Tap... tap... tap... Lisa sat there trying to think of what to write for her English paper due in three days.

*Think Lisa, think, this paper

isn't all that hard. Why are

you so distracted? You need a

break, yea that's exactly

what you need. Go get

something to eat, maybe watch

some TV for a little bit then

get back to work. You'll be

fine.*

Lisa walked over to the fridge and opened it. The cool air rushing out made her shiver as she stood there trying to decide what to eat. She couldn't decide between the leftover mashed potatoes and cooked veggies or just a plain simple grilled cheese sandwich with nachos and salsa. Another shiver ran down her back, she quickly grabbed the loaf bread and some cheese and shut the fridge door. Lisa took out two slices of bread. She began to butter one side of each slice in preparation to make her sandwich.

*You know you want to do it.

Just walk over to the

computer, click on the

Facebook icon and log-in.

It's not that hard. What are

you so worried about, it's

not like he's going to be

online.*

Lisa casually walked over to the computer. She sat at the computer wondering whether getting on Facebook would be a smart choice. Finally she decided a few minutes wouldn't hurt. It was only 7 pm and the latest she'd be online would be until 7:30 pm. Lisa grabbed the mouse and clicked on the Facebook icon. She typed her email address and password in quickly and waited for her home page to come up.

*Why are you doing this to

yourself, you know he's going

to be online. You should know

by now that he always gets on

around this time. Get off,

get off now before it's

too late and you end up

staying on later than you

want.*

Lisa knew she was right. She would end up staying on later than she would like. This meant staying up later doing homework and going to bed late, again. She already had dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep, so she decided to just log out. Just as Lisa were milliseconds away from clicking ‘log off’ a message came up. It was John, the exact person she didn't want to talk to, at least at the moment. He already knew she was online; Lisa thought logging off would just be mean so she answered back with the most common greeting, "hey".

Lisa had known John ever since she was about 6 years old, and he was 5. Waiting for his response, she remembered when they used to play outside together. They had so much fun pretending that all the trees around them were monsters.

- "So, what are doing?"

- "Nothing much, I have a pretty
big English paper to write."

Lisa hoped he would get the message that she couldn't stay and talk. But that was not the message John got. As of just the past year they had become real good friends. Lisa's mind trailed off to the time they had gone to the movies together. She always thought of John as just a good friend. But she could easily tell by his fast talking and slight nervousness, he thought of Lisa as more than just a friend.

- "So what is your English paper
about?"

John always seemed to be intrigued with what she was doing.

- "Oh just about a book we
finished reading. We have to
give our opinion about the
ending and how we would have
chosen to end it."

- "That sounds pretty
interesting. Hey I have a
question..."

Lisa bit her lip. She knew prom was coming up and she wasn't going with anyone and neither was John. Lisa really liked John as just a friend. She was worried if he asked her to go with him and she agreed she could just be leading him on. She didn't want that for anything.

- "...I have to make some ice-
cream for a class event and
all the recipes I find call for
eggs, does that seem right?"

John knew Lisa would have an answer, considering baking and cooking were hobbies she was very fond of; Lisa exhaled deeply and smiled to herself.

- "Yea that's about right. I
think the only time you can
make ice-cream without eggs is
if you had a fancy ice-
cream machine thing."

What did she know though? Lisa had never made homemade ice-cream in her life. The first time she realized that John liked her more than just a friend was when he bought her an ice-cream and then proceeded to buy an ice-cream for her two friends standing beside her. Lisa always knew he would grow up to have great gentlemen qualities.

- "Ok, thanks. I just thought it
sounded weird putting eggs
in to make ice-cream. So are
you guys ready for prom?"

Lisa was a junior which meant that her class had to organize the whole thing. For the past few months her class was working hard trying to get the whole thing together. Lisa was rather hesitant to continue with the topic, but she answered back anyway.

- "Yea I think we have everything
just about ready. I'm really
excited about it; it's going to
be great!"

- "That's really good to hear."

Lisa sat there not knowing how to answer. She wasn't sure if she should try to change the topic. What would she start talking about instead? Then the same question appeared on her computer screen again.

- "Hey Lisa, I have a question."

So proper and formal, Lisa thought. This has got to be it. She held her breath and closed her eyes for what seemed to be hours; but in reality it was only about 20 seconds.

- "Will you go prom with me?"

That one question seemed to be the only thing showing on the screen. All at once, millions of things ran through her mind. She didn't want to hurt him by saying no; and she really didn't want to lead him on by saying yes. This was definitely a lose, lose situation. Lisa knew that because of her class organizing it, she was going to be busy most of the time. This would then mean not much time with John and that seemed pointless to her. Lisa decided that she would just tell John because she was going to be so busy she wouldn't be able to spend much time with him. And she really didn't want to leave him by himself for a good portion of the night. Lisa stared at the computer screen in awe, during her confusion and nervousness she had already responded to his
question. There on the screen right below 'will you go to prom with me' was the answer....'no'.