s a g e *
River and I, for some odd reason, decided that we were going to play Twister. River is my best friend and tonight, we're having a sleepover at my house. We've been best friends since the eighth grade when we were paired together by our science teacher to work on a project together; we hit it off and we've been great friends ever since!
"I found Twister," I say as I walk back into my bedroom and shut the door.
He looks up. "We should play it!" he says.
"Now, why do you think I brought it in here?"
He shrugs. "Okay, fair point...but who's going to call the colors?"
"I don't know...we can have one of my sisters do it, or we can just call it for each other."
"I don't mind if we call it, but won't that get a little hard?"
"I have an idea! There's probably a video on YouTube! We can pull that up and do what it says!"
"Oh, yeah! That would work!"
I pull my phone out of my pocket and search a video on YouTube that calls moves for Twister. I scroll down a few videos and find one. While I've been trying to find the video, River has already spread out the mat on the floor and it's ready for our use!
"Left foot blue," the voice on the video calls out. Yes, I know there are actual rules on how to play Twister with two people, one player calls out the body part and the other calls out the color, but I definitely forgot about that until the video started talking.
"I just remembered," I say, looking over at him. "There is a way we can play without the video,"
"Which is??" River asks, trying to look at me.
"One person calls out a body part and the other calls out the color,"
"Let's play that way so we don't have to worry about smashing a phone and pausing and playing the video,"
I nod my agreement and slide my phone across the floor after turning off the video.
"Right hand," I call out.
"Blue!" River says.
I lean forward and place my hand on the blue circle in front of me.
"Right foot," I say.
"Yellow!" River says, smirking widely.
I don't know why he's smirking, it's going to be just as hard for him as it is for me. And he realizes this as soon as he moves to do it.
"Aw, man!" He says in annoyance. "I did not think this one through,"
I laugh. "Gotta be smart, Riv," I say through my laughs.
He looks at me (to the best of his ability) with an annoyed look on his face.
"Left hand," I say because it's the only body part we haven't used yet.
"Red," River says, already trying to reach the red.
"Left leg," I say after we've been playing for a good ten or fifteen minutes. Our bodies are side to side, and no matter where we move our legs, they're going to end up touching.
"Green," River says.
I look over and move my left foot from beside his and slide it underneath his leg; he moves left foot from the red circle he had been occupying and puts it over top of mine.
"Right hand," I say.
"Blue," he says, moving first and putting his hand underneath of me on the closest circle.
I move my hand beside him and I realize that I'm beginning to understand why I don't play Twister. River and I are practically tangled up, and it's only going to get worse.
"Left hand," I say without thinking.
"Yellow," he says and I know he didn't think about it either.
...Which is how I end up bent over backward with River leaning over top of me.
"Right foot," I say.
"Blue," he says and we both move back one space.
I don't think I've ever, and if I have, I do not remember it, been this close to River. If he falls, there's a high possibility that I'm going to get hit in the face and/or a bloody nose. I feel his right hand move and settle over top of my left one; his fingers sliding in between mine.
"You're not supposed to put your body part on a circle that my body part is already occupying!" I say, feeling a little bit like an eight-year-old girl who always knows--and sticks to--the rules of a game like a strict teacher.
"I know," he says, smiling a little as he scoots closer, moving his left hand to settle on my right hand as he did a few seconds ago.
"You're going to make me fall," I say pointedly.
"I know," he says once more.
"Well stop!"
"No," he says softly. "No, I don't think I will,"
"No, seriously, River, my legs are about to give out, like please stop or I will fall and you'll go down with me."
He just smiles at me and doesn't move. Then I realize, too late, that he's moving my leg back with his. My left leg goes out first, and then he moves my right one with his left leg, and I fall on the mat. He hovers over top of me, his hands still hooked with mine. He's hovering over me while he's on his knees; his feet are beside mine. He scoots up my body, still looking at me.
"You already made me fall, what else do you want?" I ask him, looking at him.
He doesn't say anything, and I know that he's going to do something, I've known him for too long to not recognize his mischevious face. He takes his right hand from mine and uses his pointer finger to trace my jawline. He lowers his face to mine and pushes his lips against mind softly. I almost gasp at the gesture, but stop myself and open my mouth against his, then closing it once more when I start to kiss his lips back. He breaks the kiss, standing up and pulling me to my feet; we stumble backward onto my bed, falling against the bed and each other, trying to scoot ourselves up closer to the head of the bed, still kissing each other as if our lives depend on kissing one another. We both smile against one another's lips, squeezing each other and kissing hard.
"I've wanted to kiss you for so long," he says when he pulls away to breathe; we're both breathless.
"I didn't realize how much I wanted to until you did," I admit softly.
He smiles down at me, grabbing my chin and kissing my lips softly.
1/19/20
I wrote this in the hotel room with my grandma right next to me on the bed so I was sitting at an angle because I didn't want her to read it
