Boy Next Door

“I need to tell him. I am going to tell him today no matter what. Mike keeps telling me I need to tell him. I am going to tell him today,” I said over and over again in my mind as I paced in my living room. I kept thinking of ways that I was going to tell him that I liked him, but none of them were good. What should I do? Oh, I know! I’ll go over to Lauren’s and ask her for help. She’s always been good at romantic stuff. I walked out of my apartment and ran down the seven flights of stairs. I needed to get to her dorm as quickly as possible, and running down the stairs was quicker than waiting for the elevator. I ran over to my car and sped out of the parking lot.

I parked at the spot closest to her dorm, already knowing where it was because I was there to help her unpack. I ran into the building and up one flight of stairs to her floor. I banged on the door to her dorm. Her roommate answered with an angry look on her face. She hated me so much, and Lauren too. The housing committee did a really bad job picking out her roommate. I pushed her aside and barged into the small dorm. I grabbed Lauren off her bed and took her out into the hallway. Her roommate closed the door behind us.

“Lauren, I need your help,” I sighed as I leaned against the wall.

“With?” she asked as she raised her eyebrows, signaling that she was very confused.

“I need to figure out a way to tell Marc I like him, but I just don’t know how,” I said as I slid down the wall. I pulled my knees to my chest and buried my head in my hands. She sat down next to me and I rested my head on her shoulder.

“I think you should just flat out tell him. There’s really no other way to tell him.”

“Okay,” I said. I got up off the floor and started walking towards the elevator. “Come on Lauren. You don’t need to hang out with your bitchy roommate all day. You can come with me to my apartment.” She jumped up off the floor and ran after me with a huge smile on her face. She hated her roommate, too.

A few minutes later we arrived at my apartment. I went into my bathroom and took a quick shower. I went over my plan one more time in my head. I had already had most of it planned for a week. I was going to the New York Rangers-Toronto Maple Leafs which was practically a guaranteed win (Sorry Leafs fans!). No one knew I was going to the game. Not even Mike. Then I was going to wait in the players’ parking lot and wait by Marc’s car and tell him. It seemed like a good plan.

I got out of the shower and looked at the clock. 12:00. I had an hour to get ready because it was a 2:00 game. I put on some sweats and walked into the kitchen. I heard Lauren talking to someone on the phone so I tried being quiet. Too bad I wanted a nice crunchy apple.

“Could you stop chewing so loudly? I’m trying to talk to Mike!” she yelled at me. I smiled as I heard her giggle down the hallway. I knew they liked each other.

I finished eating my apple and tossed the core in the trash. I walked down the hall into my bedroom. I looked in my closet, trying to figure out what to wear. I picked out my [url=]outfit[/url] easily. I quickly put on some eye make-up and ran out the door. I started my car and took the 45 minute drive down to the Garden.

*~*~*~*~*

My heart started pounding when the announcer announced that there was only a minute left in the game. Not because it was a close game (we were up by three). It was because soon I would be telling Marc I like him. I cheered when the horn went off and when the team saluted the fans. I wasn’t worried about anyone seeing me because I was in the cheap seats. I waited until most of the stadium cleared out. I knew I would be waiting a long time for Marc to come to his car because he didn’t know I was here so he wouldn’t hurry up.

I found Marc’s car and hopped up on the trunk. I sat there with my feet hitting the bumper of the car for what felt like hours. I kept cracking my knuckles, my nervous habit. My heart was pounding against my ribs just thinking about telling him. I heard him laughing with one of the guys from the team. I looked up and saw him walking back with Brandon Prust. I immediately thought about not telling him. I he’s about 200 feet away. I can run quickly. I could get away without him seeing me. Not anymore.

“Dannie? I didn’t know you were coming to the game tonight,” he said, running the rest of the distance to his car.

“No one did,” I sighed. He looked at me and scrunched his eyebrows together.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone you were coming to the game?” he asked.

“Because I need to talk to you,” I said nervously.

“I’m going to take that as my cue to leave,” Brandon said. I was completely unaware that he was still standing there. I looked at him and nodded my head, telling him that he was correct. He walked away to his car.

“Okay. What did you want to tell me?” he asked, completely clueless that I like him. I opened my mouth to tell him, but closed it once I realized that I didn’t know how to say it.

“Marc I… I…,” I started. I was cut off when Marc leaned down and kissed me. I was shocked that he would even do that. I tensed up and pushed him away from me. “What was that for?” I asked nervously.

“Crap! Please tell me you wanted to say that you like me! I’m such a fucking idiot!” He kept going on his rant while slapping his hand against his head. I grabbed his shirt to pull him down so he was eye-level with me. I looked into his eyes for a second and kissed him the next.

“What was that for?”

“Partly to get you to shut up, and partly to tell you I like you.” I let out a sigh of relief knowing that I said what I had been worrying about for months. It was so much easier to tell him after he had kissed me, because I figured he likes me, too.

“Well that’s good because I like you, too,” he said. We both sat there with these huge smiles on our faces just staring at each other for what must have been two minutes. We probably looked like idiots to other people. “So Danielle, Would you like o go on a date with me?” he asked jokingly. He obviously knew I wanted to go on a date with him.

“Well it depends,” I said jokingly.

“On?” he asked.

“When and where?”

“Tuesday night. We can go out to dinner. We don’t have a game.” I thought it over in my head. Making sure I didn’t already have something planned.

“I would love to.” I probably had the biggest smile on my face. After about a minute my cheeks started hurting.

“I’ll call you with the details later.”