"A-A DATE?" Bradley exclaimed after having spit out his Mr. Fizzy, and surviving the coughing frenzy that had ensured afterwords.

"No duh B-man." the clearly annoyed girl in front of him responded. Rolling her eyes and tilting her head as her spiky black hair bounced from the movement.

"But Stace! All I did was ask if you wanted to go see Bloody Massacre 2: the second helping with me!" Her dark skinned compatriot protested

"And I said yes." She smiled before narrowing her eyes, and poking Bradley in the chest with her index finger. "So it's a date. Got it?"

"It never used to be a date when we did stuff together before." Bradley crossed his arms over his chest, while narrowing his eyes back at her in response.

"Well we aren't nine anymore for your big fat information." She placed her hands on her hips and brought her clearly annoyed face closer to his. "Unless you're trying to say I'm not good enough to date."

"I-I'm not saying that at all." He blushed a deep crimson as he tried to find the words to justify his protests. "It's just that..."

"Good." Stacy interrupted and began walking away from him. "Then YOU can come and pick me up later then." She looked over her shoulder flashing him a smile and wink before walking on.

"Oh man. A date with Stacy." Bradley moaned as his best friend disappeared from sight. This wasn't the response he had anticipated at all. Though its not like it wasn't something he had sometimes wanted, but to hear it coming from her instead of himself, and for her to completely support the idea made his body feel like it was made of gelatin as he walked back to the apartment he shared with his parents at Latchkey.

He had just gotten back home only to find himself pacing nervously around his room. Just what was he supposed to do? An actual for real date with his best friend. If he screwed this up the fallout could be enormous, and that was the last thing Bradley wanted to do since they had already spent a good seven years apart. It reminded him of those movies where the action hero has to disarm the bomb only to not know which wire to cut. Except this time he was the action hero and Stacy was the bomb. Man why did life have to be so complicated?

Suddenly a light bulb went off in his mind as he snapped his fingers. All he had to do was make sure it was a date so good that Stacy would never forget it. It was so simple, yet pure genius. He knew what he had to do.

Meanwhile at the home of the datee, one Stacy Stickler. She was busy taking one final look in the bathroom mirror.

"Looking good girl." She commented to herself as she spun around to get a full view. Her appearance didn't look any different from when she had talked to Bradley that afternoon. Were anyone else to see her they might not even suspect that she was about to go on a date. The sound of knocking on the front door quickly brought her back to reality.

"Alright B-man lets get going. I don't want to miss any of that blood gushing action." Stacy grinned as she opened the door only to find herself plugging her nose and gagging. "Oh man! What is that funky smell?!" She tried to wave the stench away from her with her hand as she took a look at the person on the other side of the door.

"What?" Bradley responded wearing a black T-shirt, green shorts, and a blue winter cap.

Stacy blinked only to see that B-man wasn't dressed as Russell thank goodness. He was dressed in what seemed like the clothes he was forced to wear on school picture day back when they were nine. There was also that stench. That overpowering, nauseatingly awful stench.

"Geez Bradley. What on earth is that? You smell like a dumpster." Stacy coughed while struggling to breathe.

"It's cologne. My dad wears it all the time when he takes my mom out." Bradley smiled and took Stacy's hand. "Now lets go. We don't want to miss the movie."

Stacy forcefully ripped her hand away from Bradley's before she literally started pushing him back towards his own apartment.

"We're not going anywhere until you clean that stuff off. There's no way I'm going out with someone that smells as bad as Russell." She argued as she did her best to keep down her lunch. "How much of that stuff did you use?"

"Um... An entire bottle?" Bradley laughed nervously only for Stacy to glare daggers at him. It wasn't long before he felt himself being shoved into the bathroom of his own apartment.

"Make it fast B-man. We don't got all day after all." Stacy ordered before slamming the door closed. Only for Bradley to sigh exasperated as he began to clean up.

"Don't take all day she says. Who does she think I am? A girl?" He said out loud in annoyance as he washed the cologne off.

"I heard that!" Stacy's just as annoyed voice came from the hallway beyond the door. She opened the door a crack and tossed some clothes on the bathroom counter. "And put these on while you're at it."

He looked at the clothes she had thrown in for him. It was practically the stuff he normally wore. A purple T-shirt, jean shorts, and his red baseball cap. He let out another sigh in resignation.

Stacy waited impatiently outside the bathroom door until Bradley stepped out. Now stench free and wearing clothes that didn't look so goofy.

"Are you happy now?" Bradley glared at her.

"Quite." She smiled and nodded before grabbing his hand. "Now lets go. We can still make it if we hurry."

Bradley was practically dragged out his front door.

It had taken some doing, but they had arrived at the movie theater right on time for the previews. Which satisfied the both of them. Things seemed to go smoothly after that. Stacy had gotten annoyed when Bradley laughed at her for screaming in fear at one of the more scarier scenes. Only for her to laugh her head off when at another point in the movie Bradley let out the girliest scream she'd ever heard from a guy, which in turn annoyed him because he knew he would never hear the end of it for the rest of his life.

"I have to say." Stacy grinned as the two left the theater. "For a guy who likes to be all macho you sure don't scream like one. Maybe I've pegged you wrong all these years Bradleyetta."

"Aw c'mon! Knock it off Stace!" Bradley placed his hands on his hips as she imagined him wearing a dress with his hair done up in pigtails.

"Aw is B-WOman getting testy?" She teased as she ruffled the red baseball cap on Bradley's head.

"Stace!" He whined only for her to giggle a little.

"Hey B-man how about we get some chow." She smiled and softly took Bradley's hand in hers causing him to blush a little.

"Sure. It's not like we got to eat dinner anyways." Bradley smiled back as the two began walking away from the theater.

..

"Uh Stace. This is a date right?" Bradley asked her with a raised eyebrow

"You're just realizing that now?" Stacy looked at him in disbelief.

"No it's just that if this is a date. Why are we getting pizza?" He exclaimed as he pointed to the pie that had just been set down a few moments prior. "Aren't we supposed to do something more fancy or something?" He asked as a thought balloon appeared showing him and Stacy all dressed up and eating in a five star restaurant.

"As if." Stacy answered as she popped the thought balloon with one of the toothpicks from the table. "Besides neither of us could afford that anyways." She grabbed one of the slices and took a big bite out of it. "Honestly don't you know anything about dating?" She asked with her mouth half full.

"O-Of course I do." Bradley's mind leapt into defensive mode. "Why I'll have you know I've gone on lots of dates." Bradley smirked as he folded his arms across his chest in victory. Only for that to crumble when Stacy's hands slammed loudly on the table.

"Is that so?" Stacy's voice was one of anger. She didn't know why but her blood was boiling. "And who might be these girls you've had dates with? Hm?" Her voice became increasingly angrier as her face moved closer to his.

"Ummm... Well uhhhh..." He was understandably nervous and sweating bullets at the line of questioning. He hadn't expected her to take him seriously. At least not THIS seriously. Only for a bright light to be shined in his face as the pizza parlor turned into an interrogation room.

"Well are ya gonna talk?" She growled. "Or do I need to get rough."

"T-They're no one really. Besides it doesn't matter now since I'm with you right?" He stammered as she shined the bright light in his face again.

"Spill it B-man!" She brought her face even closer to his. As their eyes locked the fire from her eyes seemed like an inferno. One that was swallowing him up.

"Alright, alright! There wasn't any other dates, and there weren't any other girls! I confess! I confess!" Bradley exclaimed as he cracked like an egg before looking down at the table in shame.

"Real mature Bradley..." Stacy sighed as she sat back in her seat. Half irritated that she had believed such an obvious lie, and half relieved that he really hadn't been checking out other girls.

The rest of the pizza was eaten in silence.

After the pair left the pizza parlor they began walking back towards the apartments. The warm night air of spring and the bright full moon out that night making the evening quite beautiful. As they walked their hands had once again found each others leading them to glance and smile at the other as they relished in the comfort of being together. It wasn't long before they had reached the park where there had been many irreplaceable memories for the both of them. Both pleasant as well as not so pleasant.

"Hey Bradley?" Stacy asked breaking the silence between them.

"Yeah Stacy?" Bradley looked over at her only to watch her let go of his hand and run over to the swing set.

"Push me." Stacy smiled as she sat on the swing.

"What?" Bradley asked confused.

"I said come over here and push me." She again beckoned to him.

"Geez and you always get on my case about being immature." He teasingly grinned and complied.

Everything was silent besides the creaking of the swing as Bradley lightly pushed Stacy. As she swung up and down Stacy found herself smiling.

Life was good.

No life was great.

Scratch that. Life was absolutely perfect.

Bradley also couldn't help but smile as he watched her. Only to be dumbfounded and shocked when the creaking of the swing suddenly stopped.

In mid swing Stacy had planted her feet firmly on the earth and turned around to wrap her arms around her best friends neck. Her lips pressed hard against his in a kiss that was rough, deep, and passionate. Bradley meanwhile was completely frozen in place. Sure he could feel his arms wrapping around her waist, which only made her make the kiss more intense, but he was practically petrified like a statue with eyes so wide he worried they may pop out of his head. He wasn't sure how long the kiss had lasted. He wasn't even sure if he wanted it to end. All he knew was that at some point Stacy's lips disconnected from his and formed a smile before she swung forwards on the swing. Using the momentum to jump off and perform a front flip before landing on the ground gracefully.

"Tonight was a blast B-man." She said with her back to him while she stretched her arms above her head. She then looked back at him with eyes that were filled to the brim with love. "We're going to have to do this again sometime." She smiled at him before starting to walk towards the entrance of the park.

Bradley was still frozen in place. Unsure if what had happened really did happen. Did his best friend just kiss him? His hand came up and softly touched his lips as he watched her retreating form.

Maybe dating his best friend wouldn't be so bad after all.

THE END