It was now two in the afternoon. Katie Bell's living room was at last free of any evidence of the fiasco that was the past twelve hours. Katie looked around and sighed in resignation. "I can't think in here," she finally said aloud. In just a few minutes, she was on her way out the door. Going for a walk usually helped her sort things out. As she walked, she looked around at all the passing people, but never really saw them; she was much too wrapped up in her own thoughts, which at that moment were something like:

"...don't know what he was thinking. Could have been joking. Yes, that's entirely possible."

A thought then occurred to her, one that made her stop dead in her tracks.

"Do you want him to be joking?"

She leaned up against a nearby wall and began to consider this.

"Of course you do," she told herself firmly. Or was it skeptically? Is it possible to be both firm and skeptical at once? One thing was for sure, walking had not been as beneficial as she'd hoped. There was only one person who could help her now. God, she could already hear her high-pitched squeal.

-----

"Katieeeee!" Alicia Spinnet dropped her menu and ran to her best friend. Three months was too long to be away from one another. But with Alicia's new job and all... well, free-time wasn't very prevalent in her life. But when Katie sent her a 911 emergency page, she immediately cleared her entire day's schedule.

Katie teared up as the two hugged. "'Licia," she whispered. Alicia pulled away from Katie and saw the hurt in her face. She nodded knowingly and led her to their booth.

"So... he just planted one on you? Right there?" Alicia probed.

"Well, yeah, sort of," Katie replied looking down. "The thing is, I don't know if he was really kissing me, or just being his stupid self."

"Kate, no offense, but who cares?" Katie looked up, taken aback. "No, I don't mean, 'Who cares that he kissed you?', I mean... well, 'Who cares why he did it? Oliver Wood kissed you!'"

Katie stared at her blankly.

Barmy.

The whole world has gone absolutely barmy.

"Believe it or don't, 'Licia, I didn't want him to kiss me. Well, I mean sort of, but---"

"Aha!" Alicia interrupted.

"But," Katie pressed on, "now I don't know what to do. I don't know how to feel." Alicia smiled sympathetically.

"Oh Katie," she said warmly, "I say sleep with him." Katie's eyes flew open and Alicia began to laugh heartily. Katie soon followed suit.

"Alicia, you're terrible," she snickered.

"Yes, yes, insult me later. But first, allow me to be completely blunt with you."

"What, "sleep with him" wasn't blunt enough?"

"You gonna let me talk, Bell?"

"By all means."

"OK. Here's what I know to be true: you've been friends with Oliver for nearly fourteen years, and you've both considered dating before. This isn't the first time you two have kissed--- yes, I know about that, so save your breath," she said as Katie looked at her quizzically. "Katie, my point is this, you two... you're just perfect for each other. You've been trying to fight it for so long. Lucky for you, Oliver seems to have realized it." Katie smiled appreciatively at Alicia.

"Now I remember why you're my best friend," she said, patting Alicia's hand.

"I knew there had to be some reason, but I'd always thought it was because of my devastatingly good looks," Alicia replied.

"Oh yeah, that might've been it, too."

"Or quite possibly my ability to ruin potentially tender moments?" she offered.

"That's the one."

-----

Oliver peeked into the office and sighed with relief. She isn't here yet! That saved him a lot of embarrassment. In his head, he'd been over and over what he was going to say to Katie to explain his actions. It was just a mistake, I was confused. It sounded lame even as he thought it. It was certainly untrue, but he didn't want to ruin their friendship by telling her how much he loved her. He'd considered calling in sick, but that seemed lame, too. He strolled to his desk and began to sift through his already hefty pile of letters. One caught his eye instantly; it was pink and scrawled across the front in feminine handwriting was "To Oliver, please read".

"All right, then," he said as he removed a piece of paper from the envelope. Oliver's heart froze upon his recognition of the handwriting.

"Oliver,

First of all, I'd love to ask when the memo was handed out stating you could spontaneously kiss your best friend without permission. I must've been out that day. Secondly, I'd like to ease your mind by saying that you won't have to worry about awkward moments in the office: I quit this morning. Third and finally, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't try to contact me. No phone calls, no letters, no signed photographs—nothing. We had a lovely friendship which you chose to completely disrespect, but I choose to remember it as lovely. Goodbye forever, Wood.

-Katie Bell"

Oliver's mouth hung slack. His brows, however, were furrowed to their full extent. He couldn't seem to get his mind to start, so he said the first thing that came to him which happened to be---

"Damn." It was simple, and yet so fitting.

"Damn, indeed," said a voice from the door. Oliver jerked his head up to see his (former?) office partner and best friend.

"Katie," he breathed, still quite unhinged by her letter.

"Wood," she nodded curtly. "Now that you know the worst that could happen," she gesticulated to the letter, "perhaps we can have a little chat. No, I'm not angry and no, I'm not leaving. So wipe that look off your face, it's creepy." Katie began to pace as Oliver watched her intently.

"I met you fourteen years ago, September first, to be exact. As I remember, you called me 'feces-brain', an insult I've yet to receive an apology for, but that's neither here nor there. My point is, Wood, at that moment I knew I'd love you for the rest of my life. And I have. I watched you grow, and laugh, and change, and hurt, and scream... a lot. I watched you have relationship after relationship with girls who only wanted you for your looks or your status. I watched you cry—four times if you want to get specific. And I realized we were only destined for friendship and I accepted that. And I thought you had as well... until the other morning. So I have to know, Wood, what was it?" She looked into his face for the first time since she'd begun speaking. To her surprise, she saw a wide smile spreading across his lips. He stood and crossed the room until he was directly in front of her. She felt his hands on her waist and heard him speak.

"I won't apologize for calling you feces-brain, strictly because you quite deserved it, if memory serves me. And more importantly, I'll have you know I've only ever cried twice in my entire life. Once was the day I met you and you kicked me. Hence, feces-brain. The second was in seventh year when I kissed you and you just walked away." He looked at her warmly while she giggled.

"You remember that, eh? You just startled me, is all. I had just begun to get over you and then you go and kiss me. Sorry about that, you know, running away."

"Ah, I can't hold it against you. You were a feces-brain."

"Flattery will get you nowhere."

"Oh no?" He then finally pulled her lips onto his for the most perfect kiss either had ever received. It was a kiss of true, unfaltering love; a first for both the feces-brain and the incorrigible prat.

-----

"Katie Bell, will you marry me?" Oliver asked as he held her hands in his.

"No way, you're gross!" She then kicked him with malice force in the shin and ran away. Oliver's eyes welled up with tears as he experienced his very first heartbreak at eleven years old. And so he responded in a way only a heartbroken eleven-year-old boy can.

"Feces-brain!" he shouted through steadily increasing sobs.

Katie Bell looked back and stuck her tongue out at him.

She could have never imagined that she'd be asked the exact same question by the exact same boy fifteen years later, and she sure couldn't have imagined that she'd say yes.