Lucky Thirteen

It just had to be Friday the thirteenth. Organizational contest at Triad for District 19 that year was held Friday the thirteenth. Complete BS scores due to the snoody college-directing judges could never bring us down, though. O'Fallon's judges are worse.

Once back on our buses, we revert back to your typical 2012 High school "band-kids" talking, playing music, trying to sing.. We're not in chorus for a reason. Don't forget the "horny" band kids in the trumpet section; but let's talk about a baritone instead.

He wanted to sit next to me on the bus. "You should sit with me," he said, so I did. I've wanted to. We talked about our performance-we really weren't bad. There were, of course, some problem areas, but we handled it the best that a high school band could.

Our conversation wandered around to first hour Geometry. I sat behind him and we quickly became friends at the beginning of the year. He also liked to copy my homework. All the time. He used wrestling practice as an excuse, but I didn't really care. He still scored higher on the tests than me. Every time.

Somewhere along the line, his fingers interlaced with mine and I'm only noticing just now. I glance down at our hands and look away from him for a second to realize that I really like him. I always have-he's always there for me. I might even have some real feelings for him. I also feel his eyes on me.

"You're shaking, Ash."

I look back at him. "It might be the bus?" I joke. How can talking be so easy? I'm the quiet clarinet and yet I can talk to him so easily, and now I'm thinking about...

"Hey you wanna play a game?" I ask.

"What's it called?"

"The pocky game."

<The pocky game is a game made for couples. The Japanese snack "pocky" is a chocolate creme-covered biscuit stick that is delicious and best shared. Each person places one end of the pocky in their mouth and nibble on it and try get to the middle. You can see where this is going..>

I pull the box out of my purse and explain the rules. I turn to face him more comfortably and he places one end in his mouth, I get the other. There's a second before we start where time just stops. I look into his brown-now blue under he moonlight-eyes, and s-wha-?

The pocky broke in half before we could start.

I take my half out of my mouth and just stare down at it in awe. He took his out too. Looking up, my eyes meet his and I couldn't wait any longer. So I went for it.

I leaned forward and kissed him.

My chest fluttered, a new feeling for me-even after my first boyfriend experience that obviously didn't last-but it was a feeling so natural that it seemed nothing else in the world mattered: our terrible performance score, any terrible mistake, the fact that we were being watched-none of it mattered because we were here in this moment.

"Is that good enough for you?" he sasses.

I laugh and lean back into the seat, smiling like a dork. Our hands interlace again and we just sit there for a moment before talking again. We were talking about our.. unique director when he just stops.

"Wait, did you just kiss me?!"

I laughed so hard. That was the best Friday the 13th ever.