My heart pounds in my chest. “Okay, you’ll be my girlfriend?”
“Yes,” she says, smiling.
“Good.” I lean in closer so that our lips are almost touching. She closes her eyes, and I hold my breath. We’ve been here before, but I intend to follow through this time. Slowly, I press my mouth against hers. She’s still at first, almost like she can’t believe this is actually happening. I can’t either. But soon, her arms wrap around my neck as she kisses me back.
The music from inside fades away as my lips caress hers. Ella pulls me down to deepen the kiss, and I let her. Of course I do. I’m just thankful she’s as excited as I am. I hope that she knows how I feel about her in the way I kiss her. I pull her as tightly against my chest as I can without hurting her. I never want to hurt her. The thought of something painful coming between us is scary, but I meant it when I said we shouldn’t worry about that yet. We still have a semester until graduation. That’s so much time.
Eventually, we break apart. I don't want to, but we can only kiss out on the balcony for so long until someonecatches us, and I’d rather not have a chaperone be the one who finds us.
I smile down at her. “I think I’m going to like you being my girlfriend."
Her eyes are glazed over as she grins back up at me. “I still can’t believe I agreed to that.”
“Well, you did, and I hate to break it to you, but that kiss is binding.”
She laughs. “That’s fine. I think I’m going to like being your girlfriend, too.”
A huge weight is lifted off my shoulders. I don’t think I realized how heavy it was until she said those words and it disappeared. Everything seems much more hopeful now. I know it’s not going to be an easy road for us—we’ll have to face Citrus Scholar and college decisions sooner or later—but knowing we’ll face them together has me feeling optimistic about the future for the first time I can remember.
17
MOST FORGETTABLE
I’m sothankful that winter break is almost done.
I’ve had too much free time, not enough distractions, and everyone I care about went someplace snowy, leaving me alone in this eighty-degree weather with nothing but my Grinch attitude to keep me company.
It’s been hard filling my time. My mom’s been home from work, and she seems determined to make me miss Connor even more by the way she hangs all over Chad. It’s gross to watch them together, but knowing that I have a boyfriend I can’t see makes it even worse. I’ve spent most of my time in my bedroom trying to find ways to keep my mind off of him.
I take out the most recent letter from my dad. In it, he wishes me a happy birthday and tells me how much he misses me. I wish I could read through his letters and not get angry, but I’m still hurt by his decision. I shove it in the drawer where I keep them all.
Then, I pull up my email for the hundredth time looking for a college acceptance letter that isn’t there yet. I won’t hear from my dream schools until later this month, but I can’t help but hope that maybe they’ll decide to send out their decisions sooner. Alas, all I have are emails from different businesses wishing me a happy birthday.
I’m debating whether or not to go do the rounds for my free birthday food when my phone buzzes. I smile when I see Connor’s name.
Guess what I just remembered?
That you get to come home tomorrow?
Not that I’ve been counting down the days or anything,
Yes! But also, did you know that today is a special person’s birthday?
Lily is the only one who has wished me a happy birthday so far. Every year, she sends me a text at 12:01 AM just so she can say she’s the first one to wish me a happy birthday. I grin at my phone as I type out a response.
Oh, yeah? Who?
Tolkien.
My smile falls. He’s got to be messing with me, right? Connor’s and my birthdays are days apart. I made sure I sent his obligatory text on New Year’s Eve to wish him a happy eighteenth, and he’s telling me it’s one of theInklings birthday? Not sure what to say, I type out three dots as a response.
I even have a joke for you to celebrate. What do you call a hobbit party?
What?
A little get together.
Did you come up with that on your own?
