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It's funny.
Here I was, sitting here with him in the middle of a dark forest with nothing but trees surrounding us, our friends sleeping only a few feet away near the dwindling campfire, the clear night sky above us decorated with stars and his eyes lingering on me...and yet all I could think about was the first time I'd ever met Chris Chambers.
I mean honestly, being right here in this very moment with the possibility that I could be seconds away from having my first kiss was something I'd spent countless of hours during the day thinking about and God knows how many nights dreaming about.
I thought I'd be nervous, at least that's what I read I should feel in that teen magazine that my mom never lets me buy. But according to the same magazine, I should also be about four to five years older, wearing some fancy dress with my hair all done up, and waiting restlessly behind my front door for him to pick me up for our big, important high school dance.
My dad always said that I never followed the norm of what all the other kids were doing. When I was younger, I never really understood what he meant, I always thought he was just picking on me or calling me weird or something. But I think I get it now. Because I wasn't following in the steps of some teenaged magazine
Nope, not at all.
Here I was, almost 13-years-old, dressed in the same clothes I'd left the house in who knows how many hours before. I'm pretty sure I had a fair amount of dirt all over me from our entire journey and the jump off of the edge of the train bridge. My hair was a mess and I definitely wasn't waiting in my house all high school dance ready...but I wasn't nervous.
If anything, I was calm. But that's how I've always felt when I was around Chris– he just has this thing about him that makes you feel at ease whenever he's around.
I'd first met him in first-grade on the playground during recess. Theo– while during our younger years we were practically inseparable– had been off playing with ironically two of the boys he'd continue to be close friends with to this day, Teddy and Vern. I was always the quite one between the two of us, rarely talking to my parents friends or ever going up to kids my own age who I didn't know. I was what my mom liked to call a "late bloomer," so obviously I was off on my own, sitting beneath a tree that was near the swings, waiting for my turn.
I'd probably would have spent that entire recess by myself if Chris hadn't managed to walk over and sit down next to me. I ignored him, continuing to dig the small stick I had found on the ground next to me into the dirt. It was Chris who was spoken up first, telling me that he'd liked my dress.
"Thanks, I hate wearing dresses...but my mom made me." I said. When I had looked at him, I noticed a fading spot on his arm, just barely peaking beneath his shirt sleeve. "You've got some dirt on your arm."
He looked at it and bit the inside of his cheek. "Oh, that's not dirt...it's a bruise, I kind of made my dad angry."
I knew that some parents hit their kids. Hell, when Ben got in deep enough trouble, dad would make him go outside and pick a switch off of the tree in our front yard to be spanked with. But he'd never hit him hard enough to leave a bruise. I may have only been 6-years-old, but I already knew that Chris's dad was nothing like my own.
The silence had hung heavy between us and I picked up another stick that was by my shoes, handing it to Chris. "I'm Elizabeth Hastings. What's your name?"
He took the stick from me and began to help me dig in the spot I had already started. "I'm Christopher Chambers, but everyone calls me Chris."
Right now, I was feeling the same as I had at the very moment I'd met him. Calm and comfortable.
"Elizabeth..." He whispered, snapping me out of my thoughts and causing me to look at him.
"Y-Yeah?" I asked, my brain beginning to register just how close his face was to mine, and the fact that he called me Elizabeth. He'd only call me Elizabeth, like everyone else, if something was serious...otherwise, I was Betty.
Though it was hard to see with just the stars and the full moon as our lighting, I noticed how his eyes seemed to be moving across my face...almost as if they were taking in every detail it had to offer. "I-I-" He looked away and bit the inside of his cheek again, a nervous tick of his I'd come to pick up on throughout our years of friendship.
I could feel a small set of nerves begin to sink in and I knew I'd have to lighten the air. "Come on Chambers," I said, nudging him. "spit it out."
He looked up at the stars and took a deep breath as if he was praying to them for some type of courage. He turned his body towards me, keeping his legs crossed and his arms in his lap. He finally brought his eyes up to mine, meeting my gaze. "Can I...kiss you?"
I knew it was coming and yet I still found myself surprised– frozen where I sat. Those four words had caused my mouth to go dry, my heart to beat insanely fast...and my mind was going crazy searching for an answer when I already knew what it was.
