George and Liz came out of the movie theater in tears. The heat of the mid-August day had finally dissipated. “That was possibly the funniest movie I have seen this year.” George said between breaths.

“Yea it was.” Liz commented in a soft voice. “Now what should we do?”

A light breeze swirled past them blowing Liz’s chestnut brown hair across her face. She reached up and brushed it back behind her ear. George was transfixed by her beauty as he thought about the schedule he had planned for tonight. With a cough to refocus himself George responded, “How about we go get some ice cream?”

“Sounds great.” Liz said with a smile.

They went to the ice cream shop across the parking lot. George ordered double chocolate explosion while Liz got summer strawberry surprise. They talked for a half hour about the film they just saw. The good parts, the bad parts, that one weird part where a monkey had an existential conversation with a banana.

“I had a good time.” Liz said after a short lull in the conversation.

“Same here. We should do this again.”

“About that George.” Liz said in a sad, don't-hate-me kind of voice. “It was fun, and I was flattered when you asked me out on an actual date, but I just don't feel that way about you. We have been friends since elementary school, and I think we should just stay that way.”

A sudden tightness gripped his heart. He had formed a crush on her in junior high, when he started noticing girls could be more than just friends and had been trying to build up the courage to ask her out. Being the nice guy that he was he just couldn't hurt her by letting her see how heartbroken he felt.

“Yea.” George said in an upbeat, yet slightly shaky, voice. “That's probably for the best. I figured I would see how it felt to go on an actual date with you, but you know what?” George asked.

“What?” Liz replied shyly knowing George was probably hurt by her statement.

“It kinda feels like I'm dating my sister.” George laughed. “Besides you probably have a bunch of other guys asking you out every day.”

Liz leaned over and punched him in the arm. “And I was worried about you.” Liz said in feigned annoyance. “But yea, Mike finally asked me out the other day. You know I have liked him since we started high school.”

“Finally?” George said in feigned surprise. “With how much you stare and all but throw yourself at him I was starting to think he was just gay.” George laughed loudly.

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Liz laughed and punched him again.

Mike was the typical jock, tall and muscular. He loved sports but he didn't play on any of the school teams even though all of them were trying their hardest to get him on their roster. How he and George became best friends was still a mystery to everyone. No one really knew much about Mike except that his family ran the local hardware store. He had two siblings, an older brother that was away at college, and a younger sister that was a first year at their high school who was a cheerleader, even though she dressed in the latest goth fashion. He had good grades and most of the faculty liked him because he would always help out if asked.

George couldn't hate Liz for going after him since most of the girls at school did anyways. “I'm glad he finally asked you out. I hope you two have fun. Just remember if you get invited to any of the cool parties see if you can get me in.”

“I'm glad that you’re not too depressed about this and we could still be friends.” Liz told George. Liz glanced at her watch. “Oh no. My dad is going to kill me if I don't get home soon. I'll see you in Professor Snorebottom’s class Tuesday, right?”

Professor Higgenbottom, or Professor Snorebottom as most students called him, was a history teacher at their school. He loved history, especially ancient history, and would talk about the most mundane aspects in great detail during his lectures, his lessons could put even the most studious of students to sleep.

“I'll see you there” George said as they got up to leave. They walked back to Liz's car talking about their different classes. They got to her car, hugged, and said goodbye to each other. Liz hopped in and drove away. George stood there watching Liz go until she turned a corner and was out of sight. George walked over to the bike rack by the theater doors, unlocked his bike, hopped on, and started his ride home.

He slowly rode in a daze of disappointment and depression. He wondered why the girls always went after the jocks. What was wrong with a guy like him? Sure, he was a little pudgy, but he was a nice, funny guy. His friends always said so. Lost in thought he didn't know how much time had passed or how far he had ridden when a cat jumped across his path. He slammed on his brakes sliding to a stop, looked around, and realized he was in the park where he and Liz would play when they were younger.

Luxton was a smaller town of a couple thousand people. It was a quiet, peaceful, and some would say boring town while others would call it charming. While it had a decent hospital, school system, and farming community; the biggest draw for people was the rather large central park. The park was about two square miles with basketball and tennis courts, baseball diamonds, soccer fields and playgrounds around the outside; and running and hiking trails, and a dense forest with camp sites in the center area where people could go to get away for a weekend, without having to brave the wild forests that surrounded the town.

George was in one of the major crossroads of several trails where they had put up a small clock tower that stood about twenty feet tall made from sandy brown colored bricks. There were a few benches around the tower. The paths were sparsely lit with pole lamps, but the town was always putting in new ones randomly when they could.

George looked at his watch and read nine thirty, he didn't really feel like going home after everything that just happened and it wasn't that late for a Sunday, so he got off his bike, leaned it against a bench and took a seat to think about what he was going to do now. How was he going to still be friends with Liz without it being awkward or him being depressed every time he saw her.