the last of our lives

Chapter 9: The Kiss

The next day I wake up to a text from Avery. It's exactly 7:00 in the morning. Three hours from when we have to be downstairs.

Avery: Meet me downstairs. I want to take you to breakfast before anyone gets up.

I quickly leave a note for Moriah so she knows where I went and then slip on a grey oversized sweater, a pair of leggings and my Air Force 1s.

I push my hair up into a messy bun and just don't bother with makeup.

When I get downstairs Avery looks like he just woke up. He's wearing his white hoodie and jean jacket look, and his hair is messy.

"Hi Oakleigh. Do you want to get pancakes?" He says.

"Yeah let's go!" The air outside is really cold and refreshing. The city is just waking up and the sound of cars has already filled the air. The air smells a bit like the city but a bit fresher and just a bit more like leaves.

Avery pulls up Yelp on his phone and finds us a breakfast restaurant which we head towards.

"So how are you this morning?" He asks, sliding his hand through mine and entwining our fingers. It makes my hand tingle and my heart leap, like a little jolt ran through my arm.

"I didn't sleep very well. I don't look amazing this morning and I'm not wearing makeup." I say.

"No. You look beautiful." He says earnestly.

"Really?" I ask. "Do I look as good as I did yesterday?"

He thinks. "I feel like there are different types of beauty. Like there's the amazing put together gorgeous beauty, and then there's the sweatpants and messy hair and still amazing beautiful, and there's the sun kissed beautiful, and then there's the shy beautiful, and the hardcore beautiful."

"Which type am I?" I ask.

"Who said you were beautiful?" He says, joking.

"You. Ten seconds ago." I roll my eyes and push him playfully.

"Oh yeah." He says. "I did say that."

"Am I one of the types you just said?" I ask him.

"You're all of them." He says.

Oh my god. Saying my heart melted would be an understatement. Basically I felt like a giant wave of happiness was just dumped on my head, like TSUNAMI sized happiness.

"Oh my god that's amazing." I say.

"It's the truth." He shrugs. He kind of moves to a stop, so I do too.

"I really want to kiss you right now." He says.

I feel light headed and dizzy. But I lean forward and he closes the gap.

I can't really think. It's like a blinding amount of colors have been pushed my way and I'm trying to process them while on heroin.

It feels amazing. His lips are warm and soft and he tastes a bit like mint and chocolate. I wrap my arms around him and there we are, in the middle of New York City midtown, on a busy street, kissing. He's so warm and it makes me go all soft inside.

It only lasts about fifteen seconds but it feels like the world stopped for that kiss.

"Well uh, should we keep walking?" Avery asks awkwardly.

I can't help but laugh. "Yeah. Let's go get those pancakes."

When we get to the pancake shop, almost nobody's in there, a few people are inside at tables, talking among themselves. A waiter comes to bring us menus.