there. I want to find that with someone other than that fictional character.