After soccer practice one day, my friend Dan and I figured we'd go over to my house. Since I was so hot and sweaty, I went upstairs, took a shower, and changed into a pair of jeans and a tank top. I dumped my hair back into its usual ponytail and walked back down.
Dan was waiting downstairs, channel-surfing. As always, he still had his Ohio State baseball cap on.
I plopped down next to him on the couch. "Don't you ever take that hat off?" I asked.
"Do you ever take out that ponytail?" he teased back.
I laughed. "No," I said. "At least not in public."
"Yeah," he replied. "Same here with the hat. Now let's just find something to watch." We finally settled on some stupid made-for-TV-movie on HBO—I forget what exactly—and settled down to watch it. After about five minutes or so, Dan's hand snaked around my back, and with one quick swipe, he yanked my hair band out. My hair fell down over my shoulders.
"Hey, watch the hair!" I punched his arm. Meanwhile, he had let the arm whose hand held the hair band drop over my shoulders and was picking up locks of my hair with the other hand.
"You should wear your hair down," he said. "It's really pretty."
"Thanks. Hey, wait, we have to call the newspapers."
"Why?"
"You haven't said anything mean in ten minutes."
"Shut up, Krissi."
"Whatever." We continued watching the movie. I didn't take any notice of it then, but he kept his arm around my shoulders.

About half an hour later, the movie had long since ended and we were just sitting on the couch talking and fooling around.
"Hey Krissi," Dan said. I groaned. He had been cracking stupid jokes for ten minutes straight and it was getting annoying. "Guess what I want to do right now."
"Shut up, hopefully."
"No!" It was almost a shout.
"Okay, Dan. Is this one funny? 'Cause if it's stupid, remind me not to pay attention."
He suddenly and inexplicably turned bright red. "Well," he said, "It is kinda dumb, but it's not supposed to be a joke."
"What is it?"
"What I want to do right now, " he said, swallowing hard, "is kiss you."
And, leaning forward, he did just that.