Cassandra awoke with a jerk because of her phone vibrating. Who would be calling while I am sleeping? She thought sleepily. “Yes, hello?” she answered absentminded.

“Cassie! Where the hell are you? I have been waiting forever, shouldn’t we meet up today?”

Said an irritated voice from the phone. It took a couple of seconds for her to remember what the voice was talking about.

“Danny! I am so sorry, I’m on my way. Will be there in ten.”

She hung up and ran of the bed, threw on some random clothing that was laying on the floor and brushed her teeth at the same time she threw on her jacket and shoes. Cassie was in such a hurry that she missed the threshold and fell. She managed to catch herself with her hands just as her nose was about to touch the ground, but her knees were not as lucky. Ow, stupid threshold! Now I’ll have bruises and limp for a week! She grumbled to herself. Cassandra limped as quickly as she could to the subway. When her stop came, did she practically run to the park and started to smile as she saw the dark blond youth that was walking towards her.

“Danny, I am so sorry you had to wait so long for me”

She said remorsefully. Danny looked down on her but did not say anything as if measuring if he should forgive her or not. But then he let out a blinding smile that made his sky-blue eyes sparkle.

“No worries. Girls need longer to get ready.”

He said playfully as he took in her messy hair and wrinkly clothes. Cassandra blushed slightly and quickly tried to change the subject.

“What was it that you wanted to tell me that was so important that you wanted to meet on a Sunday?” she asked.

Danny worked part-time at a restaurant and was usually unavailable on weekends as that was the restaurant as busiest. Cassandra was curious as to why he wanted to meet, but she wasn’t worried that something serious had happened, he would have told her if that was the case. That was one of the things she liked so much about him, he was so right to the point and always said what was on his mind. Now it was Danny’s turn to blush at what she said.

“Y-Yes, it was actually something I wanted to talk with you about, but we don’t have to stand here. Let’s sit down on that bench over there.”

He said. Cassandra was about to burst with curiosity, but she held herself together, sat down beside him and waited for him to continue.

“Cassie, we have known each other in over ten years now and we are good friends.”

Danny started saying. Cassandra felt her panic rise. What if Danny doesn’t want to be friends anymore, maybe he thinks that I am not a god enough friend and told me to come so that he could end our friendship!! She started to think.

“Yes, you have been my best friend for as long as I can remember.”

She said in a squeaky voice.

“Yes, exactly. That was what I wanted to talk with you about today.”

Danny said with a smile. He looked to the ground when he started to speak again.

“I have felt this for a long time, I don’t want us to be just friends.”

He took a deep breath and raised his eyes to meet hers.

“I want us to be together.”

Cassandra was speechless. What? Boyfriend and girlfriend? I see, lucky he still wants to be friends. She exhaled in relief and suddenly realized the meaning of what he just had said. Oh my god! He wants us to be a couple. I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to be his girlfriend, but it will destroy our friendship if I say no. What am I supposed to do? Cassandra felt how her forehead started to sweat. How could she possibly get out of this situation? I have no other choice, trust my instincts. She took a deep breath. This is it!

“Oh, Danny. I don’t know what to say. I am so surprised, this is the first time someone ever said something like this to me. I would love to be your girlfriend, but I want to take it slow.”

She said with a sparkling smile. However, if you looked close you could see that it didn’t reached her eyes. Danny was too happy to notice anything other than hearing her answer repeating in his mind. He gave her a tight hug of pure joy and was pleased when he hugged him back. Luckily, I am such a good liar. Otherwise had our friendship been destroyed forever. Cassie thought relived.

They sat on that bench and talked for a long time and afterwards they walked around the park, in a couple of stores and ended up in a café. Cassandra had been absentminded the whole time and only listened and sometimes maid some agreeing noises like “mm” or “yes”. When the clock struck five pm could she not stand this anymore. I must get out of here and think about everything that has happened. She thought dispirited. What can I say that would give me an excuse to get out of here and not take him with me? Now I know! Cassandra looked up at Danny and smiled a gleaming smile.

“Danny, I am sorry, but I have to go home now. I have to clean the apartment and go grocery shopping for tomorrow when you come over for dinner.”

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At first Danny looked a bit disappointed but then he smiled. “Of course, sweetheart, it would not be so good if you invited someone over for dinner and it wasn’t clean and that there was no food.” Cassandra released a relieved breath.

“Yes, that would not be so good. We can talk tonight about the time you’ll come over tomorrow. See you tomorrow. Bye.”

“Bye.”

She hurried away out of the café with those words and rushed home. As soon as she had closed the door did she drop to the floor and started to sob quietly and burst into tears. Jesus! What am I going to do! I have messed up so badly. I don’t want to be together with Danny, I don’t want to kiss him. I just want us to be friends. Cassandra didn’t know how long see sat there and cried while thinking of how incredible stupid she had been. But Cassandra is someone who doesn’t dwell on depressing things for long and if she had decided something she was going to stand by that decision, instead of going over all the “what ifs”. No, I must get it together! I have said what I have said and done what I have done. Now I must face the consequences and be Danny’s girlfriend and he my boyfriend. I have also heard from many couples that love comes after you have been together with that person for a while. “Love comes with time”. I will surely fall in love with Danny after we have been together for some time. If I only give it a chance, everything will work out. She smiled and felt much better after reaching a decision. What am I supposed to do now? Right, I have to go grocery shopping for tomorrow for real. I think I’ll take the bike to the store.

Cassie loves to go biking, she found it refreshing at the same time as you burned calories. She made a mental list about everything she had to buy while she biked down the road towards the store. I think I’ll make hamburgers for the diner, Danny likes to eat a lot and that’s easy enough to make a lot of. Right I have to buy breakfast also…No! Typical! Cassie had been so busy with her planning that she missed to turn right at the previous crossroad. She decided to bike through the park instead of turning around and challenge the traffic by doing a left turn on a bike on a highly trafficked road. This is so typical me, now I must take this big detour. Cassie was so busy berating herself that she at first didn’t notice that her surroundings had changed. Wait a little. Did the park always have these many trees? Around her were a dense forest. The road got narrower and narrower until it was only a small strip of trampled soil. I am completely unbelievable! I managed to get lost in a park with only one road that goes in two directions, home and the store! Oh well, it probably just that I don’t recognize this because I always take the bigger road.

*Phsssh*

Eh? What was that sound, that doesn’t sound like something good. Cassie stopped and stepped down from her bike and discovered what had made that sound just now.

“No!” she exclaimed in despair.

This is so not my day, first I take the wrong way twice and now my bike has a flat tire. I think I better walk the rest of the way to the store. She sighed deeply and started to walk away from her bike. After about fifteen minutes did she feel a stinging pain in her left foot. She discovered that she had gotten big blisters on her heel after taking of her shoe to examine the cause of the pain. Stupid shoe! It can’t get worse than this. She starts to limp forward and hope that it’s not far to the store. By now the road is so thin it can barely be called a path anymore. Just as she is about to give up does she notice that the path is starting to expand further ahead. It is a sign of frequent use when a path gets wider. I can glimpse something shining over there between the trees. Finally, I am by the store. She increases her pace even though her feet hurt and as she reaches the clearing she is met by the sight of a lake. A lake, a stupid lake! There’s not supposed to be any lakes in this park. Where am I? I think I ought to turn around and go home. I’ll tell Danny that we’re eating out. When she turns around to go back she hears a lot of noise from the direction she came from. What was that?! I think I should go home next to the trail instead so that I don’t get an unwanted meeting with a bear or another scary animal.

She starts to walk back in the direction of her bike and the noises in the forest increases in volume, so she increases her pace more and more until she is running at full speed. Please, please tell me that I am by my bike soon. The sound came closer and closer until it is right behind her. In that moment a prominent tree root makes its presence known and she trips forward. Just as she is about to hit the ground does she feel something swish by over her head.

Cassie looked up and saw an arrow in the trunk of the tree next to her. The sound of a lot of branches breaking make her turn around to face what it was that made that sound. Something black and enormous reveals itself between the trees. Cassie hear the sound of another arrow and the creature falls to the ground with a loud thud, an arrow sticking out of its head. I-is it dead? Wait a moment, is that wings? She is shocked to discover big black wings on the things back that glittered in the sun that came through the thick foliage. The creature looked like a mix of a bat and a lizard, but magnified many times over. Dragon, yes it looks like a dragon. This must be a dream, I must lack sleep. I’m sure I’ll be back in the park if I try to wake up. Cassie closed her eyes and opened them again. Nothing had changed, she still stood in front of the “dragon”. Suddenly leaves rustle in the same direction as the giant reptile came from. Oh no! Someone or something is coming, and I don’t want to be here to find out if it’s a who or what. I must get out of here. There’s no way I’ll stay here, it’ll be the death of me. She panicked and started to run when she felt pain radiate from one foot. No, no, no! this is not happening! Come on, come on! One more step, you can manage one more step! Cassie half ran half limped the short distance towards a tree with an especially wide trunk. She managed to dive down behind the tree just in time. The rustling was replaced with the sound of feet walking on hard packed soil.

When Cassie felt reassured that the thing in the glade hadn’t noticed her did she carefully peek out from behind her tree. The thing that had walk out on the path was not another creature but a woman. Cassie released a relieved breath. Thank god that it wasn’t one of those horrible creatures. She felt curious over what kind of woman could possibly kill something that frightening so she took a closer look at the woman. The woman stood with her back turned toward Cassie and had her waist long chestnut colored hair in a tight braid. She wore long pants and a long-sleeved shirt made of some material that made her look as if she melded with the shades of the forest when she stood still. She carried a bow and a quiver full of arrows on her back. Cassie felt quite overwhelmed and worn out over everything that had happened today. She took a step to the side to stabilize herself when the world started to spin, but missed and stumbled out of her hiding spot. The woman turned around so quickly that she turned fuzzy.

The last Cassandra saw before she fainted was a pair of incredibly beautiful amber colored eyes.

Then the world faded out into darkness and everything turned black.