Thought of this the other night at work. Hopefully it makes you smile as much as it made me smile.

"You're late," Seth whispered to Dean as he threw his backpack on the ground.

"Whatever, it's only by like five minutes," Dean whispered back as he slumped into his chair.

Sure it was only a study hall, but Seth was a stickler for punctuality, from himself and his friends. Yes, even Dean, who would sometimes come to class so late that he'd smile and say he was just very early for the next class.

Seth was a good student, managing to maintain a 3.8 GPA over his high school career. He also was a star player on the cross country and basketball teams. He dressed in button down shirts and polos, and his khaki pants were always pressed.

Dean, on the other hand, was considered a slacker, although he did well enough in class. Cs, with the occasional B if he felt like trying, were good enough for him. He was just trying to make it through the day. His clothes were always pairs of jeans with holes in the knee and thrift store tees, but he sure looked comfortable. His real signature was a leather jacket that he'd had since Seth met him. He never explained where he'd got it from, but he treated it like it was his baby.

Dean scratched his head and opened his backpack. Seth grimaced at how loud he was being as he rummaged around. Finally he pulled out a notebook and a pen.

"I don't know why you still bother with studying and shit, man," Dean muttered as he began to doodle between the lines.

"I have a reputation to keep up. If I were to get senioritis now, it'd look bad."

"Yeah, but you already got accepted to your dream school. And your safety schools. And probably some schools you didn't even apply to."

Seth laughed as he watched Dean's pen draw what looked like a 7 with a line under it. He continued to make smaller dashes underneath.

"Yeah, I got lucky. I'm set and ready to go for the fall…but still, they notice if your grades drop in the final quarter," he said.

"It's not like your grades are gonna start looking like mine if you relax a little. I'm lucky I even got into the state school."

"Don't say that, Dean," Seth replied. "I saw your college essay and it was really good. You have so much character that-"

Seth was cut off by the sound of Dean pushing his desk against his own. The teacher assigned to the study hall pursed her lips at the ruckus, but didn't say anything.

Dean dropped his notebook onto the middle of their desks. "Let's play hangman."

"Are you in middle school?" Seth asked smugly, his eyebrows raised like Dean was crazy.

"Hangman knows no age. Now play with me."

No one would've ever expected Seth and Dean to become such good friends, especially themselves. They had known that the other existed, but they were never in the same classes. Seth always strived to get into the honors and AP classes, and Dean was fine with whatever the guidance counselor's printer spat out at him. It was by chance that they had been scheduled into the same phys ed class the previous year.

They met during a gym class in which they were playing dodgeball. When everyone was split into four teams, Seth's team and Dean's team were to be facing each other that day. What started out as a run-of-the-mill game during class turned into a heated one-on-one battle for victory. Seth ended up showing a messier, ruthless side of himself and Dean showed that he really could give a shit about something school-related.

Afterwards in the locker room, Seth thanked Dean for the competitive match. The two started talking sports and from that day forward, they started hanging out together. First during gym class and lunch, then outside of school. They soon found out that they had far more in common than they would've initially guessed.

Seth studied the blank spaces where letters would soon appear. Seven words. In classic Dean texting style, there was no punctuation. Seth would be lucky if these were even complete words that Dean had in mind.

"Okay…uh…how about the letter O?"

Dean nodded and filled in four O's, each in a different word.

"They always say to do vowels first with these games, so give me an E!"

"What, are you trying out for the fucking cheer squad?" Dean laughed. He filled in one E at the very end of the phrase.

"So…apparently it's prom season," Dean mentioned.

"Oh really? I hadn't heard almost every girl in school gushing about how she just bought the perfect dress and how her parents already booked the limo."

"You're such an ass sometimes."

"It just gets annoying after hearing it for the twentieth time. It's just a stupid high school dance. A."

Dean made a buzzer-like noise and drew a large circle where the hangman's head would go. He drew two small x's for eyes and a gaping mouth with a tongue hanging out.

"Classy," Seth said, smiling and shaking his head.

"I'm going for accuracy." Dean wrote an A in the top corner to keep track of wrong letters.

"Okay then, I."

Dean dropped an I into the first word.

"You know, I'm actually surprised to hear that coming from you, Mr. Smart, Athletic and Popular. The not-going-to-prom thing. I'd have thought you'd have been on the fucking prom committee to round out those college applications."

"No. You know I don't have the time for such frivolous activities."

"It's cause no one's asked you, isn't it?" Dean asked, resting his head on his hand.

Seth's brow furrowed and Dean knew he'd hit the nail on the head.

"Girls usually don't want to be the ones who do the asking. And me…well despite the fact that I know a lot of people and I'm usually pretty good at conversation…I've never been good at talking to women. Like alone, in private. So…I think if I tried to ask someone to the prom, I'd fuck up so badly that I'd be too embarrassed to come to school the next day."

"I never knew that about you."

"That's why the few relationships I've had have ended so quickly. They ask me out cause they think I'm hot, and then they see how awkward I am by myself." He sighed and Dean could tell how much this really bothered him. "Okay, back to the game. There's only one vowel left, so gimme a U."

"Dude, don't forget Y or it'll be all sad and lonely," Dean said as he filled in a U.

"It's only a vowel sometimes, dick. Okay, give it to me then. Unless this is a trick to let you draw more of the hangman!"

"Nah man, no tricks."

Dean smiled so big while he wrote in a Y that his dimples popped out. Seth was always a bit jealous of him for those. They managed to charm everyone and got Dean out of many sticky situations.

"Alrighty, so I know one of the words is 'you'. This'd better not be some sneaky way to ask me to do you a favor or something."

"Maybe it is…maybe it's not."

"You're a jerk. Let's see…do you have any T's?"

"This isn't fucking Go Fish, Seth…and yes." Dean added a T to one word and completed another so that the two completed words were 'you' and 'to'.

"What about you? Are you going to go?"

"Do I look like the kind of guy who'd go to the prom?" Dean asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Not typically, but I know how you like to sometimes give off a Dennis the Menace vibe, so I figured you'd go and spike the punchbowl," Seth grinned.

"Yeah, that does sound like me," he laughed.

"Okay, S is a common letter. There's got to be some in there."

"Haha, nope!" Dean grinned as he drew the line for the hangman's body. "Yeah!"

"What, no accurate details for the clothes?" Seth asked.

"No, he died naked."

"Don't tell me that when the legs show up, he'll be hung in a different way," Seth added, rolling his eyes.

Dean's only response was a lewd schoolboy laugh.

"Fine then. How about L?"

"You lucked out there. Two in a row," Dean answered, filling in two L's together in the first word. "But nah man, like you, I have a rep to maintain. I'd probably be laughed out of it by all the kids who can afford that shit. Thousand dollar dresses and limo rides. It's fucking ridiculous."

"Yeah…yeah… I'm glad that we see eye to eye on this all-important matter," Seth laughed. "Still…I do sorta wish that someone would ask me. Maybe this time I'd manage to not screw things up."

"Yeah..."

They both sat quietly for a moment, lost in their own thoughts.

"It's getting near the end of class. Just start throwing out some letters," Dean uttered, breaking their silence.

"Okay. R, M, N, and D."

"Yes, yes, no, and no," Dean responded, filling in the one R and two M's before he gleefully drew in the second leg and first arm.

"Is there an H? I already did the other three letters in my name, so I might as well try that one."

Dean filled in the H and Seth leaned over to get a better look at the nearly completed phrase. His cheek lightly touched Dean's ear and it felt very hot. He should take off his jacket if he's so warm, Seth thought. Then he finally read the notebook.

_ill you _o to _rom _ith me

Seth swallowed hard. "Is there a P?" he asked quietly.

Dean wrote one in, spelling out prom. He quickly put his pen down and looked away.

Seth sat staring at the notebook. Was this even real? Was Dean really…? There was no other way to complete the sentence that would make sense. Seth turned to look at his friend. Dean was looking down at his hands, playing nervously with his long fingers. His cheeks were bright pink against the black leather collar of his jacket. He looked very vulnerable…and totally adorable.

"Are there two W's and a G?" he asked. Dean quickly glanced up through his messy hair and then nodded.

Seth tried to hide his smile as he leaned over and whispered in Dean's ear.

"Yes."