Derek swung around and glared at everyone who was staring at him.

“What are you all looking at?!” he snarled.

Unfortunately, with how flustered his cherry red face looked right now, it didn’t have quite the desired effect on the audience gathered in the hallway. A couple of students sniggered.

Someone, rather well-hidden in the crowd, called out, “Go on! We’re listening!”

“I need some popcorn for this,” I heard a person nearby whisper.

Melissa still hadn’t said anything. Her hazel eyes were the widest I’d ever seen them.

“Go, Derek!” another person cheered.

When she heard that, Melissa started.

Was that his friend? I didn’t recognize the voice, but then again, I wasn’t very well-acquainted with all of his other guy friends.

I didn’t think it was even possible, but Derek’s face grew even redder.

“Shut up!” he yelled in the general direction of that voice.

Then he grabbed Melissa’s wrist.

“Come on,” he said, grumpiness evident in his tone. “Let’s go.”

“What?” she said, almost gasping the word out. “Go where?”

“Somewhere with a little more privacy, where else do you think?” he snapped. “Or do you really want to hear this in front of the whole school?”

She stopped resisting and let him pull her along.

“Uh, all the best, guys,” I said softly, unsure if it would put Derek in a worse mood.

“Good luck,” Ashley whispered, and I wondered whom she was saying that to.

The two of them neither responded nor slowed down.

A bunch of people started chattering as he tugged her away.

“Aww, leaving already?”

“You can do it!”

“Go for it!”

“You could just confess here!”

Derek turned back at the last sentence which had been uttered loudly to give everyone a dirty look.

Within seconds, they had turned a corner and were out of sight.

Ashley’s mouth, which had stayed in an open gawk this whole time, finally closed when I pulled at her arm.

“Okay, let’s go,” I said, slipping my arm around hers.

I began marching in the direction of where they had gone.

“Wait, where are we going?” she said, almost stumbling over the ground as she tried to keep up with me. “Chels, don’t walk so fast!”

“Following them, obviously!” I said, slowing down just the slightest bit for her to regain some balance. “Did you even hear what Derek was saying? He’s going to confess. Confess, Ash! There’s no way I’m missing out on this.”

Gaping at me, she came to a halt. “You want to eavesdrop on them? Are you insane? What about their privacy?”

I resumed my task of pulling at her. “It’d be fine! We just have to hide really well in a corner. They won’t even know we’re there.”

Apparently, it was her turn to yank at my arm now. “Speak for yourself. I’ll probably give myself away in three seconds flat.”

We were wasting way too much time arguing over this.

“Then I’ll just go myself,” I said, finally letting go of her. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell you all the details, since you clearly don’t want to hear about them.”

She scowled at my cheeky grin. “Chelsea!”

“Aren’t you even a little bit curious?”

“Of course I am!” she said, before catching herself. “I mean, yes, but they’ll kill us if we spy on them now.”

I crossed my arms. “If someone confessed to you today, can you really say with confidence that those two wouldn’t try to do the same?”

She hesitated. “Well…”

Seizing the opportunity, I grabbed her arm again and pulled her towards the direction our friends had gone in. “See? Come on!”

“Fine! We’d better not get caught!” With that last bit of grumbling, Ashley finally stopped dragging her feet and picked up her pace.

We barely managed to catch a glimpse of Derek and Melissa when we turned into the next hallway—they were so much farther ahead—but it was just enough.

They were so preoccupied with getting to another location that they never noticed us trailing behind them.

Eventually, we followed them outside to the back of the main school building. There wasn’t really much back here except for grass and some trees and shrubbery. People rarely came here, especially during winter, since there were tons of facilities in school that provided far more entertainment value.

I peeped out from the brick wall Ashley and I were hiding behind.

As he released Melissa’s wrist, Derek turned around to face her. Swiftly, I ducked back to avoid being seen.

“They’ve stopped walking,” I whispered to her. “Let’s just stay here.”

She nodded. From the moment we’d begun stalking them, Ashley hadn’t spoken a word. She was most likely terrified of giving us away.

We leaned our backs against the brick wall and listened.

“I was going to get you to come with me to the soccer field once it got dark,” I heard Derek begin. “I don’t think there would’ve been anyone there.”

“Oh.” Melissa’s voice was so small, it almost didn’t sound like her at all.

One glance at Ashley told me she was equally stunned. Was this it? Was our bet finally coming to an end right here?

His sigh sounded so loud in the tense, silent atmosphere thickly blanketing this whole area. “I’d have missed my chance if you got detention today. Flowers don’t last for too long.”

He actually got her flowers. It was impossible to resist looking.

“What are you doing? Stop it!” Ashley whispered, tugging hard at my arm as I leaned over to peer around the wall. “They’re going to see us!”

I ignored her.

Derek had one arm around his backpack that he was hugging to his side. In his other hand was a small bouquet of bright red flowers. Melissa’s back was to us, so I couldn’t see her reaction.

Were those roses? From this distance, it was a little hard to tell. Reluctantly, I pulled back. It wasn’t worth figuring out what they were at the risk of getting spotted.

“The flowers are red,” I whispered to Ashley.

Making a shushing motion with her finger on her lips, she glared at me.

I had to smile. “You’re being way too cautious.”

She didn’t drop the glare. “Stop talking!”

Then Derek began speaking, so I shut my mouth, just like Ashley wanted.

“I know you don’t really care about the flowers themselves, but you said before that you liked the romantic idea behind them,” he said.

“I … yeah, I do,” Melissa said, still using that tiny voice. “Thank you.”

There was a slight rustling noise. I wanted so desperately to sneak a peek at them, but Ashley had an iron grip on my shoulder and an even sterner look in her eyes. I didn’t even know she possessed this kind of strength.

“They’re red tulips.” Derek’s words all clumped together like one big word clot. “I like you. I like you a lot.”

He bought a bouquet of tulips during winter? That had to be outrageously expensive.

I had to find some time to look up their meaning in flower language. Trees were more familiar territory to me.

“We’ve been best friends for a long time, but I only started realizing how much I like you a few months ago,” he said. “It’s like my day suddenly becomes brighter when you appear. Even when we bicker, I like how passionate you get when you’re arguing your point. Every day feels like an adventure with you by my side.”

I kind of wanted to cry at how sweet this was. All of a sudden, guilt sucker punched me in the gut for having followed them all the way here and listening in on Derek’s vulnerable confession. No wonder Ashley was balking so much at the idea of listening on them earlier.

Yeah, Melissa would probably have done this too if the tables were turned, but this knowledge didn’t ease my conscience by much.

“I like you so much, I’ve been chickening out on telling you this the past couple of days,” he said. “Believe it or not, I was supposed to tell you on Saturday. I just … kept getting nervous. To be honest, if I hadn’t blurted it out just now, I might have put this off until tomorrow or until the flowers wilted. So, uh, thanks for that. Um, yeah, so that’s all I wanted to say.”

“I’ve never really thought much about dating,” Melissa said. Her voice was closer to its original volume now. “I think if anyone else had said this to me, I don’t think I would have cared. But hearing this from you feels different. I … I’m really happy.”

“So—that’s a good sign, right? That you’re happy?”

“I … I think so. I might … I think I might feel the same way about you,” she said. “I always look forward to hanging out with you more than I do with anyone else. I didn’t really allow myself to think too much about it, because I was afraid that it would change our friendship, but I really like it when it’s just the two of us hanging out together. And I always find myself having fun when we argue over stupid things. I … don’t think I’d like it if you started going out with someone else.”

“Mel, will you be my girlfriend?”

The long pause that followed his question felt like an eternity. I started to shift my hands, which were covering my ears, away to check if she’d actually answered really softly and I just hadn’t heard.

“Yeah, I’d like to,” she said.

“Thank you.” I hadn’t heard Derek sound that relieved since he completed a nightmarish history project with the worst group mates last year. “I promise I’ll do my best to be a good boyfriend.”

“You’re already an amazing best friend, so I don’t think you need to worry too much about it,” she said. “I’ll do my best too.”

He laughed a little, and then all was silent for the next couple of seconds.

Ashley and I stared at each other. Why was it so quiet?

Slowly, I peeked around the wall.

Derek was leaning his face down towards hers.

I swallowed a squeak and promptly whirled around—I didn’t want to infringe on their private moment here—to see Ashley’s face just inches away from my shoulder. Evidently, I wasn’t the only one who was tempted by curiosity to see what was happening now.

In my rush to get back behind the wall, I collided into her.

“What?” she whispered. “What is it—”

We both stumbled, and I found myself falling to the ground with a yelp. I quickly forced myself to sit up, ignoring the mild pain in my back, but it was too late.

“What was that?” I heard Derek say.

“I think it came from over there,” Melissa said.

Before I could even get up to start running, the both of them had made their way to us. With her hands on her hips, Melissa stared down at us with a raised eyebrow. Combined with his folded arms, Derek’s glare was painfully effective.

“What a coincidence to see you here,” he said.

I exchanged glances with Ashley, who was practically beaming silent ‘I-told-you-so’­s at me with her eyes, and then we looked up at them with sheepish grins.

“Yeah, it’s practically fate, right?” I said. “Congratulations, by the way. I’m really happy for you two.”

Melissa’s tinged-pink cheeks flushed even deeper. Derek’s mirrored hers.

She groaned as she covered her face with her hands. “You guys heard everything, didn’t you?”

“Most of it. Sorry,” Ashley said, wincing. “I’m super happy for you, too.”

“You could’ve at least stayed hidden until we left,” Derek said, sighing.

“I guess at least we don’t need to announce it to them,” Melissa said to him with a shrug. “They already know.”

“See? I told you they wouldn’t kill us,” I told Ashley.

She rolled her eyes at me. “No, you didn’t.”

Smiling faintly, Melissa admitted, “I’d have spied on you too. It would have been better if you’d kept out of sight, though.”

“I know we ruined the moment! I’m so sorry!” I said, bowing to them.

“It’s all good,” Derek said, waving his hand. “We can take turns. You won’t hold it against me if I ruin your moment, right?”

Ashley and I gaped at him.

“Alright, let’s go back in now.” Melissa stretched her arms. “It’s getting way too cold out here.”

As we walked back into the main building, Ashley nudged me to get my attention.

“You owe me money now,” she whispered. “I was right.”

I narrowed my eyes at her.