"Have you ever been in love?" he asked.

"Not that I know of. Have you?"

"Only once. And the feeling I have, I swear I will never forget it. I'm on edge. It's intense."

"And what about the girl? Is she in love with you as well?"

"What makes you think it's a girl?" He chuckled a bit, then sighed. "I'm not sure. Well, there is only one way to ever know I guess."

"And what's that?"

"Ask her."

"Oh. Would you like to borrow my phone?"

"I'm afraid that won't be necessary, this is not one of those conversations you want to have over the telephone."

"Oh, well then I guess I'll see you later."

"Charlie."

"What?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well if you are going to run off and tell her that you love her I certainly don't want to get in your way."

"Don't worry. You won't be."

"Ha. Fat chance, don't you think it would be rather awkward telling some girl that you love her and the entire time I'm there lurking in the corner?"

"No, I don't think the girl I love would have any problem with you."

"You don't do you? Well I have a pretty strong feeling that Melissa Clark is harboring a strong hatred for me.'

"Good for her. Well, not exactly seeing as hatred is one of the seven deadly sins."

"No it's not."

"True, but in the end the defense rests."

"Was that some backward way of telling me that you're not in love with Melissa Clark?"

"Yes."

"Well then who is it? Do you have some other girlfriend I don't know of? Is there some huge secret you haven't told me?"

"Well, I don't know how you got the idea that Melissa is my girlfriend in the first place."

"You two were always hanging out…" I trailed off.

"We hung out about 3 times because Ms. Kelly had us working on a school project together."

"Oh, well see you never told me about that. And then she told me about how cute she thought you were."

"I thought you were enemies."

"Ok she wasn't telling me, per say. I overheard her telling Lisa about you. And then I guess I just figured that if she was saying all that, there must be some vibe coming from you as well. I didn't think that Melissa was that delusional."

"Apparently she is. There were no such vibes from me. There's no chemistry between us. I had someone else. Still do I hope."

"Oh alright. I cave. Tell me who she is! Who is this mystery girl who has captured your heart?"

"Well, well, well. This is something I never would have expected from you. You are actually interested in this, aren't you?"

"Slightly."

"Come on. I'm only going to tell you, if you are completely honest with me as I will be with you."

"Fine. I'm dying inside from the pain of not knowing who your mystery woman is. All aspects of your life are of infinite interest to me and this is a particularly important part that I am starving for knowledge of."

"If you insist I will tell you. But I don't want this to change things between us. I really do not. Our friendship is too important to me. Promise me that."

"This won't change a thing. Unless it's…."

"Charles."

"I'm only joking, but would you please not call me that?"

"Well the situation warranted it."

"Hardy har har. Tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"Don't play idiot with me. I'm in no mood to be dragged about in circles here. Spit it out."

"Charlie, I'm shocked, such forceful and foul language! And from a lady!"

"Travis, sometimes I don't know why I talk to you. I can't think straight around you."

"Oh really? And why is that? My radiating sexuality?"

"Well apart from that, there is also your tendency to drive me crazy," she applied excess force to the last three words.

"That's fine and dandy, but I meant what I said before. If this changes things or makes them awkward I will be terribly unhappy. So it better not be."

"It won't."

"Ok, well here goes…"

"Drum roll..."

"Alright, I'm going to have to admit that I'm slightly shocked you haven't even attempted a guess."

"Oh. My. God. Stop changing the subject," I sighed, exasperated, "I guessed Melissa Clark!"

"Well yes, but that doesn't speak very highly of your opinion of me."

"Who you like has no weight in my opinion of you. Unless it's Britney Spears because that is just wrong."

"Oh, then I guess you are going to be very unhappy with me."

"I better not be."

"You won't," and then as an after thought he murmured, "I hope."

"Then just get it over with and tell me."

"Ok. Her name is Charlotte."

"Weird, because that's my real…" Surprise rendered me speechless. He just looked at me, gauging my response. "Wait, you don't mean…" Normally he would have jumped at the end of my sentence, answering my unfinished question, but this time he did not. For some reason he was going to make me say it everything that was on my mind, for once in my life not taking a stab at doing it himself first. "So does that, um, mean what I think it means?"

Finally, he responded all the while looking me directly in the eyes.

"And what exactly do you think it means Charlotte?" He never used my full name unless we were talking about something really serious. He knew I hated it, which was one of the many reasons I was glad I had befriended him in the third grade when he had given me my nickname, Charlie. It was quick and to the point and everything I wanted in a name. It came at the perfect time too, I was so sick of everyone laughing at me and poking fun by saying, "So Charlotte, where's Wilbur?" or the more popular, "Wove a web lately?" Now it doesn't seem like such a big deal, but for an eight-year-old girl it was daily torture.

When the new boy arrived and his name happened to be Travis, I thought that all hope was lost. There was no way that a guy with such a normal name couldn't fall prey to the charms of the other eight year olds but strangely enough when lunch came on his first day, he grabbed his Scooby Doo lunch box (one of the really cool metal ones that I would admire whenever my dad dragged me to the grocery store) and plopped down next to me on the wooden bench I sat at everyday. At first I ignored his presence, assuming it was just another one of my tormentors hoping to catch me unaware. When he didn't say anything I looked up from my cheese stick.

"Um, hi." I said.

"Hey. I'm Travis. You're Charlotte right?"

"Yes. Unfortunately."

He thought about this for a second, "Why?"

It was such an easily answered question, "I hate my name." I shrugged, "It's so old-fashioned. It is—was my great-grandma's and lucky-old-me got it. The other kids make fun and I hate it." When I finished I was a little shocked at myself. I didn't even know this stranger, and here I was basically telling him my life story?

"I think it's beautiful. But here's what we'll do: from now on I'll call you Charlie. What do you think?"

I was still shell shocked from the fact that this stranger had just called my name beautiful, to reply audibly, so I just nodded.

"Good. Do you like Scooby Doo?"

I regained my voice, "Yes, of course. My favorite character is Velma."

"Yeah she's cool, I like Shaggy. Fred thinks he's too cool."

"Too true."

And from then on we were best friends. When I got tired of my cheese sticks, and Travis had had an excess of PB&J we would trade. When someone hissed, "Hey Charlotte," In a way that could only be intended to irritate me Travis would poke them in the shoulder and not so nicely whisper,

"It's Charlie." And normally that would shut them up. If not, it really didn't matter anymore because I had someone to talk to and didn't need to worry about the rest of them thought.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well. All cards on the table?" He nodded, so I continued, "Well, I guess that means you are, um, you are, um, well you just said that you, uh, um, well…love" I coughed trying to camouflage the word, "me." I finished. Oh god, was this really happening?

"I'm so sorry. I didn't quite catch that last part."

"Travis. You have got to be kidding me. Don't make me say it again. Please, I'm begging you." He just looked at me, his eyes boring into mine. Telling me what that I already knew I was going to cave and dragging it out would only make me look more foolish. Maybe the second time wouldn't be as hard. "Ok, so you, um well, you lov-"My nerves choked me up, and then I looked up down at my hands. Unbeknownst to me I had been twisting my rings on my fingers and now the chaffed skin kind of hurt. Stupid nervous habit. "Oh wow, ow. Oh well, um sorry. Where was I? Oh yeah, um well you love. You, you, uh love. You love me." And this time I couldn't stop it. Couldn't stop any of it. All of a sudden it didn't seem to matter, hiding what was bubbling up to the top, the surface, and my face. And I was smiling. So big that it hurt. And then there was wetness on my cheeks and I didn't know what was happening until I realized that I was crying, really crying. And not from pain, but from happiness. And Travis was looking at me, fighting with himself, on whether my mixed emotional state meant that I loved him back or that I was suffering a major emotional break down.

"Yes, that is correct. I love you. I love you to oblivion. I have loved you since the first day you plopped down next to me in the library and told me that ridiculous joke."

I smiled up at him, through my tears, "Hey, that was a good joke. Fodrizzle."

He nodded. "Fodrizzle. So does that mean what I think it means?"

Now it was my turn to tease him, "And what do you think it means, Travis?"

"Well, I guess I'm assuming that the combination of tears and grinning-not to mention the fact that you are red as a cherry tomato- means you love me as well." He was getting cocky, but I guess now it didn't matter.

"Elementary My dear Watson, elementary."

"What does that even mean?"

"Honestly? I have no idea."

"Good, because you know what that means?"

"No," I replied as he scooped me into his arms.

"It means, we're perfect for each other."

"Really? You think that there is no one else in the world who doesn't understand that statement, mistakenly thought as something Sherlock Holmes said?"

"Yes."

"Well, I guess you wear the optimism in this relationship."

"I thought I was the one who wore the pants."

"Too bad. Although I must say that those jeans don't look half bad…not that I noticed."

"Aw, thanks for that sweet nothing, darling."

"You better not start calling me darling or this won't…"

"Won't what?" He smiled his lopsided smile, which threw my heart into convulsions and left me wondering how someone saying 'darling' could be of any importance to me.

"That's not fair," I whispered. "You can't just smile like that and get away with it. You're messing with my sanity."

"Well, what are you going to do? Punish me? It's not like you have much of that left, anyhow." He didn't sound too worried about what the punishment would actually entail. There was actually a tinge of hopefulness when he spoke about the punishment.

"If you insist."

"I do."

I motioned for him to put me down. He did, but he didn't allow for much room between the two of us. As we stood there, I felt our friendship fizzing around us, not disappearing, but turning into something bigger and deepr. Something that enveloped us completely Something more solid.

"Well here goes." And I stood on my toes, stretching my lips as far as they would go. Even then, he still had to bend a bit to reach me, and just as his lips were about to touch mine, I pulled back slightly. He opened his eyes and looked at me quizzically.

"What? Are you afraid I have cooties? I don't, I promise."

"Good." He leaned in once more, and right before our lips made contact I whispered, "But I have one last question."

"Just one?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Okay, shoot."

"What type of clothing detergent do you use?"

"Tide, baby, nothing but Tide."

"Ok." I stood as tall as I could and was about to make contact with his lips when he stopped me.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because darling, you smell delicious."

"Well, I should hope so. I showered and wore all clean clothes. I even separated my colors from my whites."

"Oh, Travis, I'm so proud of you, but please, now would be the time for you to shut up."

"Why? I do smell clean don't you agree? I mean honestly I don't understand why people use that weird stuff with the bear on the front? Who are you kidding? That stuff is just creepy!"

"Travis."

"What? I don't get…oh." Maybe it finally occurred to him that he happened to be holding, what I guess he considered the girl of his dreams, in his arms. "Where were we?"

And then finally, after the years, months, days, and hours of waiting, he kissed me. It was amazing, and though I don't like to use the word, perfect. I had told Travis that I'd never been in love, and that was true. I was always in love, I had always been in love with him. Being in love with him was my natural state. From the very start he was the only one I saw. And lucky enough for me, he loved me back. Maybe there was some good in the universe after all. Maybe.