Donald picked up an oar and walked up the steps to where Molly was sitting. Molly was immersed in her book, so Donald could be as conspicuous as he wanted. The moon was just barely coming out when Donald got his courage up to talk to Molly. He tapped Molly on the knee with his oar and then jumped to the side so that he could look her fully in the face. When she finally looked up she rolled her eyes and smiled. Donald smiled back and winked.

“My dear Molly. Would you mind going canoeing with me this lovely night?” Donald asked, kneeling.

Molly looked around and was surprised to find that the sun had gone down and the moon had come up. She saved her place in the book and set it down beside the suntan lotion she didn’t get to use today. Molly rarely went out in the sun, especially when she had a good book to read. Today is was Dracula. “I’d love to go canoeing with you,” she replied, curtsying.

Molly and Donald had been friends for a year or so now. They met when they both lost their temper over a debate about For Whom the Bell Tolls that they had been reading in English. They didn’t fight with each other but they were still put in the same room. Molly had been new that year and she was still a little sensitive to the home-schooled-new-girl label she had been given. They had become friends and a few months later Donald fell in love with her. She had so many sides and he was the only one who knew every single one of them. Not even her parents knew that much about her, but then again they had just barely adopted her before they moved in. They had home schooled her for maybe a year then decided to send her to public school.

This week they were up a Donald’s uncle’s cabin by Lake Hebgen up in Idaho. Donald thought that it could be the time to see if Molly wanted to be more than just friends. Donald figured that if she just wanted to be friends, 17 was old enough to be mature about it. Before they had left Molly had been helping her parents with a small group of Girl Scout who had been visiting. It had been singing time and Donald only really started to listen when Molly started singing a song called “A Boy and a Girl in a Canoe”. It was the song that had inspired Donald to attempt this.

He helped Molly into the canoe and pushed them away from the dock. He started paddling away while Molly just stared out at the water. And now it came down to the hard part, conversation.

“Did your parents buy you that car you wanted?” Donald knew it was a lame question but he hoped it would spark something to talk about.

And that started the conversation. And the conversation continued that way, one topic after the last. Their conversation continued on for most of the night, and after they would change topics Donald forgot what the last one had been about. Donald was in the middle of telling Molly about a dream he had had a few nights back when he paused for Molly to laugh. The laugh quickly stopped and was replaced by a yawn. Donald stared at her until she had finished blinking the post-yawn tears away. She stared at him with wide hazel eyes and smiled. Donald sucked in a breath and started to speak.

“So, how does that song go?” Donald asked her.

“Which one?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

“The canoe one,” Donald told her.

“Oh,” she said, giggling. She started humming a tune, and then she started to sing.
“You take a girl
And a boy
In a little canoe
When the moon was shinning all around.
As he dipped his paddle
It doesn’t even make a sound
So they talked
And the talked
Till the moon went in
He said you better kiss me or get out and swim
So you know what to do in a little canoe
When the moon is shinning all a’
The moon is shinning all a’
The moon is shinning all around
Just push him in!”


She finished the song and then did a mini bow saying, “Thank you, thank you. You’re to kind,” she laughed, but when she noticed Donald wasn’t laughing along with her. She looked at him curiously.

“What would you do?” Donald whispered.

“What do you mean?” Molly said, tilting her head.

“If I said, ‘you better kiss me or get out and swim’ what would you do?”

She stared at him for a while and than her gaze wandered out to the water for a while. When she slowly got up and started walking to the middle of the canoe, Donald closed his eyes and dropped his head, dejected. He was startled when she gently sat in his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. She slowly moved to touch her lips to his, pulling back little by little. Before the kissed, Molly stared into Donald’s eyes and closed the gap between their lips. It was meant to be a quick peck, but after she drew back Donald yearned for more. He could see his own feelings reflecting in her eyes as well.

He pulled her back for more and took it deeper. He brushed a strand of red hair away from her face and held her face between his hands. Molly ran her hand through his brown hair and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. Their kiss was finally broken when the canoe tipped over and dunked Molly and Donald into the water.

“Who would have thought?” Molly thought,“ All this time we were best friends, when we could have been something more.”