Stolen First Kiss

Part 2

“Did you hear? Tom’s part of the top five in the honor roll!” Bettina Muñez, Giselle’s best friend, whispered to her in the library.

“You’re kidding! Tom?” Giselle asked, looking at her in amazement. “He almost failed Luna East last year because of his flunking grades.”

Bettina shrugged, and giggled. She wasn’t the only one who became enamored of the reformed Tom Costia, who shocked everyone on the first day of school when they got back for their senior year.

Gone was Tom’s smart-alecky smirks, longish hair, and troublemaking ways. He came in through Luna East Arts Academy’s gates wearing glasses and hair trimmed closer to his head. He was almost unrecognizable. Most importantly, he didn’t pull off any pranks like he did the first day of school over the past three years. If he was cute before, he was positively heartthrob material now.

Throughout the first semester, he had quite the number of girls trying to catch his attention, especially when he started making substantial contributions to class discussions. Apparently, the summer didn’t just change his appearance, it made him quite studious and smart, too.

If before, only the Elite and other beauty queens in school vied for his attention, his intellect soon won over the bookworms and honorees, too. Even the female, and some male, jocks kept flirting with him, but he only smiled at them sincerely and never entertained their attentions. Except Giselle, who had never forgotten that bathroom episode and her first kiss.

The first time they saw each other on their first day, Tom looked so somber, and his eyes glittered with intensity. Giselle blushed, in anger or embarrassment, she didn’t know, but she was the first to look away. All summer, she waited for him to contact her, to apologize, to talk about the kiss (and maybe try it again?) but he never did. She agonized privately that she must have been a really bad kisser for him to stay away from her those two months.

“You know, I still wonder what happened to make him change like that. He’s so…responsible now. It’s amazing,” Bettina gushed.

“For all we know it can all be due to some stupid bet,” Giselle bit out.

Bettina looked at her, surprised at her tone.

Chastised, Giselle took a deep breath then let it out slowly. Tom Costia had become a touchy subject for her, but Bettina didn’t deserve her snarky comments. “Sorry, Bets.”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean what happened in the bathroom, G,” Bets pointed out. She had the tone of someone who’d been through the same argument and rebuttal over and over again. “For all you know he’s really sorry and just embarrassed about it that’s why he never contacted you.”

Giselle finally closed her notebook with a snap. “Or maybe I’m just a really bad kisser and that kiss left him disgusted!”

That drew some weird looks her way from the other students, so she ducked behind one of her thick books.

“If you’re really curious about what he thought of the kiss, why don’t he just ask him?” Bettina teased. Then she became serious. “Boys, they’re just so hard to figure out, you know? Why can’t they just be simple like us girls?” Bettina propped her chin on her fist as she leaned on the table, looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully.

They heard a snort behind them, so they both turned around.

They saw someone sprinting away from the shelf behind them, but they caught a glimpse of his face when he passed by one of the glass walls.

Tom Costia.

Giselle turned to Bettina, horrified. “Oh my God, do you think he heard everything?!”

Bettina reached out and hugged Giselle. “Calm down, G, I’m sure he only heard my last sentence. His fan club isn’t here yet, so that means he hasn’t been here long. Don’t stress about it.”

But Giselle didn’t calm down, and she stressed about it the whole day until she went home.

It was already dark when Giselle opened the gate to their duplex. She had to stay after school for a project, and the traffic to get home was a killer.

The lights in their house were still off. She lived alone with her mother since her dad died, and she had no siblings. Her mother worked as a full-time Avon lady, and was out every day trying to sell whatever product she could just to be able to support them.

“Giselle,” someone whispered from the bushes.

Giselle jumped and shrieked, turning around with her hands up in front of her, karate style.

A figure emerged from the tall shrub beside their gate.

“Tom! What the hell are you doing here? Are you trying to scare me to death?”

Tom slowly walked towards her. As he came closer, Giselle was struck anew by how good-looking he was with his glasses on. She didn’t even realize she liked the nerdy guy look until she saw him last June.

“I’m sorry.”

She tapped her foot on the pavement rapidly. “So what are you doing here?”

“I heard you in the library. I’m really sorry for what happened last year. It was stupid of me.” Tom bit his lip; he looked nervous but determined. “I was stupid, and too reckless. You were right, I never thought of anyone but myself before. But I’m trying. I’m trying now.”

He ran his hands through his hair. “You don’t know how much I agonized over that scene. I don’t know what I would have done if you lost your scholarship because of me.” He took a step towards her again. “I thought you hated my guts, Giselle, that’s why I never approached you again. I’m really sorry.”

Giselle was silent for a long moment. Nothing bad happened anyway, she reflected, except for nights of her agonizing about that kiss. She sighed. “Okay.”

She turned towards the door, but Tom grasped her hand.

“What—“ She turned around again and hit Tom’s hard wall of a chest. Well somebody had been working out.

Tom slowly tilted up her chin, and his lips slowly lowered then hovered above hers. She looked into his eyes and saw the question in them. She closed her eyes, shutting out all her doubts and fears and tiptoed to close the distance between their seeking lips.

At first contact, she swore her heart jumped and beat faster. Tom held her face gently as he deepened the kiss.

Giselle felt his something wet slide over her lips, but instead of feeling disgusted, it felt nice. She parted her lips at the insistent probing. She gasped when he felt his tongue slowly lick her lips then her tongue.

For the second time in her life, Tom Costia was another one of her firsts.

Before she knew it, he was ending the kiss.

Her eyes, which she didn’t even realize had fluttered close, slowly drifted open.

And there, in the dark, with both their hearts racing fast, Tom and Giselle knew that something good was just about to start.