Awkward was the only word to describe Chris and me. I think we both knew we liked each other, but we couldn't seem to get out of our own way. Thoughts swirled of risking our friendship if we crossed the line, but at the same time, every moment I spent with him as a friend felt like torture.

"You just have to tell him, Delly." Cale pled one afternoon as we sipped on shakes and watched The Breakfast Club. "It's just painful to watch."

"But what if he doesn't feel the same?"

"He feels the same way. You know he feels the same way," Cale didn't hide his annoyance. We had this conversation almost daily.

"Well, what if it ruins our friendship?"

"It will not ruin your friendship. And, if it does, you have me," Cale shrugged.

"Believe it or not, you and Chris are not interchangeable friends."

"Oh, I know. You don't get all hot and bothered when I put my arm around you," he teased.

"I do not get hot and bother because I'm not a seventy-year-old woman."

"Mmhmm," Cale gave me the puppy dog eyes, knowing he was right.

"Can we just watch the movie?"

"Okay, now, I'm going to put my arm around you; it is purely for comfort, don't fall in love with me or anything."

"I think I'll manage to resist," I muttered.

"I still think you should tell him. You don't want a repeat of the Winter Formal. You two have to go to prom together."

Prom, I had been blocking the whole thing out of my head, but as the Spring days continued to slide by, it was becoming unavoidable. The idea of Chris going to prom with someone else was almost as nauseating as the idea of asking Chris to prom.

"Hello?" Cale squeezed my shoulders to bring me back to my living room. "You have to go with Chris. It is essential to me that you go with Chris."

"Sophie wants to double, doesn't she?"

"Yes, she'd like to have a support system there for when we make our official debut," he admitted. "So, you see, this is much more important to me than it is to you."

"I'm sorry, your love life is more important than my love life?"

"I'm not saying that you have to tell him that you're in love with him. Although, I'm also not telling you not to tell him. I'm just saying, ask him to prom. You can go as friends, a couple, dressed as the Shining twins; I don't care as long as you go together and double with Sophie and me."

"You do realize that the whole school already knows you and Sophie are together, right?"

"I know this, and you know this. Honestly, I'm pretty sure Sophie knows this, but she won't admit it. So, prom is the big reveal, and I want to dance with my girl. So please, for me, ask Chris to the prom."

"I'm so touched by how much you care, Cale."

"I do care. It is mutually beneficial." He let his head drop, so it was resting against mine. "You have to admit, prom, the four of us, it sounds fun."

"It does," I confessed. "I'll consider it, but you have to promise to get the entire football team to help with the gazebo this weekend."

"Delly, I already promised we'd be there. Don't worry. You'll have all the staffing you need to build that thing. You just need to make sure someone with some brains shows up. Otherwise, you may end up with a million birdhouses."

"Don't worry, Calista O'Donnell's father has agreed to help. He's a carpenter that specializes in decks and stuff. We should be in good hands. I'm hoping we can get it all done in one day, but we'll need many hands."

"We'll be there; I wouldn't dare let you down." He gave me a gentle kiss on the temple to accent his commitment before returning his attention to the movie.

The weekend quickly arrived. I was so nervous about building the gazebo that I barely slept the night before. Chris must have known I wouldn't sleep much because he handed me a large coffee as I slumped into his car.

"Morning, sunshine," he said in a sickly cheery tone.

"What if no one shows?" I immediately began to rattle off the thoughts in my head.

"People will show up. Cale's too scared of you and Sophie to let you down."

"What if Mr. O'Donnell doesn't show up."

"He'll be there, Dee. You confirmed with him a million times."

"What if we don't have enough supplies?"

"Dee, you've planned this thing to death. Everything you need will be there. The real concern is, how long until someone shoots themself with a nail gun."

"Oh no, I didn't even think about first aid," I groaned.

"You need to drink more of that coffee because I was kidding."

I let out a sigh of defeat that there was no more planning I could do; it was now in the hands of the day.

Chris let out a laugh before pulling me to his side. "It's going to be great. Everyone will have a blast, and at the end of the day, there will be a gazebo."

"How are you so sure?"

"First, because in your organizational skills, I trust. And second, many people are committed to this working for you, Dee. We won't let you down."

I smiled to myself at Chris' soothing; he was right. Chris and I weren't even the first people there. Cale and half the football team were already following my equipment checklist to make sure everything had arrived.

"Look who finally decided to show up," Cale teased as I crossed the lawn to him. "We got you something," he excitedly added. "Babe," he called out towards Sophie.

She looked up but quickly blushed and dipped her face. Still, she made her way over to us.

"Cale," she shot him a look like he had blown their already blown cover.

"It's fine; no one is paying attention. There are too many power tools around to distract everyone," he shrugged. "Do you have Delly's gift?"

"Oh yeah!" She jogged over to her bag and pulled out a red hard hat. "I thought we should get pink, but Cale said you'd prefer red."

"Red is my favorite color," I smiled as I plucked it from her hands. "Thank you both so much!"

"Anything for you, Delly." As Cale spoke, he pulled me into a side hug. With his free hand, he took the hat and plopped it on my head. "It looks good; you should wear it all the time," he joked as he gave it a knock.

I gave him a smirk back before pulling away and announcing, "break is over!"

The day went by quickly, and all my plans paid off as, by 4 pm, we had a gazebo.

"Crushed it with the planning, Dee," Chris complimented as we sat on the steps.

"Well, all the planning in the world would have gotten me nowhere if it hadn't been for everyone helping."

"I think that might be the point of this capstone thing. It's a community project, but you can't pull anything off alone."

"Yeah, I was thinking that too. I also don't know what I'd have done without Cale and his teammates here to help," I admitted.

"They were amazing. I can't believe how quickly they just got to work and powered through," Chris marveled. 

"Yeah, I think Trevor Boyes is destined to be a carpenter." 

"So, Cale and Sophie want to meet up for dinner; you in?" Chris asked. 

"Yeah, sounds like fun. What time?"

"We said six since we all need to shower," he gave himself a sniff test as he spoke.

"True," I sighed as I heaved myself up from the steps. "Manual labor is hard," I murmured.

I leaned heavily into Chris' side as we made our way to his car. He opened the door for me and waited until I slid in before shutting it behind me. I slumped to his side as we drove back to my house. I didn't want him to leave, even though I knew it was only for a few minutes. In my sleepy state, I wanted to cling to him.

"I'll see you soon," he whispered before kissing the top of my head. "Go get showered."

I sighed and pulled myself from the car. Barely a shower later, I heard Cale's voice echoing up the stairwell as he and Cami had a boisterous conversation about pizza toppings.

"Hey," I said as I headed down the stairs. "I thought Chris was picking me up."

"Yeah, he's going to meet us there. So, you'll have to endure a ride from me," he teased.

"Ugh, fine. The things I do for Chris," I mocked back.

"Mmhmm," Cale smirked as he held the front door open for me. "Hey, I was thinking we should drive by the gazebo; check it out at sunset. What do you think?"

"Sounds good," I agreed as I climbed into the cab of Cale's truck.

We rode in comfortable silence back to the gazebo. I got lost in the swish of the passing trees and mailboxes as Cale drove, barely even noticing as he pulled to a stop.

"Hey," he prodded, "go check it out."

I shoved open the heavy door of Cale's truck and hopped down to the pavement. As I looked over the lawn to the gazebo, I could see someone sitting at a table inside with the setting sun behind him. As I moved closer, I could tell it was Chris; even with his face obscured by a binder, it was easy to see his lanky frame. Cale slammed the truck door behind me, causing Chris' eyes to snap up to meet mine as he let the binder fall. He had recreated our meet-cute right here at the gazebo.

"Hey, Dee," he called out as I approached.

"Hey, Chris, what are you doing?"

"Oh, catching up on some light reading while I wait for my favorite tablemate."

As he spoke, he lifted the binder so I could see what it was; the friends binder I had made with Cale months ago. I felt a flush sting my face.

"I added a few pages of my own," he said as he slid the binder to me.

I slumped down to the seat across from him and let my eyes fall to the binder before me. Chris' handwriting filled the page.

It was the first day of Freshman year, and I was new. The whole morning no one had spoken to me aside from teachers making me stand in front of the class and introduce myself. I was miserable. All I wanted to do was hide, which was easy because I had been invisible all day. I found a table in the back of the lunchroom and hid behind a book. I don't even know what book it was because I didn't read a word.

All of a sudden, I looked up. I didn't think about looking up; it just happened. Something, somewhere drew my eyes over the edge of the book. That's when I saw her, Dee. Her eyes met mine, and I was sure they would flicker away to her table of friends, but they stayed on me. You aren't supposed to feel your heartbeat, and you aren't supposed to have to think about breathing, but in those few seconds when her eyes locked with mine, my heart almost jumped out of my chest while my lungs entirely gave up on functioning. Then she dropped her gaze.

I kept watching her, though, as she cut across the cafeteria. It seemed like she was headed right to me, but I knew she couldn't be. I was invisible. But then she was there, right in front of me, asking if she could sit. I know I probably sounded stupid, stammering some yes in a caveman-like grunt, but it was all I could manage. I was confident it was a joke, or she would tell me this was her table, and I had to sit somewhere else, but she was there to sit with me. It was like we had planned to meet there.

I like to think we did plan to meet that day. Sometimes you make plans with people you haven't met yet. You start to plan your wedding or your home. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had scheduled to meet Dee on the first day of school at that table. I had planned to meet my best friend, and I had intended to fall in love with her sweet, kind, smart, hyper-organized, highlighter-loving self.

I fell in love with Dee the first moment I met her, and I have fallen deeper for her every moment since. She is the one that knows when I need someone to cheer me up or just be with me, what to say to make me feel better or when to say nothing at all, she makes me laugh when I want to cry and makes me cry from laughter, and she makes delicious cookies. Oh, and she is beautiful. Not like that generic beautiful, she is that confident, smart, beautiful. The type of beauty that doesn't fade with youth but that lasts a lifetime.

Please turn the page...

I glanced up at Chris to find him blurred by a few tears filling my lower eyelids. "Go on," he prodded.

I turned the page to find in large sprawling letter:

Please go to prom with me?

"Yes," I said to the page before lifting my eyes to his. "Yes," I said again with more confidence. "I would love to!"

"Yeah?" He popped up from his seat and came crashing around the table like a baby deer thrashing through the woods for the first time. It was adorable and made me laugh before he smashed into me, engulfing me in a full bear hug.