Force Out by Tim Green

no big deal.”
    â€œLook,” Joey said, “I like her. I like just being around her.”
    â€œSo, ask her out, then. Did you ask her out?”
    Joey grabbed the handles of his bike and yanked it free from the rack. “No, I didn’t ‘ask her out.’ What does that mean? Where am I asking her ‘out’ to?”
    Joey knew what it meant, but didn’t want to talk like that.
    â€œYou just ask her to be your girlfriend. That’s all. It’s simple. You don’t have to do anything. You’re just ‘going out.’ Then, you hang out together and text a lot.”
    â€œThat’s crazy. Going out is like going out on a date, to dinner or the movies or something. We can’t even do that.”
    Zach shook his head. “I hate to break it to you, but that’s what people do. Especially in seventh grade.”
    â€œWell, we’re not in seventh grade.”
    â€œBut we will be. Technically, after Thursday, we’re seventh graders. Sixth grade will be over.”
    The handgrips on Joey’s bike grew slick and he realized it was from his own palms. “Zach, you’re the best friend anyone could have—”
    â€œNo, you are.”
    â€œWell, we both are, but I can’t ask Leah ‘out.’”
    â€œWhy?”
    Joey looked up at the sky. He didn’t want to repeat Leah’s words about being friends before going out because he didn’t want to admit talking about it, even to his best friend. “I just can’t .”
    â€œListen.” Zach put a hand on the seat of Joey’s bike. “If you don’t, trust me, someone else will. We’ll be in junior high next year with kids from four other schools and a bunch of eighth graders. She’s beautiful. Everyone’s going to be asking her out, and if you don’t, what’s she going to do?”
    Joey pinched his mouth so tight his head trembled. “I don’t know. I can’t help it. I’m scared just looking at her. I can’t dance with her. I can’t touch her. I can barely talk.”
    Zach snapped his fingers. “I got it.”
    â€œYou got what?”
    â€œI know exactly how to fix this.”

35
    â€œHow?” Joey held his breath.
    â€œ I’ll ask her.” Zach put a thumb on his chest.
    â€œWhat?” Joey couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
    â€œNo, don’t look at me like that.” Zach laughed aloud. “I’ll ask her for you .”
    â€œWhat? How?”
    Zach shrugged. “I just will. I talk to her all the time. I’ll just ask her, ‘Leah, will you go out with Joey?’ I bet she says yes. People do it like that.”
    Joey shook his head. “No. No way. You can’t do that.”
    â€œI can.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œFine.” Zach threw up his hands. He let go of Joey’s bicycle seat and removed his own bike from the rack a few spaces down. “You can only lead a horse to water. You can’t make it drink.”
    â€œI’m not thirsty.” Joey toed up his kickstand.
    Zach stared at him. “You’re dying of thirst. You just don’t know it.”
    Joey watched him pedal away. Before he rounded the corner of the pavilion, Zach looked back with a face that said he wasn’t really mad. “Good luck with Coach Barrett! I mean it, bro. No way can that all-star team be without you.”
    Joey gave him a victory V and mounted his own bike. He took the long way around the pavilion so he could get one last look at Leah. He was rewarded with a wave from her even as she sat there amid her friends. Joey waved back and felt a surge of energy for his ride home, traveling fast, fueled by the terrifying yet exciting thought of actually asking her out, as silly as it sounded.
    At home, Martin greeted him just inside the door with sticky hands and cat hair. “Joey, Joey, Joey. Hug.”
    â€œMartin, please. Your hands.”