My Second kiss

Chapter 1

DEDICATED TO:KATIECRUZ FOR MAKING THE COVER

Chapter One

Crack! I was awakened by a sharp object hitting against the glass of my bedroom window. I rubbed my eyes and blinked in the darkness at my clock. It was almost midnight. I rolled out of bed and grabbed my coat that was hanging on the closet door. I flipped the overhead light on and then off again just as quickly. That was the signal that I was awake and on my way.

By the time I made it downstairs and out my back door, Jess was sitting on my porch steps with his head resting in both hands.

"Your dad?" I said after I closed the door.

Jess jerked around to look at me. "Were you asleep?"

I sat next to him on the step. "I don't mind. I was dreaming weird tonight."

Jess rubbed his hand over his exhausted eyes. "My dad lost his job."

I cringed. Jess was a slightly shorter, better-looking, and much thinner replica of his father. But their personalities couldn't be more different. While Jess never thought about himself, his father thought about nobody but himself. And as soft spoken and kind as Jess was, so his father was loud, abrupt, and downright mean.

Jess had started coming to my window at night when his dad first began drinking. And now, six years later, Jess was sitting in his usual spot on my back porch, still trying to escape him.

"Not again," I groaned as I thought about how many times his dad had lost his job. He always drank more after getting fired.

Jess hadn't said much since I joined him on the steps, but this wasn't unusual. On nights like this I was the one doing all the talking. Jess didn't want to acknowledge what was going on at his house. But he couldn't bring himself to talk about anything of less importance either. He smiled as I rambled on about my day, telling him things that were inconsequential enough to not have been brought up on our walk home from school, but things that now-at the late hour-seemed hilarious. Somewhere in the middle of all my chatter I went inside and got us some hot chocolate. It was the early part of February, and the grass beyond our porch was still covered in gray snow.

Jess held the yellow mug of hot chocolate up to his face, letting the steam sweep around his cheeks. "So what was your dream about?"

I took a sip of my hot chocolate as I tried to recall the dream. Images of the Polaroid camera and Trace Weston skipped around in my brain. I shook my head at the memory. "It was about Trace. I did something stupid in fifth period today, and I can't seem to get it out of my head." I poked at the chunks of unmixed chocolate powder in my mug. "I'm surprised I forgot to tell you about this earlier."

Jess set his mug down and leaned back on his hands. "I'm glad you saved it. I need a good laugh tonight."

"Well, I took my camera to school today because I needed it for my photography class. We had a pop quiz in the class before, and I finished early. So I took out my camera to make sure it was working."

Jess puffed out his bottom lip. "So far not too stupid."

"Just wait," I moaned. "Trace Weston sits in the row next to me and one seat up in that class."

"Ah, Trace." Jess nodded his head with exaggeration. "So what happened?"

"Well, my camera wouldn't turn on, so I got nervous because we had to have it all ready for my photography class. So I'm pushing all the buttons on my camera, trying to figure out what's wrong." I moved my hands and fingers in a mime as though I had the camera in my hand at that moment. "Next thing I know, the camera is on and I'm accidentally taking a picture! The flash went off and everything!"