Jealous

chapter eleven

"What?"

"You know what."

"No, I don't."

Newt rubs the back of his neck. "I saw you guys at the bonfire last night. So, congratulations or whatever." He quickly looks at his feet.

"Oh, that. Thomas kissed me, but we aren't dating."

Newt looks up. "What?" he asks, his voice laced with a mixture of confusion and what seems to be happiness. "You guys aren't together?"

I laugh before saying, "no, we aren't dating, Newt."

"Oh."

There is an awkward pause in the conversation. Newt breaks the silence by sitting down near the tree. I sit down next to him, happy that things magically seem to be back to normal.

"So, if you aren't dating then why did you kiss?"

"It's a long story."

"I have time."

"Well, thomas was teasing me about this one thing and I kept telling him it wasn't a thing but he said he wouldn't believe me until I proved it to him. I guess he thought if he kissed me I would somehow be proving him wrong or something."

"What was the thing?"

"That's a story for another time."

"Why not now, love?"

Love? He called me love again, just like that. His quick change reminds me of the question I have been meaning to ask him for days.

"Okay, fine. I'll tell you, but you have to tell me something first."