I popped mine, and Joey jumped a million feet in the air from the sound. I laughed so much from my nerves, Jase had to unfold my paper for me.
Aaron Henley.
Oh my GOD! I was going to haveseven minutes in Heaven with Aaron Henley!
Black spots formed in front of my eyes; I had a sudden fear of eating his entire mouth off his face. Okay fine, that wasn’t likely to happen, but what if we had one of those freaky accidents and somehow my mouth got stuck on his and we COULDN’T separate?
Aaron Henley?
I hadneverevenspokento Aaron Henley. I mean, maybe I said hello to him if I saw him outside of school with his mom or something, but I didn’t remember ever talking to him in school. And, I only had one class with him in our middle school,Advanced Placement Mathematics, so it’s not like I could talk orflirtwith him duringthatintense class. Oh, who was I kidding? My idea of flirting was peeking at a cute boy millions of times, like I had some sort of nervous tic, and then hoping that he had more guts than me to talk to me first.
My sort of flirting hadn’t been working for me.
Ava Marie quietly walked up to Joey and showed him her paper with his name all swirly with hearts all over it. Oh cheese-and-crackers, this had to be a set up! On the other side of me, Rachel Jenson showed Jase his name on her folded up piece of paper. There were no hearts on hers, just Jase’s name with a giant pair of red lip prints, as if she kissed the paper herself.Yep, that was the taste of vomit I was swallowing back down.
I looked down at my paper again. It just said Aaron Henley, with nothing else on it.
As I stood up on my wobbly legs to walk over to Aaron to show him my paper, I watched a strange look pass between my two best friends. Jase ripped the paper out of my hands and shoved it into Rachel Jenson’s hands. Then, Jase took her folded piece of paper with his name on it and shoved it into mine. “Sorry, I think there’s been a mistake in your littleset up,” he smirked. Then standing up, he gently walked me into one of the empty rooms with a sign on the door that readHEAVENand had cotton balls for clouds decorated all over it. Ava shoved Joey into the one next to us and slammed the door closed.
A small table lamp in the corner dimly lit the room. Inside was a washing machine and dryer, but no place to sit. In the middle of the floor there was a basket full of dirty laundry we had to climb over. The smell of decaying socks surrounded us. The laundry room;how romantic.Heaven,my butt.
I shoved him on the shoulder. “Why the heck did you do that, Jase?”
“I was saving your life! Aaron Henley has razor-sharp braces; he’ll scar your mouth for life.”
“Really, dork? That’s what you’re going with?” I pulled myself up to sit on the edge of the washing machine and hung my legs off the sides, swinging them slowly back and forth.Ugh. Now I’d have to wait and see what name I’d get next. I hoped like mad there was another round to this game. I was not leaving this party without kissingsomeone.
Jase’s face reddened and he looked down at something on his shoes. “No. That’s not what I’m going with,” he said, combing his fingers through his hair. Lifting his eyes to mine, he slowly stepped closer to me, brushing the front of his shirt against my knees. The warmth of his body seeped into my skin.
My heart skipped a beat then just stopped. I think I may have died a little.What was Jase Delaney thinking?
He moved his body in between my legs and leaned the palms of his hands on the edge of the machine on either side of me. He lowered his face two inches from mine, andI was lost, floating somewhere helplessly in the soft blue waters of the Bermuda Triangle in his eyes. Then he smiled, a spark of something so honest and true, so utterlyJase, it completely stole my breath away. “Come on, Charlie, come with me down the rabbit hole,” he squeaked in an unsteady voice.
His words, whispered so dark and beautifully, caused my heart to stutter wildly in my chest. Then I thought to myself, this–this feeling right here–was what grownups wrote those great love stories about. That one breathtakingly beautiful moment that you will remember forever is happening right now. I mean, come on, my best friend just asked me to kiss him with a quote from one of my favorite books!
Before I could think another thought, Jase's trembling fingers were cupping my chin. With the lightest of pressure, he tilted my head gently back and slowly lowered his face closer to mine. “I want to be your first kiss, Charlie,” My belly filled with fire, and my cheeks flushed with heat. I could barely breathe from his whispered words.
“Then kiss me,” I whispered nervously.
As if a breeze, his warm lips brushed against mine. Jase’s hand trailed feather-soft fingers down my neck, making my skin tingle with what felt like flames. The outside sounds of the party grew faint, and all I could hear was our quick, shallow breaths as his mouth moved against mine. Heat traveled down my neck and across my chest, tightening my skin and coiling my muscles. I never knew such a feeling existed in such a simple touch of lips. The heat from his body up against mine, the smell of the shampoo he used, the press of his lips against mine, and there was nothing and no one else in the world, but us. In my head, the written words of Lewis Carroll whispered in my ears,“In another moment, down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.”
When the tip of his tongue hesitantly brushed over my lips, I lost myself in his taste and his touch. Warm and wet, soft and sweet, our hearts were crashing and pounding together like a thunderstorm beneath our chests. I could feel his heart beneath his shirt, pounding so hard and fast against me that I imagined it bursting right out to meet mine.
I reached my hand up and softly curved my fingers around the back of his neck and threaded them through the silky strands of his hair. It was one of those touches that I had read about in a few young adult books, and I’d always wanted to see how it felt. Whoa...it felt good...it felt really good. He moaned quietly, and his fingers pressed into my skin, fisting into the material of my shirt.
It felt…beautiful.
“Time's up!” Rachel Jenson’s voice screeched from the other side of the door.
Both of us jerked away from each other, eyes wide. Seven minutes was way too short of an amount of time.
“Crap-on-a-celery-stick,” I whispered.
He shook his head, “Hell no. Uh-uh. No way. Curse if you have to, Charlie, but don’t pull that crappity-crap shit with me.Tell me.”
“Oh, my God. That wasawesome,” I giggled.
He leaned in and kissed me again on the lips. “Yeah, Charlie, it was. Just like I always thought it would be,” he murmured softly to me before walking out the door. And slowly, like I was made completely of jelly, I slid down the side of the washing machine until my butt hit the floor, and I completely melted into a puddle of Jase Delaney goop.
