Here’s a cute little one-shot to cure your cravings (and hopefully my writers block).

[inspired by my sister and her childhood bff, matthew. also influenced by nineteen minutes by jodi picoult.]

Enjoy.

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“Mike, this is Elise. Elise, this is Mike. You guys will be working together from now on.”

I tensed, looking up at the familiar face of my new co-worker. He was staring at me as well.

“Um, yeah. Hi,” Mike said to me.

“Hi…” I replied. “How’ve you uh…how’ve you been?” I asked.

“Good.”

Our boss looked back and forth between my self and the boy standing across from me. “You guys already know each other?” he asked curiously. Mike and I nodded simultaneously.

“Excellent,” he said. “Well then, get to work.” He patted our backs and left the kitchen. I couldn’t believe it. When I signed up for this job, I had no idea that he worked here. I wasn’t expecting this.

“So,” Mike said. I looked up at him, amazed that he was actually talking to me. I mean, we hadn’t spoken since the sixth grade.

“So…” I replied. It was quiet for a few moments until I continued. “We should get to work.” I began scrubbing some dishes that were piled next to me. He did the same.

As we washed, I thought of Mike and the good old days, and how we used to be best friends. That’s right – we were inseparable. Since age two, we were always together. We even told everyone we would get married when we grew up. We remained close until middle school. That’s when we sort of…drifted apart. Mike started hanging out with the popular kids, and I just kind of let it happen.

Now, in ninth grade, I never thought I’d interact with him again. But I guess I was wrong. Now that we worked together, we were bound to talk sometime, right? I still felt slightly awkward around him. I mean, he was pretty much my first love. And now, we didn’t even say hi to each other in the halls. How was I supposed to act around him? I had no clue.

And so that first day of work, we didn’t speak at all. We just washed dishes in silence. The next day, however, we did. It started as innocent ‘can you pass the soap?’ and grew into a full blown conversation. From that day on, we spoke every day at work. I was beginning to feel like we were friends again. But we still didn’t talk at school, and that kind of disappointed me a little. But, he did laugh at my lame jokes.

I had forgotten how much I loved his laugh. I hadn’t heard it in a while. At least, not his true laugh. I heard him chuckling with his friends at school sometimes. But that wasn’t his real laugh. This, however, was.

“You crack me up, Lise.”

My heart skipped a beat when I heard him use his old nickname for me. At that realization, I mentally slapped myself. Why was I getting all flustered? I was way over him. After all, he’d ditched me for a bunch of jerks.

Four weeks of work proved me wrong. Those few hours after school everyday made me realize that I was definitely not over him. I never had been. And that kind of freaked me out a little bit.

I saw Mike everyday at school, but I never talked to him there. I was afraid he would shoot me down, or ignore me. Plus, I didn’t want to embarrass him in front of his friends. I thought that he wanted it to be that way too, until one day when he approached me.

“Lise!” he shouted, waving and running up to my locker, where my friends and I stood.

“Oh, hey, Mikey,” I greeted. I had re-adopted my old nickname for him, just as he had for me. It felt nice, almost like old times.

“Listen,” he continued. “Can you tell the boss that I’ll be late today? I forgot I had something to do after school,” he asked me.

“Sure thing.” I smiled at him.

“Thanks, you’re a life saver. See you later!”

I watched him leave, smiling as I did so. I was glad that he wasn’t embarrassed by our friendship. When he was out of sight, I turned back to my friends, only to notice that their jaws were hanging open.

“What?” I asked.

“You…he…friends…” Alexis gaped.

“Oh,” I said. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t know if you could call us ‘friends’. We just work together,” I pointed out.

“But he called you Lise,” Sarah, my other friend, stated. “and you called him Mikey.”

I shrugged, feeling kind of annoyed at their surprise. I mean, sure, he was popular. But it’s not like I was a nerd or anything. I had friends. We just weren’t nearly as high up on the social ladder as Mike and company. Okay, so, not that many people liked me. Their loss.

Anyway, after that day, I didn’t feel uncomfortable around him at school anymore. We even said hi to each other in the halls again. It was a good feeling, having my old friend back. So good, that I almost forgot about the fact that we’d completely ignored each other for three years. Then suddenly, I realized that I didn’t really care what my friends thought of him. I liked him, and that’s all that really mattered, right? Apparently, he felt the same way. He told me one day at work (the best day of my life).

“Hey,” he started. “Sorry about my friends. They’re jerks.”

He was referring to earlier that week, when they’d looked at me like I was a freak when they saw me talking to him at lunch. It hadn’t really bothered me that much, but it was still sweet that he was apologizing.

“It’s okay,” I said.

“It’s just…they don’t really like you very much.”

No kidding, I thought.

“But, it’s okay, because I do. Like you, I mean.”

I blushed when he said this. Even if he just meant as friends, that was enough for me. To know that he didn’t completely hate me anymore was a good feeling. I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything.

He continued. “Truth is…I never really stopped liking you.” He laughed nervously.

Wait…WHAT?

“And now, I realize how stupid I was being in caring what my friends thought about you. It’s not their opinion that matters. Just mine.”

I remained silent. This was too much for me to take in. He looked at me to see if I would answer. When he saw that I wasn’t going to, he kept speaking.

“And so, I guess what I’m trying to say is…”

I sucked in my breath and held it. WHAT? What are you trying to say?!

“Will you be my girlfriend?”

I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. Oh, my god. This is NOT happening. Is he serious? I thought as my heart beat wildly.

“Um…” The butterflies in my stomach were going crazy. I wanted to say yes. But what about his friends? They all hated me. And I hated all of them.

“Do you really think that’s a good idea? Your friends –“

“Elise. I told you, they don’t matter.”

I was frozen. He was serious! He sighed when he noticed my rigidness.

“Maybe this’ll change your mind,” he said. Before I could process what was happening, he pressed his soft lips against mine. At first I was shocked. But soon, I found myself kissing him back. My hands made their way into his curly brown hair and his arms snaked around my waist.

When we pulled apart, both of us breathing heavily, the only thing that I could think to say was, “…yeah. That did it.”

He laughed at that, which made me laugh. Soon we were just laughing for no reason, unable to stop, thinking of nothing but each other.

Just the way it should’ve been from the start.

FIN.

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Sooooo, what’d you think? Please review and let me know. (: Thanks for reading!