24 Lillian Lane

EVE

Oh. My. God.

Jack Anderson just kissed me.

I'm so stunned now that if you asked me to count to five, I wouldn't know how.

One minute, we were playing our instruments happily, and talking like friends. The next minute, we were much more.

My mind keeps reliving it. His face getting closer and closer. Me panicking because I've never kissed anyone before. Me closing my eyes. His lips touching mine. My lips touching his. That feeling like when he touched my hand shooting through my whole body. It's incredibly addicting, and I want more. But inside, I'm shaking. Jack senses my nervousness, and pulls away slowly.

"You okay?" he says. "I'm sorry."

I shake my head. "Don't be. Just... let me catch my breath."

Now I'm sitting on the roof, calm on the outside but with my insides swirling in an inferno. Whoa. Caught my breath. I look back at Jack expectantly.

And he pulls me in again. I lean up against him and relax. For right now, nobody else in the world exists. Not Bridget, not Alexandria, not my parents. I bring my hand up to Jacks face, resting it beside our mouths. I can feel the puffy scar I gave him yesterday. Yesterday feels like a lifetime away. I mentally apologize, because I don't want to move.

A wind blows across the roof, and I shiver. Jack wraps his arms around me, and I break contact with his mouth. I rest my head on his chest and take in this hug. I could totally fall asleep right here. Even though it's winter, I feel cozy and snug. We remain like this for several minutes, just my sworn enemy and I on the roof.

Then I see headlights coming towards us.

I jerk my head towards the street. If that car contains mine or Jack's parents, we're dead. Literally dead, grounded-for-life-and-no-scholarship dead. Jack turns to look at the car, and I know we are both mentally willing it to turn into any other driveway. No such luck. The car turns into ours. Uh-oh.

Jack and I look at each other really quickly, and press ourselves against the the bricks, closing our eyes. I squeeze Jack's hand, and he squeezes back. We hold our breath as we hear footsteps. They crunch the snow, heading to my unit. It's my mom and dad, back from their date night. As soon as Jack hears the front door slam, he jumps to his feet.

I pull him back down so forcefully that he lands on top of me. Jack looks at me and I gesture with my eyes. There's another car. We have no time to move. I just hope Jack's parents don't glance up at the roof.

They don't. Jack's mother, a tiny shrimp of a lady, has her hands full escorting an obviously drunk Mr. Morley. He stumbles, and she yanks his arm as hard as she can. He barely moves, but regains his balance. I feel bad for Jack. His dad is hard enough to deal with when he's sober.

As the front door closes, I stand up. Now Jack's to one to yank me down. I stumble landing beside him, our faces touching.

"What was that for?" I ask.

"Just getting you back for pulling me over before." Jack winks and stands up, brushing the snow off his pants. He climbs through his window with the ease of doing it a thousand times before. Maybe he has. There's a lot I don't know about my neighbour.

I crawl back through the window, shed my jacket, and jump into my bed.

My mind races, searching for answers to the many questions I have. Before I can even start to untangle the mysteries of tonight, I fall asleep.