It was late evening, and no one was left in the park but Katie and Freddy. Even after the rest of the band had gone home, those two just didn't want the day to end. They'd pushed each other on the swings, built sand castles, and they even had slide-climbing races. Tired, they now were sitting atop the tunnel on the play structure. When they were little, they'd both been scared to climb up there, but had gotten over it in fourth grade.
"Freddy, you know me better than anyone else, so I feel comfortable telling you this."
Freddy was rather startled by this. "Is it something serious?" he asked, a tad concerned.
"Sort of," Katie replied. "But then, very much not-serious in a way. It like, feels like the most serious thing on the planet, but then it makes you feel so giddy and hyper, like a whole lot of sugar would, and you realize that nothing in the whole wide world could be any sweeter." She tore her eyes away from the gleaming galaxies miles away, and forced herself to look Freddy in the eye, facing the glance she'd been avoiding all night. "I'm in love," she said solemnly.
Freddy was quite taken aback by this sudden revelation. "Um, in l-love? But we're only fourteen. Who exactly are you in love with?"
She looked away for a moment before providing an answer. "Well, I'll give you a hint. He is the coolest guy in school."
Freddy's heart sank. He felt like he was going to be sick, but he fought the nausea and managed to say, "Is it Zack?"
"Well, fine, maybe he's the second coolest."
"Josh Harding?"
"Okay, new hint!" said Katie. "He is one of the most talented, focused, passionate people I know."
"Um" he was running out of names. "Err†Lawrence?"
"No you little hedgehog head!" she exclaimed.
"Please don't call me that."
"He's smart, funny, and kind; he's a free spirit, yet he can chill and get down to business when he has to; his temper is fiery, but he's totally loving once you get to know him, and he's friendly and he likes nature and he's kind to little animals even if he won't admit it and"
And he's sitting right next to me, she thought.
"â€And his name is Freddy."
He had been looking away up until then, convinced that her love was for someone else. He nearly fell off the roof of the tunnel. "What?"
"His name is Freddy. His name is Freddy Jones."
He could feel a small smile tugging at his lips, but refrained from pulling a full-on Cheshire Cat. Freddy felt like he'd just been hit by an eighteen wheeler, and his heart stopped eighteen times before he realized that he wasn't breathing. Thousands of thoughts ran through his head like a hamster on a plastic wheel. Now, he knew what he needed to do.
"Whoa. Interestingly enough, I'm in love, too."
"Really?" Katie asked, eyes widening "With†who?" A faint glimmer of light shed hope upon her dreary heart.
"I'll give you a hint. She"
But he couldn't do it. He just could not bare to drag this out for any longer.
"â€Is you. She is you, Katie. She's you. I LOVE YOU."
His eyes were so intense; his love was so intense.
A bird's chirping drew her eyes away, and she checked the park for others. No animals, a few birds flying towards the moon. No one to ruin this moment. She did, however, feel angels, and an angel's soft breath enveloping her body. And it took not long for her to find that the only angel there was, indeed, Freddy.
As moonlight brushed silvery streaks into her long hair, she finally spoke to him what she'd longed to say.
"I love you, Freddy."
"I love you, Katie."
He touched her shoulder and he kissed her, and she did, indeed, kiss him back.