I sip what’s left of water and place the cup on the counter.
“I’m sorry, Linda, if you don’t mind, I need to take my breathtaking boyfriend outside.”
She just nods, and I drag him out.
Once we’re far enough, I push him away.
“Are you crazy?!” I shout, and he frowns. “What happened to a good old peck?! Is that forbidden now?!” I am losing my shit over here. It seems ridiculous, but I’m a seventeen-year-old who hasn’t been kissed, and I thought… Well, I thought that if it wasonly a peck, it wouldn’t count, and whoever I got to kiss for the first time, it would bereal. And special.
“You said we could kiss if someone doubted it, so I did!” He responds, equally confused.
“Ohno, THAT was not a kiss! That was-” Something that took me to another worldcompletely.
“It was what?” West shoves his hands in his pockets, waiting for me to finish while glaring at me.
“I don’t know, okay! But it feltillegal!” I shout aimlessly, feeling a bit childish.
“Well, I don’t know who you’ve been kissing, but that felt normal to me.” He shrugs, and I open my mouth, shocked.
That didn’t feel normal to me; that’s why I’m getting so worked up. To him, it’s just another Tuesday, to me…… Well, I can’t even name what it meant. It shouldn’t have meant anything.
I feel my eyes burning, and I turn away from him.
“I’m not feeling well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” And without even giving him room to, I take a turn into our street and speed home.
When I get into the garden, Allison, who was wrestling with Riden in the pool, catches one glimpse of me and stops what she’s doing right away.
I brush past my dad in the kitchen, and he doesn’t notice anything. Good.
As soon as I find my bed, I throw myself on top of it, as if the world ended. I know it didn’t, but this was something important to me, and now I don’t know what to make of it.
Allison comes in two minutes later, hair dripping all over the floor.
“Mads, what happened?” She sits on the edge of my bed, and I get up and turn around, leaning back against the headboard.
“West- He…” I look into the distance, and a wave of reminiscing hits me right in the face.
“He what? Did he hurt you? Force you to do anything? Was he a jerk? Do I need to go over there and-”
“He kissed me…” I mutter, finally looking at her.
“Hewhat?!” Her mouth hangs wide open, and I cover my face.
“He kissed me!” And then I start crying, and she looks at me funny.
“Was it that bad?” She puts her hand on my shoulder.
“No! It was-” Mind-blowing, world-changing, revolutionary even. “Good.” I whisper as if I’m saying something forbidden.
“I’m sorry, now you lost me. You just kissed Jake West, and according to you, it wasgood,so why are you crying?” Then her devilish smile takes hold of her face. “Oh, I get it. It’s difficult to hate him when he’s performing tricks in your mouth, now is it?”
I throw a pillow at her, and she laughs even louder.
“Allison! It’s not that, it’s just- I’ve never been kissed before, and I always thought that it would be special, notfake.” Pause. “To be with someone I liked who liked me back. Not someone who can’t stand me the same as I can’t stand him…”
“Are you being serious right now?” I respond with a confused expression, and she continues. “He has wanted you for years. He flirts with you all the time, he makes out with girls in front of you-”
“How romantic of him…” I sarcastically say.
