I woke up late in the morning. I looked at my phone, 3 missed calls from my mother. I was supposed to call her when I got up, but I usually wake up long before 11:20. I called her back. She asked how I had been, and if anything exciting happened. Of course I told her no. I wondered if Mike was already gone, and if I would be spending the day alone with 3 books and a large summer homework assignment. I washed my face, and tried to tame my tangley hair. I came down the stairs to an empty and quiet house. Sighing, I and walked into the kitchen in search of food. On the counter I found a plate with two banana pancakes with chocolate chips in the shape of smiley faces and a note:
Lia—
Out with a friend, enjoy the pancakes. We’ll hang later, K?
Mike
I crumpled the note and threw it in the trash. Out with a friend? Doing what at 11 am? I put the pancakes in the microwave and warmed them up. I put a thin layer of butter on it and took a bite. It was the best banana pancake I had ever had. I folded the rest in half and ate it like a sandwich. I heard a quite laugh from the door of the kitchen I looked over and saw Mike. He was wearing his bike gear. So that’s what he meant by “out with a friend”.
“You are the weirdest girl I know,” he said smiling.
“What?” I retorted
“You’re eating you’re pancake like a sandwich!”
“So? I can eat my breakfast foods however I want!”
“How are they?”
“Actually, they’re really good.”
“I’m glad, that was the first time I’ve ever made them with banana. Anyways I have to go shower, I stink pretty bad. It won’t take me long, and then we can do something,”
“Alright, stinky boy. Make sure you wash behind your ears,” I said jokingly.
“I never forget to wash behind my ears,” he replied with a laugh before walking out. I stood for a moment, before running up the stairs and madly rummaging through my suitcase for something flirty and cute to wear. I picked out a gray lace tank top and skinny jeans. I looked myself in the full length mirror. Why was I so nervous like this? It was Mike, I had known him forever, and I didn’t need to impress him. In the end, I decided to trade in the skinnies for a pair of short shorts.
I ran into the bathroom where I applied mascara to my top lashes and a little bit of eye liner to my lower eye lid. I would have added blush to the look, but I realized that I probably wouldn’t need it. When I was finished, I leaped down the stairs and into the living room to wait for Mike.
“In here,” he called from the kitchen. I walked in to find him making sandwiches.
“What are you doing?”
“Making lunch. I was thinking that we could go on a picnic…if you want to.”
“I would love to. Where?”

“I know this little spot about 15 minutes walk from here, there’s this little creak and a big meadow.”

“That sounds great,” I said smiling at him, “Can I help with anything?”

“You could cut up some strawberries and put them in that bag if you don’t mind,”

“Of course not.” After we had the whole picnic prepared and packed into a basket, we headed outside into the sun. The weather up here was perfect, warm and sunny, but no blistering heat. We walked along the side of the road for a few minutes before branching off on a small blacktop path weaving through the trees. When we finally stood at the edge of the meadow I couldn’t say anything. It was perfect and serene, purple wildflowers poking up above the grass here and there. And you could hear a trickling stream nearby.

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” he asked me.

“It’s perfect,” I replied. He laid out the blanket in the sun and we sat down.

“Are you hungry yet? Or are those pancakes holding you out?”

“I think I could wait a little while longer.”

“Do you want to see the creak?”

“Sure,” He stood up and held his hand out to help me up, I took it, and he pulled me off the ground. When I was up, instead of letting go, he intertwined his fingers with mine. I looked at him and he smiled, squeezing my hand. We walked side-by-side to the creak, where we sat our feet in the cool water. We didn’t talk, but there wasn’t anything to be said.

“Are you ready for lunch now?” Mike asked me after some time.

“Sure.” We walked back to the blanket and sat down across from each other.

“Alright, I wasn’t sure what you like on a sandwich, so I guessed turkey with mayonnaise and lettuce, but if you don’t like turkey you can have the ham sandwich I made for myself.”

“Turkey is fine. Thank you for doing this.”

“Doing what? The picnic?”

“Yeah, just taking the time to bring me here, and making lunch for me.”

“It was nothing, and worth it.” We ate our lunches, chatting about everything going on for each of us right now. When we were done Mike suggested playing Frisbee.

“I just have to warn you that I suck at Frisbee,” I told him

“That’s alright; I’ll go easy on you,”

“You better!” We began tossing the Frisbee back and forth. My tosses were sporadic and I only managed to catch it out of the air half of the time.

“Here let me show you my secret,” Mike said, coming up behind me. He put the Frisbee in my hand, and put his arms around me so he could guide my hand, “The secret is in the wrist. If you follow through with your whole arm, then it will go to either side of the target instead of right down the middle. So I’m going to go back over there, and you can try it on your own this time.”

“Ok.” I stood sideways and positioned my arm like Mike had showed me, flicked my wrist, and threw the Frisbee. It arced through the air straight into Mikes waiting hands. I shrieked with excitement. Mike ran over and picked me up, spinning me around in a hug. We were both laughing so hard that we toppled over into the grass. I was lying on my back; Mike on top of me, his arms tangled with mine. We were both trying to catch our breath from the laughter, when we looked into each other’s eyes.
All of the sudden we were both quiet. My heart was pounding, and my stomach fluttering. Mike leaned down slowly, his face centimeters from mine. He took a breath and then his lips touched mine soft as a whisper. The kiss lingered for a moment, before we separated. He used his arms to push himself far enough away from me so that he could look in my eyes.
“Uh…” Mike droned, “I’m sorry.” I sat up, forcing Mike to sit back too.
“You’re sorry?” I questioned him.
“Not for the kiss. For confusing you…misleading you.”
“Ok…what do you mean ‘confusing me’?”
“Last night I told you that we should be friends for now, and then today I hold your hand and kiss you. That’s not exactly friend behavior.”
“Well how did you get from ‘let’s be friends’ to what happened today? What changed?”
“I don’t know. I guess that yesterday I was scared that things would change. I thought it would be better if we took time to think about everything that we were doing, and what could happen. Sometimes I change my mind about a girl, after we’re together and she can get hurt. But today… I don’t know. Just being with you…I’m not scared anymore. You have been in my life as long as I can remember, and you’re everything that I’ve ever wanted.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything.”
“So…last night we were friends. What are we today?”
“Now I don’t know what to say.”
“Friends…in a relationship?”
“Whatever you want.”
“This isn’t just about me. What do you want?”
“I don’t care what we call it. I just know that I like being with you, spending time with you.”
“So, we are just Mike and Lia. No titles and no complicated.”
“I like the sound of that,” he said smiling at me. He wrapped his arms around me and we laid back in the grass. I rested my head on his chest, and listened to his heartbeat.