Harper, Margot, Elyse and I were going roller skating. I hadn't been since I was a kid but I was excited. It was a Sunday night and I was hoping the place would be pretty empty. That way we could be stupid without caring.

    I decided to drive for once and took my mom's car. Driving wasn't my favorite thing but I sort of missed it.

My hair was in a ponytail because I had a lot of hair and I didn't want to get too hot. I tried to not look like a slob but ultimately I gave into looking slobbish because again, I figured no one would be there.

The girls were already at the rink so I parked the car and headed inside.

As soon as I saw them I smiled and made a stupid face. I had just started to jog their way when I was blindsided. By a kid who slammed into me. He looked no more than 10 but God he took me down quick.

I groaned as my back hit the floor. I really needed to get to the gym cause this was just embarrassing.

The kid was standing up, mouth open with his cheeks inflamed. He looked really guilty and as I got to my feet I ended up consoling him.

"It's okay. I'm okay."

"Sorry." He said.

I shot him a weak smile while trying to ignore the fact that my ass hurt.

From behind me I heard laughing and I knew right away that it was my friends. I saw them approaching but I waved them off so they didn't embarrass this kid further.

I focused back on the kid and my imminent need to escape. "Since we're both okay I'm going to head over to my friends." I told him.

He blinked. This kid looked frightened as hell. I was beginning to worry that maybe I dressed too much like a slob because this guy was staring at me like I was Shrek and I told him to stay out of my swamp.

I didn't know where to go from here so I took it as my signal to leave. I started backing away slowly. I was weirded out now. And was gearing up to hightail my ass out of there.

I was inching my way back when I collided with a wall. A wall that went oof when I jammed my elbow into its side. A wall that's hands wrapped around my upper arms to steady me and bent down close to my ear to say, "are you okay?" in a really deep attractive masculine voice. You know? Just your every average day wall.

I took a deep breath. Trying to get some composure because I even though I didn't know what was going on I could tell that mistakes were being made. By me.

I still hadn't spun around to face this wall when I squeaked out an "I'm fine."

At the sound of my voice the wall let me go and I spun around.

I blinked.

"Matt?" I questioned.

His hand went to his head and he grinned. "Yeah."

I let out a girlish scream before jumping him. His hands went around me and I hugged him tightly.

I let out a laugh as I slapped his shoulder. "You didn't tell me you were in town."

"Yeah, I was going to surprise you tomorrow. Jordan knew." He told me, smiling up at me.

Matt was a good friend of Jordan and I. We were a tight knit group until the summer before high school. He moved away with his mom after his parents got a divorce. We still talked every once in a while and when he came to see his dad we would find time to hang out. I hadn't seen him in a year or so.

He had definitely changed. He was less scrawny and more filled out. He had gotten a lot taller too. He was always boyishly cute but now he looked a lot more manly.

I started to shimmy out of his hold and he loosened his grip. "It's so good to see you." I said.

"Yeah. I missed you guys."

"What are you doing here Matty?"

He grinned even bigger. "I was hoping you forgot about that fucking nickname."

"Never that." I said.

He shook his head at me. "It was supposed to be a surprise but I have enough credits to finish high school this semester so I decided to switch to online school so I could come live here with my dad for the school year."

I screamed again while jumping up and down. "That's amazing!"

He looked at me and shook his head again as his lips twitched at my antics.

The girls had come back and rented their skates. They were all watching me and being obnoxious about it. Harper was making kissy faces behind me and Margot was pointing at him and giving me a look that said he was hot as shit.

I did my best to ignore them and focused on Matt. "You know... homecoming is coming up and you should be my date."

His brow raised. "You aren't going with Jordan?"

"I mean probably not. We never usually go together. I go with my friends and he goes with um, other girls."

He studied me. "Okay. I'll go with you as long as Jordan doesn't kill me."

"Why would he do that?" I asked.

"I mean it's pretty clear you guys have something going on."

"Matt you know we're just friends."

"That's bullshit. Y'all are just cowards."

I rolled my eyes. "Call me a coward all you want Matty, I need a date and I want it to be you."

"I was hoping you would have stopped calling me that by now."

I pet his face. "Sorry to disappoint."

He rolled his eyes.

"The kid over there, you know the one that ran you over?"

"He didn't run me over..." I said avoiding eye contact.

He shook his head and smiled. "That's my younger cousin."

I looked behind me at the kid before facing Matt again. "No shit?"

"Yeah. It's his birthday so we were at the arcade. He's a good kid. He's just pathologically shy. So forgive him."

"I wasn't going to hold a grudge on an 8 year old kid Matt."

"In the 6th grade you held the silent treatment up for 2 weeks after I did one thing to annoy you."

"Yeah but that was like in the 6th grade. Like hello sir I've grown."

He gave me a look.

"I'm not the same person I was in the 6th grade. I'm a much better human. One that now deserves a place in society."

His arm slung around my side. "I love knowing that you haven't changed a bit."

I blew out air and he walked me back towards the kid. I was dragging my feet but he was much too strong.

When we reached the kid who was now staring at us in wonder I looked to Matt. I gave him a "so what now?" Look.

He spoke to the kid. "Hey Beckett, this is Charlie. She's one of my old friends."

His face went red and I bent down.

"Hey Beckett. You don't have to be afraid of me. I'm actually really nice I promise."

He blinked. "I'm not afraid of you," he said, sounding a little annoyed.

"Okay." I said awkwardly.

I looked at Matt and he seemed to be enjoying my discomfort. I fought the urge to tackle him.

"So... um how old are you?"

"8." He whispered.

Wow this was a good start. He was speaking to me. "Oh very cool. So you're in the 2nd grade?"

He nodded.

"I bet the second grade is fun."

He shrugged. "My teacher is a bitch."

I gasped.

"Beckett." Matt muttered with a smile playing on his lips.

This kid was crazy.

"What? You say it," he defended.

I looked Matt up and down while shaking my head. "Shame, shame, shame. Cursing around children. This is a new low."

He pinched me and I turned back to the kid who was currently studying me.

"Are you Matt's girlfriend?" Beckett asked.

"No. He's just a good friend."

"I feel like you're lying," he said.

"Well I'm not. I don't have a boyfriend."

"Well, you could be my girlfriend... you know if you want."

Matt threw his head back and started dying. He was laughing so hard I'm pretty sure he started crying. I on the other hand was just really confused because this kid couldn't even say boo to me and now he was asking me to be his girlfriend?

I furrowed my brow and ignored Matt. I was going to let him down easy. It wasn't easy only being pretty enough to capture the attention of 8 year olds.

"Sorry Beckett. I think I'm too old for you."

He shrugged. "Your loss."

I looked at Matt. "What did you do to this kid?"

He just kept laughing. So I jabbed him in the side.

It was time to escape. Again. "Well guys I actually came here to hangout with some friends from school so Matt I'll probably see you tomorrow and Beckett I want to wish you a very happy birthday."

After Matt sobered up he looked back to me with a lazy smile. "I'll see you tomorrow. I gotta get this kid home."

I nodded. "Catch you guys later." I said as I waved and walked away.

What a weird interaction, I thought to myself. It just seemed like only weird awkward shit happened to me. I knew God was cracking up right now.

I went over to rent my skates and put them on. I laced up the shoes and headed over to the rink. The girls were already skating around to Dancing Queen and I hastily made my way over to join them.

I was an amazing skater. I used to come to the rink for hours with my parents and I would sob when we had to leave. So this right here? This was my shit.

After my friends gave me a good ribbing, Margot asked me to get her in there, with Matt. Matt was cute but he wasn't her usual type. Either way I agreed. I have no idea why though. Setting up friends is either really great or is a huge disaster. But I figured just cause my love life sucked didn't mean theirs had to.