When We Kissed

One

Hello, my fellow earthlings🌎.
So I have been thinking I might work on this book while finishing un-mated, which I hope you will check that out when finished, please.

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    JAVIER ACE STOPPED in front of me in the hall, turned around, asked me if I was ready for the bio quiz. While he was asking, he touched my hair. It was a strand on the front right side. He twirled it around his index finger and then let go. When he did that I couldn't remember if I even took bio this year.

    I think I may actually have said "Duh." Javier smiled and strolled into class. I sat down right there in the hall because my knees had lost their ability to support me.

I should just say right up front that I don't like Javier Ace. He Frenched-kiss his last girlfriend fourteen times at one party. I wasn't counting or anything but it was somewhere between that number. Don't give that look okay I was counting, with everybody watching (and counting), and then broke up with her the next day online. He is exactly the boy who has never had an interest in me at all. But there I was on the floor outside of bio.

" What are you doing on the floor?" My best friend, Jada, asked me.
   "Waiting for you, " I lied.

I got up and followed her into class. I should also say that at that point I had never kissed anybody. No interest, for one, and also I had romantic ideas about how my first kiss would happen. Maybe a tree above us, maybe some music would be playing.

  Jada thinks the atmosphere is a cliché and I should just get the first kiss over with already. Since before sophomore had started, she has been trying to convince me to kiss Sam Parker.

Sam Parker is a really genuine guy. One time last April during a debate in social studies, Sam said that, though he disagreed with my premise, it was clear that I was an independent thinker and a moral person. It was a slightly weird moment. After class, Jada said, "Wow, Sam Parker is totally in love with you". I said, " No, he's just a nice guy, gentlemen". All the mothers like Sam. Everybody does. I like Sam. Good old Sammy. I call him that since he calls me Clemy.

Kissing Sammy would be like kissing my cousin. But as I sat down at my desk in bio I realized that I was ready to be kissed. I was suddenly, overwhelmingly, sick of waiting. I couldn't remember what exactly I'd been waiting for anymore.

Jada has fallen in love with all five boys she's kissed, and she said there was no way I could possibly understand how awesome and overpowering that kind of love is without experiencing it for myself. She said it was beyond describing. Every single experience in my entire life has been describable. In fact, I have described most of them to Jada.   

Javier may be a jerk but he had scrunched his eyes when he looked at me.

Jada passed me a note: "You okay?"
I realized I hadn't started my bio quiz, hadn't even turned the packet over. I flipped the packet over and neatly filled my answer, feeling satisfied. Yes, Javier, I did study. I flipped it back over and picked Jada's note again. She is my best friend. We tell each other everything. She would be happy if I finally got a crush on somebody, maybe especially Javier Ace, given my rants against him. Jada is a big fan of irony.

I didn't write back, pretending instead I was still working in my bio quiz. It might be a passing weakness, I decided, like a tickle in your nose that never grows into a sneeze. I would probably stop thinking about kissing Javier by the end of the period, I hoped, anyway, and return to my rational, self-controlled self.

Well, a week later I was almost fully back to normal. My proof is that as I was following Javier off the bus at school the next Tuesday morning, I was deep in thought not about what would it be like to kiss him or how cute it is that the bottom bit of his hair curls up where it hits his collar, but about which is better, peanut butter with ice cream or peanuts with chocolate chips. At that exact moment, Javier stopped in front of me again.

"Hey, " he said.

I almost swallowed my gum.

"You walk home?"

This was true. It was a statement of fact. It felt like an accusation. I started to shake my head.

"I thought you did."

Caught. What could I say? The cover-up is worse than the crime is what flashed through my head. "Um," I said. "Not until, um, after school."

He looked a little baffled at that, reasonably. That broke my nervousness; I snorted a laugh. "Oh, really?" I couldn't help mocking myself, "You mean you don't walk home immediately after getting off the bus in the morning?"

He grinned at me. " Come 'ere," he said and grabbed my hand. The warning bell rung. It was time to get into the school. I'm never late for school.

His hand was warm, and it was in mine. As discreetly as possible I pressed my right fist against my mouth and stuck my gum to the back of it, just in case this was going to turn into a kissing-type thing. Even in my inexperience, I knew you are not supposed to have gum in your mouth while you kiss.

Javier led me quickly around the side of the building, then stopped. I managed not to crash into him. I tried to look calm, cool, unperturbed. I told myself not to laugh, especially not a snorting kind of laugh. "Wha... What did..."

And then he kissed me.

There I was, presses up against the brick wall, kissing Javier. A decorative sticking-out brick was digging into my backbone, but I didn't want to weak my first kiss by readjusting. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to concentrate. I wanted to be mature and focus on the kiss, but even beyond the stabbing pain in my back and the fact that the late bell had long since rung by then, I was really distracted by wondering What kind of sick French person invented this bizarre way of kissing. I'm not even supposed to share a bottle of water with anyone because of germs.

When we finished kissing I had to wipe my mouth dry. We didn't say good-bye or anything. I took my gum off the back of my hand and put it in my mouth. Luckily there was still some mint flavor left because of the taste in my mouth was a little mildewy. I thought, maybe this is what Javier's mouth always tasted like--Ew.

To keep me from gagging, I tried to concentrate on the mintiness and also on the fact that it was the gum that supposedly kills the germs that cause bad breath so, well, maybe it could kill whatever germs Javier might've given me. Which made me that much more queasy. We started walking towards the entrance of the school. I let my hand dangle in case he wanted to hold it again but apparently, he didn't.

I picked up the pace as we got to the door and, crossing the lobby, scanned the halls for Jada. She wasn't there.

Surprisingly I felt a little relieved. I wanted to not tell her all about it for a few minutes. I wasn't sure yet whether it had been a describable or indescribable experience. My first kiss. Well, it was disgusting, but I liked it. Uh-oh. Describable?

Maybe the experience was still going on, and that's why I wasn't sure. We were approaching the corner near the office and Javier was catching up to me. I slowed down. Should I spit out my gum again, in case he was coming back for some more?

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Well, earthlings🌎 how was chapter one? Clemy first kiss with Javier Ace such a charmer. It would make my day if you comment and vote. Please if don't follow me yet do, so you can be notified for the next chapter.

Thank you love
Today's quote: "Books are uniquely portable magic"

~Stephen King