• "So what did you do last night?” she asked.

    “I don’t know, the usual I guess,” he replied.

    “Well I went on a date with Freddy! He is so cool…” she exclaimed.

    “That’s nice, what did you do?”

    “Well, for starters he picked me up at my house about seven o’ clock,” she said warming to the subject. “Then he took me to that nice little restaurant down town called Le Chat Nettoie. You know, it’s that new French place by the shoe store. Anyway,” she continued waving her hand absently, “we ate there and he paid. Then we went to the open lot by the lake and parked. Can you believe it? We went parking!” she said with a bit too much enthusiasm.

    “No… that’s great, what did you do next?” he asked looking down.

    “Next he leaned over and whispered in my ear, ‘Paige, you’re the most beautiful girl ever,’. Isn’t that exciting?”

    “Yeah great, good for you,” he said, his shoulders drooping low.

    “Ryan, why don’t you ever go out?” Paige asked innocently.

    “Umm, I’m gonna take a walk outside,” Ryan said and got up to leave.

    “Oh, well, mind if I come with you? I don’t like being alone,” Paige asked.

    Ryan looked down at his shoes and balled his hands into fists. “Paige, why do you do this to me?”

    Paige looked puzzled but responded, “I don’t know what you mean.”

    Ryan looked straight into Paige’s eyes and said, “If you haven’t figured it out after all these years… For God’s sake Paige, we’ve been friends since kindergarten and you haven’t felt anything for me?”

    Paige remained silent as she stared at Ryan. “That’s it, I can’t take it anymore. I’m out of here,” he said as he turned on his heel and went out the door.

    Paige sat down and put her head in her hands.