Youuu Got What I Nee-eed, But You Say He's Just a Friend...

You've got Biz Markie's painfully tone-deaf voice stuck in your head now, don't you? Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Happy Monday, everyone. Melissa here, and as you know, we've been debating whether or not guys and girls can be just friends. So far, the consensus seems to be no, but I'd like to offer some anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I give you my friend Derick. (Not to be confused with this Derek, my first boyfriend.)

For the record, I don't remember "the good 'ol birthday incident."

For the last two years of high school, Derick and I were next-door neighbors in Munich, Germany, where both our dads were stationed. Derick was one of the first teens to introduce himself when I moved in, and I remember thinking how cool he was. He wore black clothes and listened to alternative music long before it was stylish, and he had a wicked sense of humor. He was even in a band! Isn't that the litmus test for cool? So when he said "hey" and reached into his back pocket to hand me a random piece of candy he'd been sitting on all day, I knew we'd be friends.

Derick and Shannon, another friend who was just a friend.

Derick and I weren't joined at the hip--he had his bestie and I had mine--but we hung out, chatted a lot, and in general, had fun. Silly, silly fun.

No high school experience is complete without a good old fashioned panty raid.

So when senior homecoming rolled around and I found myself in between boyfriends, (read: I didn't have a date), Derick kindly offered to take me to the dance. As friends. And you know what? We had a great time.

Derick was a total gentleman. After the dance, when we all went downtown to party, he refused to let me have more than a sip of the massive (and potent) group drink my friends had ordered. He said, "I promised your parents I'd bring you back safely. I'm responsible for you, and I'm not going to take you home drunk." How mature is that??? When he walked me to my door at the end of the evening, he gave me a (very nice) kiss, and the next day at school, we went back to our normal routine. Zero weirdness, zero resentment, zero jealousy. Just friends.

Oh, yeah. We had some BITCHIN' hair, baby!

Derick and I are still friends, albeit from a distance. He's living in New York with his two gorgeous daughters, and he's still super cool. In fact, he just finished his first independent film project!

I asked Derick if he'd share a brief memory of our "just friends date," and he was happy to oblige. What a guy, huh? Here's what he had to say:

Derick: Melissa and I always had a great vibe as friends, and that vibe translated to our pulling off going to a high school homecoming dance together - as dates - but without the crazy boy/girl drama commonly associated with high school hormones. I remember it being really fun, and thinking that Melissa looked fantastic (which was evident in the glares shot my way by most of the football team!), but it was also low pressure: we were friends, and enjoyed great banter together. The thing I think that was especially cool about it was that I think the people around us understood and supported that (with the possible exception of the guys on the football team), and nobody made a big deal of the fact that we decided to do things our own way, on our own terms.

Melissa: Thanks so much, Derick. Rock on, my friend!

Melissa Landers is the author of ALIENATED, a seriously foreign exchange coming in 2013 from Disney Hyperion. You can learn more about Melissa on her website, and she'd love for you to add ALIENATED to your Goodreads bookshelf!

A reminder that Melissa will be at the RT Booklovers Convention (April 10-15) with Carey, Lorie, and Lea. Make sure to say hello!