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5

It took almost a full minute to return back to reality and to wrap my head around what really happened. Alyssa kissed Logan. My best friend kissed my crush since freshman year. I took a deep breathe, allowing the crisp fall air to fill my lungs and started to make my way towards them. That's it, keep going. One foot after the other. Take it step by step. Walking through a crowd of rowdy teenagers took forever until I finally reached the metal-wired fence that kept me from confronting Alyssa right there. I kept thinking in my head that it wasn't her, or if it was, it was some mistake. She would never do that to me, she knew how much I liked him.

I huffed out air and turned around, walking towards Charlie to congratulate him on the big win. I would think about what I had just witnessed later.

I tried to put on my best fake smile as I made my way, getting closer and closer to Charlie by the second. I needed something to take my mind off of things. More importantly, I needed Charlie. He was the only person that always knew how to cheer me up without even doing anything. As I approached him, my smile grew wide and I realized when I was around Charlie, my smiles were never fake. They were always genuine.

Charlie's back was to me as he talked to the receiver who caught the winning touchdown. Suddenly, the receivers' eyes flickered to me and then back to Charlie with a knowing look in his eyes. It seemed odd as I had never met this kid but it was as if he knew me. He then said goodbye to Charlie and Charlie turned around towards me. Before I knew it, I was jumping into the muscular arms of the boy who always made me happy. "Hey congratulations Mr. QB!" Still holding on to my waist from the spontaneous hug, Charlie lifted me into the air and spun me around. He slowly began to lower me down until we were eye level and I was still a few inches off of the ground. His eyes never left mine and I could feel my heart beating a million miles a minute. This is what I always dreamed of happening for my first kiss, having that "Dirty Dancing" moment where Patrick Swayze lifts Baby up after they dance at the talent show and then he kisses her.

As if without thinking, my eyes found his lips and I was caught staring at them. I looked up, a pink tint spreading over my face only to see that his face was the same pink tint. We had been doing the same thing. It was only a matter of seconds and suddenly, our faces were so close that I could feel his warm breath lightly tingling against my skin giving me goosebumps. With every breathe we took, we got closer to one another, our breath mixing to form one. We began to lean forward as the one centimeter gap between us was too wide. That's it. It was happening. I was going to kiss Charlie.

At least, I thought I was going to.

"Charlie!" A high pitched scream rang in our ears, scaring both Charlie and I. Charlie dropped me back down to my feet immediately and we moved away from each other, the space between us getting wider second by second. The smile that was on my face began to fade as I turned to the person who so rudely interrupted what could have been the greatest moment of my life. It was Alyssa. She had the biggest fake smile I have ever seen in my life and was walking over with Logan. They were holding hands. I couldn't help but feel the anger I had stuffed inside of me resurface.

I thought I would be yelling, but I didn't. Instead I didn't speak, I just walked in the other direction without a word. It's not like Alyssa was going to talk to me anyway. She wanted to talk to Charlie.

Someone was calling my name in the distance, but I couldn't hear it. I couldn't tune into reality.

I was abruptly stopped as a hand wrapped around my wrist. I turned around and was met with the same eyes I had seen a few minutes before. "AJ, are you okay?" Ah, there it was. My favorite nickname. Ever since I was little Charlie always called me AJ because my full name was Aubrey Jane Watson. He said it was quicker to say AJ than it was to say Aubrey and ever since then, the name stuck. No one else ever called me that name, it was only his nickname for me.

As I looked to Charlie, I couldn't help but immediately lose all the anger I had in me. It's as if I'm the fire that burns houses and fields and he is the rain that's always there, waiting to extinguish it, to cool my anger. To save the burning house and to bring back happiness.

I thought about his question, "are you okay?". Honestly, no. I was beyond furious that Alyssa did what she did but I was even angrier because she ruined my opportunity to finally kiss Charlie. He was so overjoyed with happiness that he didn't realize who he almost kissed. It was my one chance to kiss him. It's not like he actually liked me in that way. He was just blinded by a happy haze that made him do something he would never do, especially not with me.

I quickly shook my head of the thoughts that constantly swam around my mind and shrugged my shoulders to brush off the heaviness that I felt weighing down on me. "Yea I'm okay. I'm just, still not feeling that well from this morning." I tried to keep my eye contact with Charlie as not to give away that I was lying. Although technically, if you're telling part of the truth, is it actually a lie? His eyes stayed trained on mine a few seconds longer before moving on to a new subject. "You need a ride home right?" I subconsciously nodded my head. It was what I always did. Charlie would drive Alyssa and I to their house every Friday, but today was different. Alyssa didn't want anything to do with me and I think I feel the exact same way. I abruptly stopped nodding my head. "No, um, I've got my bike. I'm fi-" No words flowed from my mouth and all I could do was hope I didn't throw up. My stomach was doing back flips and clearly I had no clue how to handle it as Charlie cupped my face in his hands and I couldn't help but get hypnotized, eyes never leaving his gaze. "I'm gonna drive you home. It will be just you and I. Not Alyssa." Relief flooded through my eyes and I could tell Charlie knew exactly what was going on between us. He must have seen Alyssa kissing Logan at the end of the game as well.

Charlie slowly let go of my face, returning his hands to his side. Before he could say anything, a car alarm went off, making both of us jump. As Charlie stared off in the direction of the parking lot wondering if it was his car that went off, I leaned on my toes and pecked his cheek lightly. He turned to me, his mouth hanging slightly open as if he was in shock. I didn't give him time to do anything before I quietly murmured the words "thank you". He nodded his head in understanding and a small smile played on his lips.