Her List of Kisses

Chapter 10- Butt-Starers and Innocence

It is Friday afternoon and party preparation is fully underway. Kelly has been stressing out all week, panicking about caterers and which of her thousand bikinis is going to flaunt off her impressively gigantic boobs the best. Kate recently went on a shopping-spree with her dad, during which she spent more on make-up than most people earn from a month of work.

I spend most of my time texting Will. Even now, when the bell has gone and I’m heading to Biology, my phone is in my hand. And the more I think about him mixing with my friends, those I’ve grown up with, the more nervous I get.

What if he takes one look at Her Royal Breastiness (Kelly) and decides that he’s wasting his time with someone like me? Or what if he gets drunk and ends up snogging some slut in a thong? He texts me as cutely as he always has, but I don’t know how much self-control a boy can have when faced with a house-full of horny, buzzing, half-nude girls.

“Hey, Chloe! Wait up a second.”

I shake my head to dispel the thoughts and turn to see who called me. Josh Gibbons saunters over, a lopsided grin on his face. His hair is tousled and a few odd books hang precariously out of his satchel.

“Hey, Josh,” I smile.

“Hey,” he says. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” I say slowly, wondering as to what the purpose of this impromptu conversation might be. We speak quite a bit, but he never looks this nervous, and there are usually others around. “You?”

“All good, all good. So, you going to Kelly’s party tomorrow?”

“Yep! It should be great! Are you going?” I join in, animated again at the thought. I try to imagine Josh and Will chatting like mates, getting along, but somehow the image doesn’t quite piece together in my mind.

“Course I am. You gotta show your face at these things, right?”

I nod. We walk towards class in silence for a moment, then he points to my neck.

“You bringing Mr Hickey?” I can’t quite place his expression. He looks at my love-bite with a mixture of curiosity and something a little darker, a little more dangerous. It makes me want to hide the mark away.

“His name’s Will,” I say. “And yeah, we’re going together.”

Josh nods slowly and returns to looking nonchalant. Moments later, he puts a hand on my shoulder and I freeze, looking up at him.

“I guess I’ll see you there then, okay?”

“Okay.”

“See you round, Chloe.” With a wink, he turns on his heel and marches into the classroom to our left. I don’t see him again, and am left wondering what on earth that was all about. For some reason, my thoughts remind me of when I was thirteen and Kate told me he’d been looking at my butt at the school dance. I shake my head.

Enough confusion. Time to party plan.

****

Saturday arrives simultaneously too soon and not soon enough.

This time, when Will strides up my driveway, I don’t even give him chance to knock. That would only alert my mum, and while I want the piano lesson (with the new, finally fixed, piano) to be over as quickly as possible, I need a moment with him first. He smiles when I open the door, and turns to nod at his mother as she drives away.

Then, before he can step over the threshold, I slip outside and pull him closer, finding his lips. For a second his eyes are wide, but he responds almost straightaway, his tongue entering my mouth to trace circles on my own and his hands buried in my hair. Noticing that I’m barefoot on the gravelly ground, he slides his hands beneath my thighs and hoists me up to straddle his hips, pressing me firmly between the wall and his body. And then he continues to kiss me hungrily, up and down my neck and jaw and over my eyelids and back to my mouth.