Charlotte watched her best friend sift through his locker. She thought he was going too slowly. He thought she was in too much of a rush. In her defense, second period started in two minutes and she didn't want to risk being late again.

Alex was the carefree type of guy, not caring if he arrived on time and preferring to go with the flow. That should have been her first clue when he arrived not only on time later that day, but early. But let's focus on that morning. Alex finally closed his locker and started walking with her to their classes. Their second periods happened to be right next to each other's, so they always walked together.

"Hey, Char, I was thinking maybe we could meet up later at Olive Garden. Maybe around 7 pm?" he asked. She thought about it. She had been craving Italian recently, so why not? "Sure. We could go catch a movie afterward too. I'll see what's showing in the area around 8:30." They then arrived at their classrooms and went separate ways until later that night.

When Charlotte showed up at Olive Garden at 6:55, she was very surprised to see Alex already there. He was five minutes early. That had to be a new record for him, and she made sure to mention it when he caught sight of her. What was also surprising was his choice in attire. Alex tended to be a jeans-and-hoodie kind of guy. Tonight, however, he was wearing a gray button-down shirt with black dress pants.

They were shown to their table and ordered their food after looking at the menu for a while. As Charlotte was about to mention the impending science project they had due the next week, which they hadn't even started yet, Alex suddenly asked a question that shocked her. Words that she would never imagine coming out of his mouth.

"Would you be my girlfriend, Charlotte?"

She had no idea what to say. It had never occurred to her that they could ever date. They'd been friends since the fourth grade when they'd bonded over their mutual hate of all the other fourth graders. Why now? It was their junior year of high school. Why wait eight years to ask her out?

She realized that she didn't even know if she felt that way about him. She tried to imagine being with him romantically. It was a little difficult, with them having been friends for so long. She decided that she should give him a chance and see how it worked out.

It occurred to her that she had been sitting there silently for at least thirty seconds. He was starting to look like he was losing hope. "I mean, only if you want to." he said. "If you don't it's-"

"Yes." she said, and she realized that she was excited to try and be with him. It would definitely be a change, but maybe it could be the good kind.