Allure

6 kissed

"O mi God! Another dare" shrieked an annoying voice which was oddly trite. Looking up, my green eyes met those of my classmate Emily. She froze for a second. A sly grin crept up on her face.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were making out with your boyfriend!" I formed with my lips.

She ignored me. Bitch.

"Let's see" she scrolled through her phone, searching for a question that could probably ruin me. Panic began accumulate in me. My heart was hammering in my ear, and I briefly considered to escape. But my butt seemed liked it was nailed down on the ground.

C'mon Emily. At least we'd been seat neighbours for a year and an half now. We'd done several presentations together and I'd even bought you your favourite mint flavoured chocolate for Christmas.

I prayed in silence, hoping the message would somehow get through so she would let me off the hook.

"Kiss a guy and tell him that you like him-"

I immediately shot up, in horror. Everybody was staring at me, expectantly. Emily kept playing with her phone, obviously disinterested in me. She knew I was going to fail. Emily and I had been pretending to be on good terms from the day we met. She disliked me as much as I despised her.

A sudden urge to prove myself to her overcame me. She believed that she surpassed me in every single way because of my restraint. And I was going to show her that she was so utterly wrong.

Curling my fingers into a fist, I pressed through clenched teeth, sweetly: "Fine, Emily. You know what? You can even pick the guy I should kiss."

She glanced up from the screen, genuinely taken aback. Concealing it, she pointed vaguely behind me. I could hardly not miss Raphael's wild gestures from the side, striving for receiving Emily's favour. He really must be dying to kiss me. How funny, so out of the blue, after having treated me like a stranger.

Following the direction Emily's finger was indicating, I turned around. My breath caught.

No. She was not pointing at him. She was not pointing at Phillip, the boy in whose presence my brain would not function properly.

"Phillip?" I whispered, aghast.

"Exactly."

The other participants clasped and booed.

I swallowed, forcing my feet to move. With each step, my breath went shallower. Warmth and cold flooded through me at the same time. Phillip was leaning against the arch leading to the garden, holding a beer bottle in one hand whereas the other was resting in his pocket. He looked gorgeous.

I was so busy ogling him that I completely forgot to contemplate how I was supposed to explain myself once having approached him. How the fuck should I kiss him just like that? That's sexual harassment!

"Hi."

And there I was, standing in front of him, nervously, helplessly, inexperienced. I could feel his warmth and smell his clean scent.

His face remained bland. He brought the bottle to his lips and took a sip. I watched his Adam's apple pop as the liquor glided through his throat.

"You need something? 'Cause I don't want to interrupt you and your friends."

So he was still pissed about earlier. Great.

"I-" Instead of finishing my sentence, I simply lifted my heels off the ground, laid my hands on his broad shoulders and kissed him. I didn't know what to say anyway.

His lips tasted cool, incredibly soft but yet firm.I could feel his surprise which, however, was quickly replaced with something like desire. His lips started moving against mine, hungrily, making my mind shut down. I instinctively pushed him away, both of us panting.

"I ... I'm sorry" I stuttered, unable to meet his eyes. "I like you." And then I ran. I didn't have the faintest idea why I even remembered or felt obliged to accomplish that stupid task. The kiss was inevitable since they were watching. The telling part though? That was not necessary. I could have totally skip it and they wouldn't know.

But I did it anyway. Perhaps because ... I wanted it. Because it was true. I wanted him to know that I was, in many ways, attracted to him.

I practically sprinted back to home, in a speed that by-passers probably thought I would be on an escape.

Closing the door, I first made sure my parents weren't in. Then I collapsed against it. My breath came out in shallow puffs. Far to loud in the silent room.

What the hell did I do? Had I lost my mind by kissing Phillip? For a stupid game? What would he think of me? As some girl pretending to be innocent but pushing the boat out at parties?

My phone buzzed in my bag. A message from an unknown number. I opened it.

What was that kiss about? -Phil

O God.

My just-calmed-down heart rate immediately went up through the roof again. Where did he get my number?

When I didn't answer, he sent me another text.

We are not done.

I - was - screwed.