“Is Steven gonna be at the game?” I asked

“I dunno.” Emma said

“Even though we all know that you want him to be.” Alicia commented.

“Shut up.”

“Hey it’s true.”

We got to the game. “Help me look for a parking spot girls.” Emma’s mom told us.

When we found one and parked I quickly got out “Come on guys!”

“Ya, you don’t wanna miss one moment with your precious Steven.” Alicia smirked

“We’re just friends.” I said.

“Ya, but what you are and what you want to be are two different things.”

“Come on!” I pulled her arm to make her go faster. I was impatient in the ticket line and I kept looking around to see if I could see him.”

“Liz, why don’t you go to the bathroom?” Emma said.

“Why? Do I have to go pee?” I asked. She looked at me. “Oh, great,” I said. “Now I do.”

“Cool, go.” Emma shoved me into the bathroom.

When I came out, her and Alicia were there, smiling at me. “Lets go get seats.” Emma said.

“Umm… okay.”

They seemed to know where they were going and they pushed through the crowd to get to a certain place in the bleachers. Emma walked up first, then me, then Alicia. I saw where we were heading. To Steven.

He was sitting on the bleacher where there was only one seeat left. Under him was a row that about 4 people could sit in. Emma went into the row beneath him. So did I, but Alicia (finally deciding to be a supportive friend) pushed me up to sit by him. Our friend Roxy followed Alicia onto the row in front of us, so now, we couldn’t move down.

“Hey guys,” he said. “Didn’t know you’d be here.” He sounded like he meant it.

“Why are you sitting on Riverdale’s side?” I asked

“I dunno. Just picked a side.” He said. “How have you been doing?”

“Okay.” I answered. The buzzer rang to begin the game “How about you?”

“Good.”

We watched the game for about 15 minutes, not talking until it was already in its second quarter.

“You wanna join me for a walk outside?” he asked

I nodded. “Sure.”

I followed him as he led the way to the door and held it open for me. “After you.” He said.

“Thanks.” I walked out into the crisp night air and waited until he was next to me to begin walking.

“It’s uh, really great seeing you again.” He said.

“Yeah, you too.” I stopped walking and turned to him. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for…”

“No, wait.” He interupted “I’m sorry. I should never have ignored you so long, and I’m stupid and I wish I hadn’t done those things, or tried to make excuses for them. I’m sorry for hurting you. Really sorry. Oh, God, I’m sorry.”

I looked at him and smiled. I wasn’t expecting that, but it made the air between us a lot clearer.

“It’s okay.” I said.

He smiled. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” I started walking again.

He followed and fell into step beside me. I felt his hand brush mine, then move away. My hand chased it, touched it, then started back towards me, but he grabbed it before it went all the way back. Our fingers interlocked. I looked at our hands and then up at him and smiled. He was looking very intensly at me.

“What?” I asked.

He stopped walking again. I watched as he took my other hand too, then looked up at him. He looked me in the eyes. “You’re so beautiful.” He whispered. I glanced down, then back up. “Elizabeth Nelson,” He said.”Will you be my girlfriend? Again?”

I met his gaze. “I will.”

He smiled and looked around shyly. I looked too. There were other couples out and some friends too. It was on a college campus, so there were more than just people from the game there. But I didn’t care about any of those people right now. The only person I cared about was the one in front of me.

I looked back at him. He slowly removed one of his hands from mine and brought it up to my face, where he took my hair and tucked it behind my ear. He rubbed my cheek gently and leaned in.

Never before had I had such a compassionate kiss.