The boy sat in the hallway of the large house. He was angry. He had been waiting there for almost an hour. He had written to her, and she was to meet him in this hallway in this large house, but it had been one hour and still she had not arrived. He always tried to do his best for her. He always sat with her, and held her coat, and opened her doors, and did whatever he thought would make her happy. He though that she would like the little note that he had left asking her to meet him in the hallway of the large house. He though that she would think it was sweet, and he thought that she would definitely come. But it had been one hour and five minutes and she had still not yet arrived.

He loosened his tie, the one with the Looney Toon characters and the little hearts on it, the one his father had brought him home from his trip to Indonesia. The boy had been mad when his father had given him the tie. He had wanted a spear instead. But now that he had the tie, he was glad. What else would he have worn to the hallway of the large house for this special occasion?

It had been one hour and ten minutes and she had still not yet arrived. The boy began to wonder what his friends in the other room were doing-what were they thinking? They were probably drinking punch, and telling stories, and laughing, and playing games, and dancing.

The boy had been waiting in the hallway for one hour and fifteen minutes. He thought about all that he could have done in that time; he thought about the stories he could have told and the laughs he could have had. He felt like laughing. He had always heard that laughter was the best medicine. He tried to laugh, but he could not. His laughter came out as tears. Not at first, but then his gaze drifted, and his lids began to quiver, and his eye glazed over, and wet drops gathered at the bottom of his eyelids.

He jerked is head back and he wiped his eyes with his tie. He heard laughing from the other room.

"What are they laughing at?" He wondered. "They are laughing at me! I can see Tommy and Billy right now, they are by the punch bowl, and they are talking about how I have been here for one hour and twenty minutes, and how I am lame, and how no girl will ever like me. Oh, and I bet that Elizabeth and Tammy and Janie are all sitting on the couch giggling about the time I had a crush on Janie, and how I tried to ask her out at the dance, and how she said 'no,' and how I cried, and how Trent punched me in the gut and called me a sissy! I just know that all the jocks, and the cool people, and the good looking people, and the funny people, and the smart people are in there and they are telling jokes about me, and about how I am uncoordinated and dumb, and ugly, and stupid, and they are all laughing at me, and--"

"Hello, am I late?" said the girl.

The boy looked up. Inside he wanted to blow up, he thought about how long he had waited, it had been at least . . . one . . . it had been at least . . .

"No, you're right on time, I haven't been waiting very long at all." He said.

He stood up, she took his arm and with he smiled the biggest smile ever, and together the walked into the other room where they would laugh and drink punch and play games.

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