• "I'll have one rainbow sorbet, one vanilla bean, and one Rocky Road please."
    "No problem. That'll be $8.00, Miss."
    I searched through my purse and took out a crumpled $10.00 bill to hand to the man behind the counter.
    My name is Lexi Johnson. 5'2", sophmore, long, brown, wavy hair, light blue eyes...nothing special. My mom always says otherwise, that my eyes are "beyond extravagant", but I mean come on, she's my mom. She's supposed to say that.
    I got up from my chair to grab the ice creams and exited the mall's Cold Stone to look for my best friends Natasha Springfield and Connor Atkins.
    I sighed. Connor.
    Connor and I had been best friends since preschool, when we would build sandcastles and play with medieval action figures and dragons all day long. I would bring my Barbie dolls and make them be the damsels in distress and Connor would make his horsemen the knights in shining armor. The other boys would tease him for playing with "dolls", but he just ignored them and told them that they were just jealous because he didn't believe in cooties and could actually talk to girls. That would shut 'em up. Ah, even in preschool Connor knew how to make a good comeback. That's probably where he got that talent of making people respect him. It's true. He's not the most popular guy in school, but everyone likes him.
    Connor and I grew up together, and eventually met Natasha in seventh grade. She was me and Connor's scince partner the whole year, and we all grew to be really close. She's more on the girly side and would drag Connor to the mall with us, no matter how much he protested. And he, being the basketball playin' boy he is, would drag her to the games no matter how much she protested. But they learned to adjust and resulted in Connor's style actually being wicked awesome (sometimes) and Natasha's being on the varsity basketball team.
    But Connor and I have always been closer to each other. After all, we've known each other longer. We have incredible trust in each other and tell each other EVERYTHING. Everything from test scores and family matters and crushes (yes, even the reason for liking the person).
    But lately I've been trying to avoid the subject of crushes around him because I don't know what he would think if I he found out who I like. I don't know how he would react if he found out that I have a crush on...
    Him.

    Lexi Johnson