Steven rolled his eyes. “Fine.” I could tell he was annoyed and a little hurt, which made me feel both smug and sorry for him. He wasn’t used to being left out of things the way I was.
We went out to practice on the road that led down to the other side of the beach. It was quiet. There was no one else out on the road, just us. We listened to Jeremiah’s oldNevermindCD from a million years ago.
“It’s hot when a girl can drive stick,” Jeremiah explained above Kurt Cobain. “It shows she’s confident, she knows what she’s doing.”
I put the car into first gear and eased my foot off theclutch. “I thought boys liked it when girls were helpless.”
“They like that too. But I just happen to prefer smart, confident girls.”
“Bull. You liked Taylor, and she’s not like that.”
He groaned and stuck his arm out the window. “Do you have to bring that up again?”
“I’m just saying. She wasn’t that smart and confident.”
“Maybe not, but she definitely knew what she was doing,” he said, before exploding into laughter.
I hit him on the arm, hard. “You’re so gross,” I said. “And you’re also a liar. I know for a fact that you guys didn’t even get to second.”
He stopped laughing. “Okay, fine. We didn’t. But she was a good kisser. She tasted like Skittles.”
Taylor loved Skittles. She was always popping them into her mouth, like vitamins, like they were good for her. I wondered how I’d stacked up against Taylor, if he thought I’d been a good kisser too.
I sneaked a peek at him, and he must have seen it on my face, because he laughed and said, “But you, you were the best, Bells.”
I punched him on the arm, and even then he didn’t stop laughing. He just laughed harder. “Don’t take your foot off the clutch,” he said, gasping with laughter.
I was kind of surprised he even remembered. I mean,it had been memorable for me, but it had been my first kiss and it had beenJeremiah. But the fact that he remembered, that sort of made his laughing okay.
“You were my first kiss,” I said. I felt like I could say anything to him at that moment. It felt like how it used to be with us before we grew up and things got complicated. It felt easy and friendly and normal.
He looked away, embarrassed. “Yeah, I know.”
“How did you know?” I demanded. Had I been that awful at kissing that he’d suspected? How humiliating.
“Um, Taylor told me. Afterward.”
“What! I can’t believe she did that. That Judas!” I almost stopped the car. Actually, I could believe it. But it still felt like a betrayal.
“It’s no big deal.” But his cheeks were patchy and pink. “I mean, the first time I kissed a girl was a joke. She kept telling me I was doing it wrong.”
“Who? Who was your first kiss?”
“You don’t know her. It doesn’t matter.”
“Come on,” I wheedled. “Tell me.”
We stalled out then, and Jeremiah said, “Just put your foot on the clutch and put it in neutral.”
“Not until you tell me.”
“Fine. It was Christi Turnduck,” he said, ducking his head.
“You kissed Turducken?” Now I was laughing. I did so know Christi Turnduck. She used to be a Cousins Beachregular just like us, only she lived there year round.
“She had a big crush on me,” Jeremiah said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Did you tell Con and Steven?”
