Five Summers

12 Years Old

"JJ, you're going to choke doing that," Pope points out.

JJ shakes his head. "Nah, I'm good at this. I've never choked before."

Pope rolls his eyes. "You better hope you don't. Big John will be mad if he has to come out here and give you mouth to mouth."

"Big John loves me," JJ says as he throws another grape in the air. He catches it cleanly in his mouth.

"He won't if he has to kiss you," Pope jokes, and JJ throws a grape at him. "Hey!" he yells as he runs through the yard.

Gravel crunches out front. "Kie, I think your mom is here!" I call up into the tree over my head. I see dangling legs withdraw from either side of the large branch she's sitting on.

"Okay, thanks Em!" she calls down as she shimmies down the tree trunk. "I'll see you guys tomorrow!"
She runs around the house and we hear a car door open and close, and then the gravel crunches again.

JJ throws another grape in the air and catches it in his mouth. "See? I am so good at this!" He throws another one in the air, but this time I shove him so he misses. "No fair!" He shouts as the grape rolls in the sand.

I toss one up and catch it in my mouth. "Life's not fair sometimes," I say deadpan, and Pope cracks up.

"Pope! Your dad called. He needs you home for dinner!" Big John shouts out the back porch door.

"Dang it," Pope says to himself. "Okay! Thanks!" he says louder so Big John can hear. He waves and goes back into the house. Pope grabs his bike from its spot leaning against the tree and swings a leg over. "Neither of you choke, okay?" he says seriously.

"We won't," I promise. "See ya later!" Pope rides off towards his house.

"Okay, competition time," JJ says as John B walks into the house after he announces he needs to 'drop some kids off at the pool'.

"Me versus you, best out of five catches," he explains, breaking five grapes off of the bushel for me before doing the same for himself.

"What's the prize?" I ask.

"Uh, bragging rights. And uh, a kiss on the cheek," he adds, almost under his breath.

"Hmm. Okay," I say. "You first."

We go back and forth. We both make our first four attempts.

"We could tie! We'll have to do a tie breaker, I guess," JJ says before throwing his final grape in the air and catching it in his mouth. "Okay. This is it. No pressure."

I toss my grape in the air. The arc is all wrong and I don't even come close to catching it.

"I win! I win!" JJ shouts as he runs a victory lap around the picnic table. "I believe you owe me a kiss."

"Yep," I say, feeling the nervousness pool in my belly. I've never kissed a boy before, in any way. I move to stand in front of him and let out a breath, then I push up on my tiptoes to plant a gentle kiss on his left cheek. I swear I can feel his cheeks heat under my lips before I pull away. He's still blushing when I step back and look up at him.

"Would you like a consolation prize?" he asks. "To help soothe the sting of loss?"

I don't answer, but he leans down and kisses my cheek.

"Hey, pizzas here, come inside!" John B yells out into the yard. JJ gives me one last shy smile before he jets inside.