Winning Skylinn

12

||Jonny's POV||

I remember the day it happened.

I was scared to move. I'd lived in California my whole life. Well, to be fair, I was only five at the time. But still. No more Disney Land.

My mom promised me that we would go to Disney World a lot in Florida, and that I would love our new house. She said it was big, and I'd have lots of room for all my toys.

But I still didn't want to move.

We flew out to Orlando when I was six, and when the moving truck came, a little girl came to help. She was our next-door-neighbor, Skylinn Porter.

She was adventurous, and fun, and she laughed at all my jokes. In the first half hour of my living in Florida, I made a new best friend.

About two years later, we were in second grade, and it was Valentines Day. Our class at school was having a party. Skylinn was jealous of all the other little girls because they had dates to the party. I'd wanted to go with Shellbee Stuckmeyer, but she was going with my friend Clark.

When all the girl classmates started teasing Skylinn, I took action and told them that I was her boyfriend. I hoped Shellbee would hear and get jealous.

"I don't believe you," she said.

And to prove it, I kissed Skylinn right on the lips. Some of the girls stuck out their tongues in disgust, but most of them went, "Awww!" or "Ooo!"

You might think that's when it happened, but no. There was another time, when my feelings became real.

We were twelve, and it was cold out. I had a jacket, but she was just in a tank top and shorts. She was shivering and I gave her my jacket. And when our hands touched, I felt something like I never had before. Not with Skylinn.

It was dark and the moon and stars were out, and I wanted to kiss her. For the first time since second grade, I wanted to kiss her. And that had barely counted, because we were eight and I was only trying to impress Shellbee and make her jealous. But this time it was real.

And when she smiled at me, I felt my heart stop. And I knew. Just like that, I was gone.