I’m at my house on a Friday night, just playing a casual game of Monopoly with my best friend, Dana. Ha, casual! Anyway, we’re sitting on the floor, playing the game, and so far, no one is winning. I never thought I’d say this about Monopoly, but it’s actually gotten kind of boring.
You stand up and walk to the kitchen.
“Hey!” Dana calls out to me, “Sam! Come back!”
“I’m thirsty!” I whine in response.
“Oh,” I jump when I see that Dana is right behind me, “you’re thirsty?” he asks with a mischievous grin.
I blush, “That’s not what I meant.”
He smirks and shrugs, “Okay, whatever you say,” and walks back out the kitchen.
Get a glass from the cabinet and fill with water from the tap. I walk back out to the living room to see Dana nervously fidgeting with the hem of his tee shirt. I set my glass down on the table and sit back down on the floor. “Everything alright, Dana?”
He keeps his eyes down and a light blush spreads across his cheeks. “Will you go to Homecoming with me?”
I can’t even respond.
He looks up at me for a split second, hurt, “I mean, it’s okay if you don’t want to…”
“I’ll go with you.”
He smiles.
We sit in the stands, cheering for our football team at the Homecoming game. Out football team is pretty bad, but it doesn’t really matter. No one actually cares if we win or lose, it’s just fun to be there and participate in all the excitement. I turn to look at Dana as he’s screaming for our quarterback, and smile to myself.
“What?” He asks me with a smile.
I just shake my head, “Don’t worry about it.”
He grins and kisses me on the forehead, making my entire face burn a deep red.
And in that crucial moment of game play when the stands are silent, because everyone is on the edge of their seats, not wanting to miss a thing, our quarterback fumbles the pass and we lose. And yet, no one really seems all that disappointed. No, because in the scope of things, it doesn’t really matter.
Not much later, I meet up with Dana at the dance.
“You look beautiful,” he whispers in my ear.
“Thank you,” I murmur, blushing. “You look pretty sharp yourself.”
He chuckles and offers his arm, leading me to the dance floor. The music plays, people dance around us, but all I notice is his beaming smile, the kind of smile any girl would wish for.
It’s funny because things are never like the movies. I always imagined falling in love with Dana, because he’s my best friend, but instead, I think that being just a friend is all I’ll really ever need from him.
