Lessons in kissing

A cool breeze wafted in through Leona's open window and brought with it the smell of sweet earth after a rainy day and mouth watering braai smoke coming from the distance. Mixed in with the smell of cigarette smoke coming from her father's study, it was an odd combination of scents, but a familiar one.

She lay her head on the floor and stared up at the ceiling, allowing her mind to drift off into the clouds where fantasy met reality and time was nothing but an empty metaphor. Her thoughts were strange things, the winding and twisting pathways in distant lands that never seemed to reach their destination, only dead ends.

"Hey, Lee, I've got a question for you."

Leona blinked her thoughts away, and turned to face her best friend. Valeria sat cross-legged on the floor, her current novel set aside, and stared at Leona with big, curious eyes.

"Sure," Leona said. "Shoot."

"What's kissing like?" Leon's frowned and studied her friend's face. That was a strange question, especially coming from her.

"I- well..." she stuttered, heat rising to her cheeks. "Why do you want to know?"

"Well," Valeria began. "Enzo asked me out yesterday...and I said yes. Sources say I should expect a kiss at the end of the night."

"Sources?"

Valeria shrugged.

"You don't have to kiss him, you know." Leon's said, expression flat and serious. "Not if you don't want to."

"Well I know that," Valeria rolled her eyes dramatically. "that's not why I'm worried. It's just- the thing is-" a deep inhale. "I'veneverbeenkissedbefore."

It took a minute to decipher Valerie's word vomit, but once Leon's did she couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of her. She laughed even more when Valeria lobbed a pillow at her, and missed.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said when Valeria raised her book threateningly. "Look, it's nothing to be embarrassed about, honest." And it wasn't. Leona knew plenty of people who hadn't their first kiss yet. Valeria had just said in such a funny way. "you just caught me off guard is all."

"So? What should I do?"

"Dawg, I don't know. Watch a video or something."

"Or..." Valeria began, dragging the word out. "You could teach me."

Leon's laughed, she couldn't help it. That was just so...sudden. It seemed that Valeria was just so full of surprises today.

"Well shit, okay I guess." Leona got up from her position on her stomach and got into a cross-legged seated position. She gestured for Valeria to come over. Her friend put down her book and complied.

"Okay, so how do we do this?" asked Valeria. She was crouched in front of Leona, her lower lip trapped under her anxious, biting teeth. She was nervous for some reason. Leona smiled to reassure her, and then she pulled the girl onto her lap.

"We do it like this." she said. And then she crashed their lips together.

It was nothing like Leona expected. She expected fireworks and fairy dust and all the Disney Princess shit but this was so much more than that. It was an explosion, a catastrophic collision of two worlds. It was glaciers melting and temperatures rising. It was snow in the desert and a draught in the rain forest. It was the end of the fucking world.

Time stopped as their lips moved together. Of course the kiss wasn't perfect. Valeria's lips moved as nimbly as a newly born puppy, eagerly and clumsily. But Leona guided Leona's lips with hers. Like a ballet instructor she taught Valeria's all the moves. Taught her how to slow the kiss down and tease, let their lips ghost each other's as they took breaks to draw in breath. Showed her how to tilt her head to allow better access, and where to rest her hands (on the hips just above the ass, or around the neck, grabbing fistfuls of hair). Valeria was a fast learner and it didn't take her long to catch on. It wasn't long before they were flipped over, Valeria straddling Leon's hips, and they were kissing and kissing and kissing and ki–

"Girls! Lunch time!" Leona's mum called them from the kitchen. They jumped apart as if struck by electricity. "Coming!" Leona called back. The girls took a few moments to fix their appearances, before they made their way to the kitchen. Just as they slipped out of Leona's room Valeria whispered; "well that was something."

When they got to the kitchen, Leona's mum looked up from her phone and smiled at them. Her smile dropped when she saw the state the girls were in, especially their lips. "And then? What happened to your lips?"

"We were trying a tik tok trend, ma." The lie left Leona's mouth easily. Leona's mum just shook her head and mumble something in Afrikaans about kids these days. Both Leona and Valeria struggled to hide their laughter. Heat rose to Valeria's cheeks and dusted them in pink, and Leona couldn't help but think that that was really fucking cute.