.

El had been harboring a crush on Mike for a while but she hadn't said anything for fear of their friends making fun of her. Or worse, his not liking her back.

She couldn't think of anything worse than him not liking her back, except for maybe his having a crush on another girl at school. Like Jennifer Hayes. Beautiful and bubbly Jennifer Hayes, who everyone in school had a crush on. If Mike did like her, he hadn't ever told their little group of friends. Lucas and Dustin were more vocal in their affections for her than Mike was, causing Max to shoot daggers in Lucas' direction whenever the subject came up.

She banished the thought of Mike liking anyone else and shoved the pink envelope into his desk before she could lose her nerve. Today was the best time to tell him how she felt without telling him how she felt because it was Valentine's Day. She had even done her best to disguise her handwriting so he wouldn't know it was her, and he would be able to tell it was her. They had been trading letters forever, mostly about secret things they didn't want the rest of the gang to know they talked about. Like "Pride & Prejudice" and "Little Women" (or like how they thought Jo and Laurie should have gotten together).

The classroom door creaked open and her heart jumped into her throat as she hurried away from Mike's desk as fast as she could, afraid of getting caught.

A few seconds later, Mike came through the door and she thought she would pass out right then and there. His face flushed bright pink when he saw her, bringing out his freckles. She swallowed hard.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Uh… nothing," El replied. "I mean, I uh… went to use the girl's room and then I remembered that I uh… had forgotten my lunch. What are you doing here?" afraid he'd call her out for fibbing. She was sure he knew she was lying because he was always in tune with her.

Mike hid the envelope he was holding behind his back. "Nothing. Looking for you," he said quickly. "Everyone was wondering where you were."

El hurried to her desk and picked up the brown bag lunch that Joyce had packed for her that morning and avoided looking at Mike's desk. "Are you coming?" she asked.

Mike nodded. "Yeah, of course."

She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to come with her. He was beside her in a few steps, slinging his arm around her shoulder just like he always did. Her heart skipped a beat just like it did every single time he touched her. He navigated them both out into the hallway after looking to see if there was anyone in the hall.

.

"I found her!" Mike announced to the table when they got to the cafeteria.

Will frowned. "Huh?" he asked.

Max rolled her eyes, already grumpy even though the Valentine's Day party hadn't even started yet. "Nobody was wondering where the two of you were. We all thought you were off talking about Nancy Drew or whatever it is you two don't talk about when we're not around."

El's eyes widened.

Mike rolled his and sat down. "What's eating you, Maxine?"

"She's mad because Lucas gave her a Valentine," Dustin supplied, around a mouth full of Tater Tots.

"Shut up Dustin!" Max snapped.

"He gave us all Valentines," Mike said.

"Did yours say Our Friendship Can Rule the Galaxy?" El asked, thankful that nobody was interested in why she hadn't gone to lunch with them.

"Of course," Mike replied.

"It's what it says every year," Will said.

Lucas grinned. "If it works, it works!" he said, obviously pleased with himself.

Max scowled.

"I'm not sure how much longer it's going to work," Will told him.

"What did Jennifer Hayes' say?" Max asked, crumpling up her napkin.

"What does it matter?" Lucas retorted.

"He didn't give her one," Will offered helpfully.

Dustin snickered. "Like he'd be brave enough to give a Valentine to a girl he actually liked."

"Like you gave her a Valentine," Lucas said, rolling his eyes.

"Valentines are so sixth grade anyway," Max grumbled.

El blushed, thinking about the one she'd just left for Mike. "Not always," she hedged carefully.

Max shot her a dirty look and El clammed up immediately as she started to pull her lunch out of her bag. A heart-shaped cookie, a PBJ sandwich, a bag of chips, and assorted veggies in a Ziploc baggie.

She pulled the plastic off her sandwich and took a small bite, finding she was too nervous to eat. She kept thinking about the card that she'd left for Mike on his desk, it was burning a hole in her stomach. She'd been careful that he wouldn't be able to tell that it was her… but what if Max was right? What if they were too old to give each other Valentine's?

"Are you feeling okay?" Mike asked, interrupting her thoughts, and looking at her with concern. "You're barely eating."

El took a bigger bite and nodded. "I'm fine," she assured him through a mouthful of peanut butter before regretting her decision as she started to cough on the too-big a bite. Mike handed her his Coke and she took a sip. "Thank you," she said when she could finally talk again, taking another sip as she cleared her throat.

"I think we should just boycott Valentine's Day and the Valentine's Day dance today," Max said. "We can all go see a movie or go to the arcade."

"But I bought a dress!" El protested. "I thought we all agreed that we'd go to the dance tonight…"

She trailed off when Max glared at her again and took a carrot stick, dipping it in Mike's ranch dressing. She hoped that the rest of their friends wouldn't actually agree to go to the movies instead of the dance. She didn't know what she was expecting to happen… but she wanted something to happen.

"We already bought tickets to the dance," Will said. "We can go to the movies tomorrow, maybe."

Max huffed. "Guys?" she asked, looking at everyone else expectantly.

Mike shrugged and glanced at El. "I think it could be fun. The dance that is, we can go to the movies or arcade any time."

"We were just at the arcade after school yesterday," Dustin added.

"You don't have to come with us though," Mike told her. "Not if you don't want to."

"I know!" Max snapped. "But I guess I'll go, it's better than spending the night all by myself. I think that's even more pathetic than going to a school dance on a day that's intended for people who are in love—"

The bell rang, cutting Max off mid-rant.

El was the first person to jump up. "Max, do you want to come to my house to get ready for the dance later?"

Max sighed reluctantly. "I guess so."

"Great! I'll see you after school and we can stop by your house to pick up your stuff!"

.

Later that afternoon, El and Max were in El's bedroom listening to music and talking while they prepared for the dance.

"If you were really my best friend, you would have agreed with me about not going to the dance tonight," Max said as she brushed out her long, red hair.

"You know you could just tell Lucas how you feel instead of making everyone else around you miserable," El replied, holding up the pink silk slip dress she'd bought just for the occasion.

"And humiliate myself? No thank you! I already know the answer, I'd rather not put myself out there like that," Max retorted. "What about you? Don't you think you should tell Wheeler how you feel?"

El blushed and pulled her sweatshirt off. "I might already have."

Max's eyes widened. "What did he say?" she asked, looking at El expectantly.

"He didn't say anything," El replied. "I didn't tell him to his face. I left him a note in his desk telling him how I felt."

Max frowned as she reached for some concealer. "He didn't say if he got the note? What a jerk!"

El fumbled with the zipper on her dress. "Well, I didn't exactly sign my name either and I tried to disguise my handwriting so he wouldn't know it was me."

"Why on earth would you do something like that?" Max asked, abandoning her concealer so she could get up and zip El's dress for her.

"The same reason you won't tell Lucas you love him, I guess. I'm afraid of humiliation… rejection, that he doesn't like me the same way. Fear of ruining the friendship. Our friendship is so perfect just the way it is."

"First of all, I'm not sure if I love Lucas. It's such a strong word. Second of all,it's a well-known secret that Mike has a thing for you. I don't know why he hasn't said anything about it yet. Especially since, I'm sorry, it's really obvious that you have a thing for him too." Max glanced at her slyly. "Of course, I'm not saying you have to tell you. You two are already insufferable enough together as it is, I can't imagine what you would be like as an actual couple."

El grabbed her tube of sparkly lipgloss and considered it for a second before putting it back down and picking up her favorite Lipsmackers. "If we even ever became a couple."

"Trust me, you'd be the most annoying. You would be the yearbook superlative of most likely to get married and live happily ever after, a rare occurrence but if it happened to anyone it would be the two of you."

El blushed thinking about it. "We're only 17," she said.

"Kids are our ages were already married by now. Marie Antoinette married Louis when they were 14 and 15." Max rested her chin in her hand. "Not that I think getting married that young is a good idea. Not that I think getting married at all is a good idea. Boys suck a lot of the time."

"Maybe that's why girls and boys don't get married," El said, shrugging.

"Unless you have to get married like Marley and James did," Max replied, swiping her hands in a wide circular motion to indicate the fact that their former (older) classmates had gotten pregnant.

El rolled her eyes and nudged her good-naturedly. "Be serious."

"I am being serious," Max said. "Though if Marley was going to marry anyone, I guess James makes the most sense. They're both… just… so nice. But anyway, I think you should actually tell him that you're the one who sent him a note confessing your undying and lifelong love for him."

"It did not confess my undying devotion and lifelong love for him!" El objected.

"Then what did it say? Something from one of those books you two are always talking about? 'If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more'?"

El rolled her eyes again. "No."

"Well. What did it say?" Max asked as she slipped out of her sweater and jeans and into a floral dress that El had insisted she borrow for the occasion.

El shook her head and fastened on the silver locket that Mike had gotten her for her 16th birthday. "Why don't you tell Lucas how you feel about him again?" she asked again, changing the subject to something she was hopeful would get Max to drop it at least for the rest of the night.

"What am I supposed to say? Yo Lucas, like I think you're the ultimate. Stop being a jackass and like me too?"

"Well… I'd be a little more… tactful than that," El replied. "But sure, why not something like that? The worst he can do is say no."

"That is the worst thing he can do," Max agreed. "I'd just rather not because boys are stupid anyway. I don't even know why I'm wasting my time liking him."

"Sometimes boys aren't stupid," El said, her mind drifting to Mike again and the way he smiled at her, and his freckles… and how he sounded when he read to her.

"Most boys are stupid," Max said determinedly. "With their stupid Our Friendship Can Rule The Galaxy cards and… ugh. I don't even want to think about it anymore! Are you sure that you want to go tonight? Really, truly sure?"

"Yes," El answered, nodding her head.

Max sighed. "Well then, let's get it over with."

.

El's heart was beating faster as she and Max approached the gym, and she didn't know why. It was going to be a perfectly normal hangout with her friens. As far as she knew, Mike hadn't even seen her love letter. So there would be no awkward interactions, no gentle rejection… her mind went blank when Max pushed the doors open, and she saw Mike under soft pink twinkle lights with Dustin, Lucas, and Will.

Suddenly, she had tunnel vision.

Mike looked over at them and smiled, he said something to the rest of the group and then jogged towards them.

"Max, do you think I could talk to El alone?"

Max shot El a look as if to say 'I told you so' and then went off to join their friends by the refreshment table.

"Hi Mike," El said.

"Hi El," Mike echoed, clearing his throat.

El folded her hands in front of her and watched Mike uncertainly, waiting to see what he would do next. Wondering what he was going to say next. "Is everything okay?" she prodded gently.

"Yeah… yes, everything's fine!" Mike assured her. "I just wanted to know… I was just wondering if you meant what you wrote."

El's eyes widened. "What do you mean what I wrote?" she asked, pretending to play dumb.

Mike pulled a familiar pink envelope out of his pocket and showed it to her. "I know you're the one who wrote this letter. I'm just wondering if you meant it."

"I—"

"Because when I was going to the classroom, it wasn't to find you… it was to put this in your desk," Mike said, pulling out a tightly folded piece of notebook paper from his pocket. "You can still have it even if you don't mean it but I'm really hoping—"

El cut him off with the only way she could think of.

Kissing him.

For a second, she thought that she'd misread the signals but then he was kissing her back. She pulled away and smiled at him. "So are you saying you love me?"

"I have since the first time I saw you," Mike answered. "I could monologue about the way you make me feel."

El smiled. "Well, I love you too."

Mike kissed her again and then pressed the note he'd written in her hand. "Read this, would you?"

El opened it, realizing her hands were shaking as she scanned the contents. It was void of all the flowery language the men in the books they read used (and the ones she had used in her own letter to him). All it had was four simple words and a resolution.

Will you be mine? Check yes or no?

Mike held out a pen for her, and she took it. She took a deep breath and circled yes.

The End

.

Author's Note:

Insert Dustin eating Nilla Wafers and saying "They're going to be even more insufferable now".

This story has been in the works for a year now, I meant to have it out last year but I had writer's block and the whole in-fandom fighting killed any inspiration to write. But here I am again. I hope you enjoyed this little Valentine's Day treat from me to you.

I have a couple more stories up my sleeve.

I'll see you guys later. Much love from me to you.