“Hey, kissing is no big deal anyway,” Rachel Jenson shot out, “not to a senior, anyway. And besides, how many times have we played those stupid kissing games between us? I mean, I think I’ve kissed every boy here.”
Charlie’s eyes snapped up to mine and narrowed.
“Bullshit,” I said. “I never kissed you.”
“That could easily be changed,” she smiled.
“No, thank you.” I snapped.
“Yeah, let’s play something like we used to. Let’s pair up!” Ava squealed.
No way.
Joey’s eyes fixed on mine and nodded toward Ava.
I stood up, “Yeah. Sounds good. Rachel and Kevin, Tracy and Luis, and Ava and Joey should pair up. Idareyou.”
Joey stood up and crossed his arms and smiled at me, “Fine, then, Charlie and Jase. I doubledog dareyou.”
I pretended to be shocked. This was working out great. Joey and I didn’t even plan this out and we were seriously making this happen.
You could have said I was happier than a pig in shit.
That is, until Charlie stood up.
“I’m going home,” she mumbled, and walked out of Ava’s backyard.
Oh, my God. Charlie didn’t want to kiss me? But, she wanted to kiss Mason?
Running after her, I silently followed her down the street and up to the roof of the tree house.
The sky darkened above us and the wind swept through the trees harshly, like a storm was approaching. The surroundings matched my mood; uncertainty, anger,purejealousy. I just wanted her to bemine.
She was leaning back on her hands, eyes facing the sky, and tears streaked down her face. My heart stuttered, palpitated like I was having a coronary as I sat down on the roof next to her. Stretching my legs out in front of me, I leaned back on my hands just like her, our hands about an inch away from each other. I wanted to take her hand and hold it. I wanted to kiss her. I wondered what she would do, what she would say if I did.
I looked down at her hand, slowly sliding mine closer to hers, and then I chickened out and froze.What the hell was I doing?This was Charlie; I touched her all the time. I held her and hugged her. Why was this so damn hard all of a sudden? I looked up at her, but she'd already been watching me.
“You ever going to get enough courage to hold it?” she challenged me, and the air blew out of my lungs like she’d hit me in the chest with a sledgehammer.
“Come here,” I whispered as I slid my hand underneath hers and braided our fingers together. She scooted up next to me and molded her body into mine. I buried my face in the soft hollow of her neck and breathed her in. After a while, she leaned back and searched my eyes, and it took everything in me not to kiss her.
I wanted to kiss her.
I really wanted to kiss her.
Screw this. I was going to kiss her.
My stomach went freaking haywire and my heart just about flew out of my throat. Charlie was staring at me like I was the next Messiah. Her lips were parted. Her breathing was heavy, and her fingers were sweating and crushing the crap out of mine.
Yeah, I was going to kiss her.
Slowly, I leaned in and lowered my lips to hers. She tasted like her watermelon lip-gloss and orange soda, and it got me instantly drunk. Letting her hands go, I pulled her gently against me. Her lips were soft and wet, and when she slowly started moving them against mine, I just about lost myself in her breath. Her head tilted slightly, and I slowly slid my tongue between her lips and touched her tongue against mine. I had never touched a girl’s tongue with mine, and it was suddenly my new favorite taste in the world.
“Jase, what are we doing?” she breathed into my mouth, sliding her tongue over mine.
“Shh, don’t stop.”
“Why did Joey dare you to do this with me?”
