Emma Swan was a 22-year-old college student studying criminal justice, finishing up her senior year.

Everything in her life, from birth till now had been perfect. She grew up with the most amazing parents, Mary Margaret Blanchard, and David Nolan. Though, many people now call them Snow White and Charming.

When Emma was a little girl, her favorite story was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. When Emma was 5, she thought that her mother looked a lot like Snow White. She had long black hair, was paler than most, and always wore red lipstick. Emma started to call her mother Snow White, and since every Princess needs a Prince, Emma started calling her father Charming.

Soon the entire town was calling them by their daughters cute nicknames, finding the names to bring a small amount of joy to them. Now that Emma is older she understands that her parents are regular people, and not from a fairy tale, though the love they have for each other could be. Emma's parents seemed to love each other more, and more, every day. Emma hoped that one day, she would find a love pure and true as her parents.

She had always believed that there is someone out there for everyone, and she will find hers one day, though she has no idea what to look for.

When Emma was in High School, her parents sat her down to talk about boys and dating. Emma had heard The Talk countless times from her parents and health teacher, but this was a different type of talk. Her parents told her on her 15th birthday that she was old enough to start dating.

On the rare occasion when she was to go on a date there would be rules that she would need to follow. Though Emma didn't have any interest in dating, or even boys. She was more focused on her future and her friends.

When Emma turned 16 her parents jumped for joy when she brought home a boy, but to her mother's dismay and her father's relief, August was just a friend, her gay friend in fact.

Now that Emma is 22, she has found that she tends to stare at boys a bit more and has even begun forming crushes. She first noticed it when she walked into one of her classes about two years ago and saw a cute boy.

He had messy curly brown hair and a dimple on his cheek. She immediately began to like him, though she never spoke a word to him, but would also watch him.

Her friends would always pick on her for it.

One day she was out to coffee with her three best friends, August, Ruby, who she grew up with, and Regina, who was her roommate Freshman year, they hated each other at first, but soon became best friends.

"Just admit it to yourself that you have feelings for him." August said, causing Emma to jump a little, realizing she was staring at a gorgeous man she saw two years ago, across the café.

"What?" Emma asked, trying to play innocent.

"Every time we come in here, and he is here, all you do is stare at him. Don't get me wrong he's hot, but you can't spend the rest of your life in the shadows." Regina said, taking a sip of her warm apple cider, coffee was never her favorite thing to drink.

"You are one to talk, you are always wearing black, I don't think you have a bright color of anything in your closet." Emma said, trying to focus on her friends now and not the hot man across the room.

"Can you blame me? Black is my color." Regina said, stretching out her arms show off her outfit to everyone.

Regina was wearing a black tank top that ties in the front, black leather pants with her favorite pair of black pumps.

"You know, she has a point. Regina always looks hot." Ruby said, taking a sip of coffee, to receive a wink from Regina.

"So the solution is to raid Regina's closet?" Emma asked, slightly laughing, as she watched Regina's face go from smiling to what a look that could kill.

"Touch my clothes, and I will end you."

"Yes, your majesty." Emma said, unable to hold back her laughter.

Whenever Emma laughed, everyone had no choice but to join in. Emma's laughter was contagious, she always knew how to lighten the mood. Soon all four of them were caught up in a small fit of laughter.

"Well, it seems I am right on time for the party." A deep but pleasant voice came from behind Emma. She turned around to see the man she had been staring at for the past two years standing there, with a heartbreaking grin on his face. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt, but it seems as though there is no sugar at my table, mind if I steal yours."

Ruby was the first to respond. Quickly jumping up from her seat and grabbing the sugar. "Here you are" Ruby said, in a voice much higher than her own. She handed him the bowl of sugar packets and shifted her weight to one side, so she could pop her hip out a bit. "I'm Ruby." She said sticking out her hand.

Taking her hand the man smiled and said, "My name is Neal."

"I'm Regina." Regina said, standing up and shaking his hand, once Ruby made her way back to her seat.

"I'm August." Neal gave a quick nod of acknowledgment before turning his attention to Emma, who didn't know who to form a proper sentence.

"Emma." Was all she could spit out.

"Well it was nice to meet all of you. Maybe I will see you guys around more often." Neal said, turning to walk away, before walking away, he gave Emma another look.

"Well, if you don't go after him, I certainly will." Ruby said, sitting back in her seat, taking in the view of Neal walking away.

"You practically jumped him here in front of us." August said, while sneaking his own peak at the man.

"Don't get me wrong, he's cute and all but certainly not my type, though, with a voice of his, I could get down with some phone…"

"Don't finish that sentence, please." Emma said, practically yelling.

"Oh, looks like I hit a nerve." Regina said, chuckling slightly to herself. Emma, with her elbows resting on her knees, leaned down, placing her hand in her hands, silently groaning.

"Emma, Sweetie." August started, moving to the edge of his chair, placing his hand on Emma's knee causing her to look up. "Why are you so nervous? Just go over there and ask if he wants to hang out. Ask him to go to coffee with you sometime. The worst that can happen is he could say no. If he does then we will go to the store, buy your favorite ice cream, and watch overly cheesy chick flicks and cry about how boys suck. Sounds like a plan."

Emma laughed a little. "If he says yes, can we still buy ice cream and watch chick flicks?" Emma asked.

"Yes, it will be fat free frozen yogurt. Calories are for heartbreaks." August said smiling.

Emma took a deep breath and looked back at Neal who was closing his laptop and looked like he was going to leave soon. "All right, it's now or never, right?" Emma asked.

"Good luck" Ruby said, giving Emma a wink.

Emma stood up from her chair and began making her way over to Neal. On her short walk over to him, Emma could help but feel her entire body shake. She has never been this nervous.

Not even when she got the lead in her school play, or when she had to present a paper or project in front of her classmates. She felt like her internal organs were shaking from how nervous she was.

Just go up there and talk to him. Emma thought to herself. Just like ripping off a band aid. The sooner you do it, the sooner you will know how he feels about you. No more wondering if he likes you.

By the time Emma had convinced herself that she could do this, she had reached Neal. He was putting his laptop into his bag, when he felt a presence near him. Looking up he noticed Emma standing there, fidgeting slightly with her finger.

"Hey! Its Emma, right?" Emma shook her head yes, immediately looking down, losing all of her confidence that she built on her way to him. "Listen, I don't mean to be rude but I do have class in the next 20 minutes, so I have to get going." Neal said, placing his bag strap over his shoulder and started walking towards the door.

In her last attempt to talk Emma was quickly searching her brain for words. "Coffee!" Emma nearly shouted, granting her a couple of looks from people sitting nearby. Neal turned around, slightly surprised.

"What?"

"Coffee. Would you like to get coffee?" Emma spit out. Her heart was pounding, and she was pretty sure she forgot how to breathe. Neal gave a small laugh and took a couple of steps towards Emma.

"Well, I do have class soon, so I can't today, but…" Neal reached into his backpack and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen.

"Here is my number. Text me your number and I will let you know when I am free." He handed Emma the paper, which she took with shaky hands. "I'll see you around, Emma." Neal said, giving her a wink, before turning around and leaving the café.

Emma stood there for a moment, in complete shock. Did she really ask Neal out? Did she get his number? Did he really just wink at her?

Emma made her way back over to her friends, who are all sitting in their same seat, but all leaning towards Emma, with giant smiles on their faces.

"So, how did it go?" Ruby asked, her smiling couldn't have been bigger.

"Oh please, he handed her a piece of paper, he said yes." Regina said rolling her eyes, but even she couldn't keep a smile off of her face.

"When are you guys going out?" August asked, as Emma sat down, never taking her eyes off the paper.

"We...we don't have a day picked yet. I am going to have to text him, for him to have my number, then he will tell me when he is free." Emma finally looked up at her friends and couldn't contain her own smile.

"Aw look at her, she's glowing." Ruby said.

"Come on guys, we have some fat free yogurt to buy." August said. All four of them left the café and headed towards the ice cream store.

Later that night, Emma was full from eating her entire pint of frozen yogurt, was laying on her back on her bed, with Ruby, Regina, and August sitting in different parts of her dorm room, all in various forms of food comas. Emma reached over onto her night stand and grabbed the paper with Neal's number on it.

"What are you going to say to him?" Ruby asked, breaking the silence.

"What do you mean?" Emma asked sitting up so she could see her friend. "I mean, are you going to sound flirty, are you going to stay professional? Come on girl, what are your intentions with him?" Emma laughed, causing everyone else to sit up and listen.

"You sound like a worried parent." Emma said. Looking back at the paper, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and entered his number. "Should I call him?" Emma asked looking around.

"No, if you call him he might see you as desperate." Ruby said. Taking another bite of her now soupy ice cream.

"Or, he could be in class." Regina said. "Just send him a text. Something simple."

"Like what, 'Hey, its Emma?'" Emma asked.

"Maybe that's too simple." August said, getting off of Emma's desk and walked over to sit beside her.

"Maybe try to be cute."

"What does that even mean?" Emma asked, feeling already that dating was too much work.

"Try to make a joke." Ruby suggested.

"Like what a Knock Knock joke?" Emma asked, causing August to laugh.

"See now you are being cute."

"Or annoying" Regina butted in, which in return rewarded her with a pillow being thrown at her, thanks to August.

"Okay, I think I'm just going to be me. He should like me for me, right?"

"Right." August said.

Emma went to work on typing and retyping her message, till she was satisfied with what she wanted to send. "Okay, how does this sound? 'Hey, remember me? It's Emma from the café. Let me know when you want to get that coffee.'" Emma looked around her room to find that her friends seemed both amused and horrified by her message.

"Please tell me you didn't send that." Regina said, clearly disgusted with the message.

"Not yet, but what's wrong with it?"

"You sound boring." Regina said, standing up from the floor, reaching for Emma's phone.

"Here let me do it."

"No, Regina, don't." Emma said. Regina had a hold on the top of Emma's phone, pulling it towards herself. Emma had a firm grip at the bottom of the phone.

Both girls fought over the phone for a few minutes before August had enough and grabbed a hold of Regina's waist pulling her away from Emma and her phone. Placing Regina back on her feel August put himself in between the both of them. "Alright. That is enough! Regina, Emma can send whatever text message she wants. Let's stop acting like children and communicate like adults."

Regina straightened out her outfit and puffed out her chest a little before going over and finding a chair to sit in. "August, Regina's right. I sound boring. I don't want this guy to think that I am some sort of stuck up nerd, who can't even talk to a guy in a coffee shop." Emma reached behind her to grab her phone.

"Emma, like you said you should be yourself. Even if you are some stuck up nerd, who can't talk to a guy in a coffee shop." August said, causing Emma to smile. Looking down at her phone, Emma's heart dropped as she read what laid on her screen. Message sent.

"Oh no!" Emma said, quickly standing up from her bed, and beginning to pace the floor.

"What? Emma, what is it?" Ruby said, going over to stop Emma from pacing.

"The message was sent. It must have been sent when Regina and I were fighting over my phone. Oh no, there goes my chance of a real date with someone, before he even got the chance to know me." Emma leaned her head down on Ruby's shoulders, feeling defeated.

"Oh Emma. It's just a silly text message. If he is going to say no to a date because of the way you said hello, then honey, you deserve better than him." Ruby said, wrapping her arms around Emma. All of them went silent waiting for anyone to say something.

After what seemed like an eternity, Emma's phone vibrated. Everyone went still and all the color from Emma's face drained. "Is it him?" Ruby asked, getting very eager herself.

Emma took a deep breath, expecting the worst. Maybe he gave her a fake number. Maybe he changed his number. She looked down at her phone and clicked on the message. 'Hey Emma! Of course, I remember you, how could I forget? Especially someone with eyes like yours. If you can make it, I don't have class till 10AM, want to grab coffee at 9?'

"Well, what did he say?" Regina asked, leaning forward in her seat.

"He said he wants to meet for coffee at nine tomorrow morning before class." Emma said, slightly dumbfounded.
"Oh my goodness. Girl look at you!" Ruby said practically jumping up and down with joy.
Emma reread the message, over and over again, more specifically the part about her eyes. She could feel her face getting hot as she began to blush.

"Oh, someone is blushing." Ruby said, slightly poking fun at her.

"Did he say anything else?" Emma looked up and smiled, unable to contain how happy she was. Funny how a simple text message can make you feel nothing but pure happiness. Emma read the message out loud to her friends, word for word.

"Aw, he can't forget your eyes, that's so sweet and romantic." Ruby said, with love struck eyes.

"Or it's a line." Regina said, rolling her eyes.

"Regina!" August said sternly.

"What? He knows her name, and they had a class together two years ago, which I doubt he remembers. Look all I am saying is that he could be a player. Emma, I don't want you to get your hopes up and end up getting hurt. No guy is worth crying over." Regina said, making her way over to Emma.

"Regina, it's just coffee. Let's take it one day at a time. I'm not going to jump into bed with him tomorrow. I'm going to let him buy me a coffee."

"Well then you might wanna text him back." Regina said, almost snapping at Emma.

"I have to go." Regina said grabbing her jacket that hung off the edge of Emma's desk chair and let without saying another word.

"What's her problem?" Ruby asked.

"Who knows. Help me text Neal back." Emma said. Pulling both Ruby and August to her bed, helping her text Neal back and forth for the next hour.

"Alright, it's time for us to head out, it's getting late. Don't stay up too late, you want to make sure you have time to get ready for your coffee date tomorrow." Ruby said, giving Emma a hug goodbye.

August gave her a kiss on her forehead before following Ruby out the door. Once everyone was gone, Emma went back to her bed and grabbed her phone. Having received another text message from Neal, Emma could help but squeal from excitement.

She quickly changed into her pajamas and turned off her lights. Sending her friends a good night message, before returning a text message to Neal. She couldn't wait to wake up tomorrow and go out on their date. Her heart pounded with excitement. Her head swarmed with ideas of what she was gonna wear and how she was going to do her hair and makeup.

She sent Neal a goodnight message and set her alarm. Emma fell asleep quickly that night, her dreams filled with what the day may hold when she wakes up.