Catherine was sitting in her usual spot for lunch. The small bench that was under the shade of a wispy looking Aspen tree. She had the same turkey sandwich, apple, and water bottle as she did everyday. Her eyes were plastered on the book in her lap, which was her only company. No one every really paid attention to her. Her teachers often forgot her name. The students only briefly remembered her because of that one time freshman year when she accidentally set off the school fire alarm, and thoroughly embarrassing herself. She was a junior now, and had become accustomed to the people around her ignoring her existence. The one person who did pay attention to her was her best friend, Laney. Laney was the polar opposite of Catherine. She was tall, blonde, with electric blue eyes. She was obnoxiously loud, a complete wild child. Catherine had dark hair and sparkling green eyes, was a total of five foot nothing and could barely call in a pizza order without her shyness preventing her. But they were best friends. “Catherine and Laney” “Laney and Catherine”, their names were always said together, that is if anyone remembered who Catherine was.

Laney was absent today. This always gave Catherine mild anxiety because without Laney coaxing her into participating in class and taking trips to the mall after school, Catherine would be completely alone. As Catherine bit into her apple, someone nearby cleared their throat. She looked up to see a boy standing in front of her whom she did not recognize. He had the most beautiful brown eyes with flecks of gold streaking through them, his hair was jet black and flowed down across his forehead. Catherine realized as she ogled at him that he had asked her a question and it had gone completely over her head. She choked on her apple and looked up at him.

Blushing furiously, she stammered “Uh, uhm what?”
He grinned and repeated, “Can I sit here?”
“Oh, uh, of course,” she squeaked pushing a lock of hair away from her face and scooting herself over.

As he sat down, his scent wafted across her nose. He smelled like coconut and freshly mowed grass. Again, she realized he had said something and she hadn’t even been paying attention.

“ -and so my parents packed me up and shipped me here to live with my aunt. I’m Nate by the way.” He dazzled her with another smile, and held out his hand to shake hers.

“Catherine. I’m Catherine.”, she replied shaking his hand, smiling weakly.
“What’s that you’re reading?”, he inquired flicking one of the pages of her book.
“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I’ve read them all but this ones my favorite and I finished my last book so-”, Catherine cut herself off when she realized she was rambling.

“I used to love those books!” he said picking it up off her lap and thumbing through it. “Man, I remember when I was younger my mom would read to me right before bed...”, he trailed off looking into the courtyard just when the school bell rang.

Catherine grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She waited awkwardly for him to stand up and give her the book back. He didn’t, instead he grabbed the pencil that was sticking out from her bag and scrawled his number into the front page of the book.

“Hey thats my book!” Catherine protested.
“Yeah but, now you have my number.” Nate replied cockily, grinning and tossing the book at Catherine. She fumbled for it before it hit the ground with a soft plop. She blushed as she picked it up and stuffed it in her bag.

“You better text me, or I’ll come back tomorrow and bug you again.” Nate called over his shoulder as he sauntered out of the courtyard and off to his class. Catherine scurried into her fourth period English class where she was able to forget about her weird lunch time encounter and concentrate on reading Macbeth.

When school ended that day, Catherine walked out to her beat up volvo where Laney was sitting on the hood, wearing a pair of bright pink converse, tight black shorts, and a bright green half-tank that barely covered her breasts. Her bleach blonde hair was pulled back by a headband and she had the biggest grin on her face.

“CATIE. I HAD THE MOST WONDERFUL DAY,” Laney screeched hopping off the car and zooming towards her. “Thomas took me to the fair and we just had the most fabulous time,” her eyes glazed over wistfully.

“Oh thats nice,” Catherine replied nonchalantly tossing her bag into the backseat and plopping down into her car.

“What? No lecture? No interrogation. Don’t you want to know if I fucked him? Got drunk? Smoked some weed?” Laney crowed, jutting out her hip and placing one perfectly manicured hand on it.

“Oh, well, you’d tell me if you did, right?” Catherine asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

Laney didn’t get the chance to answer because a loud voice yelled across the parking lot

“CATHERINE. I’M AWAITING THAT TEXT!” Nate’s loud voice boomed and Laney’s head whipped around to look.

“Who the hell is that hot guy? and how did you get his number?! You never talk to anyone! Ever. I want all the details, right now. And goddamn it Catie, you better text him.”

“Uh. Um. What. Its not like that- he’s not- he’s no- he’s just a friend,” Catherine stammered nervously.

“Catie, you don’t have any other friends. He’s asking you to text him. You. You know that I love you but you’re not exactly trying to get guys.” Laney eyed Catherine’s big knit sweater and leggings that covered her body. Catherine glared at Laney and started her car.

“Get in, or you can walk home.” Catherine snapped. Laney rolled her eyes and hopped into the passengers seat.

“You’re texting him.” Laney smirked grabbing Catherine’s backpack and tearing through it to find where his number was.

“Laney! Cut it out!” Catherine pleaded, slapping Laney’s hands away from her bag.

“Pay attention to the road!”, Laney barked grabbing the Harry Potter book and opening it. Her eyes gleamed with triumph. She nabbed Catherine’s phone and quickly dialed in his number. “I’m just saying hi!”, Laney squealed fending off Catherine’s slaps.

“I hate you.” Catherine moaned as she heard the swoosh of a sent text.
Catherine dropped Laney off at home and sped back to her own empty house. Her parents wouldn’t be home till late. Her mother was a lawyer and her father was a pediatrician. She didn’t see much of either of them. As Catherine walked in the door, her phone jingled loudly. She saw that she had received a text from Nate. She spent the next few hours texting back and forth with him. He told her about his old school, and hobbies, and she filled him in on how she was a homebody and wasn’t very outgoing. They talked about their futures and what they wanted to be when they were older. Catherine lost track of time, when she glanced at the clock on her phone she realized with shock that it was almost nine. She dropped her phone, and hastily made dinner while going over her Spanish homework. When her mother got home, they exchanged awkward “hello’s” before she disappeared back in her room with a salad. The last text she received from Nate that read:

We should hang out sometime... :)
Catherine blinked furiously to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. No guy ever paid attention to her, unless they needed the answers for a vocabulary test. With a feeling of unease she typed in one word:

Sure.