Changing a Friendship

*This story was written with the help of my little sister, she is a very talented young lady and was excited to submit her first story!

Sarah looked at me and said “Brooke it’s your turn, truth or dare!”

I feel my mouth go dry and I shift in my seat. I was hoping Sarah wouldn’t pick me this time.

“I..um…I pick d-d-dare” I feel my face go red, I always stutter when I’m nervous. Why would I say that? Why would I pick dare? Sarah is my best friend and she knows too much about me. She knows exactly what to dare me to do.

Sarah smiled and said “Okay…I dare you to ask out your crush.”

Everyone looks towards me and I blush even harder as I feel my stomach drop.

“I-I...” I can’t stop stuttering, or figure out what to say.

“Come on Brooke!” Sarah starts to get louder “you picked dare, you have to do it!”

“Okay, okay, I’ll do it.”

I pull out my phone and bring up his contact. His name is Bradley and we’ve known each other since we were six years old. I’ve had a crush on him for a while now. Our moms used to work together, so we always had playdates on the weekends. As we got older, we started getting closer and hanging out on our own. Over the past couple years, Bradley has gotten really tall. He has brown hair and dazzling hazel eyes. He’s almost a whole foot taller than me now, and is the complete opposite of my red hair, pale skin, freckles and blue eyes. We are all in 9^th grade at Southwood High School.

Bradley and I are both on soccer teams for our town and are always practicing together. I told Sarah that I liked him two weeks ago, and ever since then she has been teasing me.

I stare at his number and gulp as I click “message”. I start to type. “Hey…I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while” I pause and look up, all the girls at my sleep over are squealing and giggling as they watch me debate my next words. I lock eyes with Sarah and she still has a big smile on her face, so proud of herself.

“Come onnnnn Brooke, you can do it!” she says in a sing-songy voice, almost taunting me.

I roll my eyes and go back to my message. “Ever since that day that we hung out at the mall and got those soft pretzels, I’ve felt like I really liked you. I was wondering if you liked me too and would maybe want to go out some time? On a real date lol.”

I hover my finger over the arrow to send the message to Bradley. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Sending this message will change everything. He’s such a good friend, what if he doesn’t like me? What if I ruin the friendship? Maybe I can pretend to send the text, I can change the recipient to myself so they hear the message send. When I open my eyes, Sarah is sitting next to me. She quickly reaches over and presses my finger down, making the message send.

I stand up quickly and drop my phone in shock. “Sarah! I can’t believe you would do that! I wasn’t ready to send that!!”

The expression on Sarah’s face quickly changes, I can tell she immediately felt bad.

“Oh..um…I’m really sorry! I thought you wanted him to know! You asked for dare…I thought I was helping you.”

“I didn’t ask for this dare, you came up with it. I only said it because you told me I picked truth too many times. I wasn’t ready for him to know.”

The other girls at the sleepover had stopped laughing and now looked confused. I had only told Sarah that I liked Bradley.

Amy piped up and said “Who is it Brooke? Who do you like?”

And then Carly, “Yeah Brooke who is it? Why don’t you want him to know?”

I shoot Sarah a look of disappointment. Because of her, now everyone is going to know my secret. “Nobody” I respond.

Sarah joins in, trying to help me. “It’s no one important, let’s just finish the game.”

“No” I respond sharply “I’m going upstairs to get a snack.” I turn on my heel and start to walk up the stairs, refusing to look at anybody. As I walk up the stairs I stomp my feet.

I walk into the kitchen. I start opening the pantry doors and I hear my mom come up behind me.

“Sweetie, what’s wrong? You look upset.”

“Nothing, I’m just hungry.” I don’t want to worry my mom over some silly game.

My mom knows better than to push. “Okay, well there’s cookies if you want any. Ask the girls if they are hungry too when you go back down.”

“Okay, mom.” My mom walks out of the kitchen and I turn back to the pantry. I pull out a bag of chips and sit at the kitchen table. I’m not ready to go back downstairs and face my friends yet. I pull out my phone and stare at the message that went through, reading it over and over. I’m irritated at Sarah and I’m mortified that Bradley will read those words and think of me in a whole new way. Why isn’t he saying anything??

I hear footsteps coming up the stairs. I hope it’s not Sarah, I really don’t want to talk to her right now.

Grace, the only one who wasn’t asking me to reveal my secret, emerges from the basement door. She walks over and sits next to me.

“Hey Brooke, are you okay? Sorry I didn’t say anything down there. I didn’t want to push you into something you didn’t want to tell me.”

I give her a small smile and say “I’m okay, I’m just a little mad at Sarah.”

Grace nods and says “Yeah, I don’t think Sarah was in the right sending that message for you. That’s your personal business and it should be handled the way you want it to be.”

“Thanks Grace, I appreciate that a lot.” I scooch the bag of chips closer to Grace “Want some?”

Grace chuckles and reaches her hand into the bag “Sure!” We both snack on a couple of chips and then she says “Let’s not let these actions ruin the night. I heard your mom say there were cookies, let’s grab some and go back downstairs to the other girls.”

I laugh and lock my phone, “Sure!” We head back downstairs, Sarah apologizes again and I decide to brush it off and pull out a couple of movies. We snack on the cookies and get into our sleeping bags for the night and I decide to not check my phone again until morning.

Monday at school:

I nervously step through the doors of my middle school. Bradley hasn’t answered me all weekend and I’m afraid he won’t even want to talk to me today. I find my friends at their lockers, we all say hi and Sarah pulls me aside. She says “Has Bradley responded?” under her breath. I shake my head, grab my books out of my locker and walk over to Amy, Grace and Carly.

“Did everyone finish the homework for Mr. Williams class?”

Grace looks at me knowingly and says “Yeah, it was pretty tricky, but I think I did it correctly.”

Amy nods, and goes “Yeah, this unit has been pretty hard!”

They all start to talk about the class, but I don’t hear what they’re saying anymore because Bradley just walked through the doors. I feel my heart beat speed up as he gets closer. Is he going to look at me? Is he just going to keep walking? Is he going to say something? Did he tell his friends? What will I say?

Bradley sees me and starts to walk towards me. He reaches my group and says “Hey Brooke, can we talk?” My friends have gone silent and are watching the two of us closely. I feel my face flush with nervousness. I slowly respond “S-sure”

My friends are still watching, and finally Grace speaks up. “Hey guys, let’s go to class.” They all start to walk away and I stare at Bradley, waiting for him to say something.

Bradley takes a deep breath “So I got your text…” He pauses.

I don’t know what to say, so I just go “Yeah…”

“I’m sorry I didn’t answer, I was a little bit shocked to hear that. But I have to tell you something too.”

I’m holding my breath as I fiddle with my fingers, waiting anxiously for his next sentence.

I watch as his face gets as red as mine as he takes another deep breath and says “I have also liked you since that day in the mall. When we took the pictures in the photo booth, it made me realize I liked you as more than a friend. I just get so nervous around you now, that’s why it took me until today to say something.”

I can tell by the way he's looking at me, he's serious. I'm so surprised to hear him say these words, what am I supposed to say next? All that comes out of my mouth next is, “Oh”

Bradley starts to laugh nervously and then says “Yeah…so do you still want to go out some time?”

I smile at him and nod. “How about we get some more soft pretzels at the mall Thursday after school?”

I can see him relax a little and smile back at me. “I would love that. See you then?”

“Yeah, see you then.” I can’t stop smiling. “Okay, I have to get to class, I’ll text you later.”

I walk into Mr. William’s classroom and see all my friends staring at me expectantly. I sit down next to Sarah and turn to her and say “Hey, thanks for sending that text.”

Sarah’s face breaks into a huge smile, and she says “I’m glad it worked out.”

We turn forward and I try to focus on what Mr. Williams is saying as he starts the class. But all I can think about is this coming Thursday, at the mall with Bradley.