“NO!I’m going to freeze to death!” She struggles against my grip, her legs flailing and her hands clawing against my arm. I set her down, her feet now submerged under the water, and she shoves her hand into my stomach. “Bully!”
“You started it!”
She takes a step backward, her hands up in front of her like a shield. “Yeah, because you deserve it!”
She reaches down so quickly I don’t even see the splash of water until it hits my face. She darts away, and I go after her. She runs to the lifeguard tower, using it to create a shield between us, but I get to her too quickly. I catch her, just as our feet tangle and we land on soft sand riddled with shards of seashells and small branches. We tumble to the ground, my body covering hers with my thigh nudged between her knees. Her hands brace my waist, and we start to pant from the running, from the laughing, and she looks up at me with her hair fanning her face in the sand.
She looks absolutely stunning. Those dark freckles blend in with her skin behind the shadows of her face, and her eyes glisten in the moonlight, making them glow. My eyes finally zone in on her lips after I’d tried everything to avoid looking at them. Dividing two hundred and ninety-one by three, reciting the alphabet backward, trying to remember my locker combination from the eighth grade. But once I couldn’t remember if my locker combo started with eighteen or eighty-one, I said fuck it. Her lips look like they’d taste sweet and soft. Like they could help me drift off to a soundless sleep while fueling an entire ten-mile run.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asks, her voice breathless.
“Like what?”
“Like you want to kiss me.”
My own breath catches against her, finding that when my chest expands, my body pushes harder against her. “Maybe because I want to?”
“Then do it,” she coaxes, her eyes so serious and intense.
“Yeah?”
She nods, and that’s all it takes. I crash my lips to hers, and she reaches her arms around my neck, pulling herself closer to me. Her lips feel like silk, all soft and pillowy. And I don’t know how, but she tastes like peaches. Sweet and warm and fucking delicious. I feel her knee hook over my hip at the same time she whimpers into my mouth. I respond by kissing her deeper, like I’m taking her kisses from her instead of waiting for her to offer them to me. I dip my tongue into her mouth, and she lets me, tangling her own tongue with mine.
“Everett,” she whispers, pulling away from me. Our breaths start to come out in heaves. When her hands rake into my hair from my neck, I just want to keep kissing her. Over and over and over again.
“Yeah?”
“I-I don’t know,” she stutters. “I don’t know why I stopped.”
“Probably because we should.”
She shakes her head. “Should we?”
“I don’t know. Maybe?”
Her lips are swollen now, and a flush has crept up her neck and cheeks. “I don’t know either.”
My elbows dig into the rough grains of sand. It starts to buff and grind into my skin, but all I can focus on is Teeny’s face. I want to trace all the little freckles on her face, connect them together if only as an excuse to touch her. I want to memorize them, note all the differences between each one. Like how the one under the inner corner of her left eye is the darkest of them all. Or how the three that trail off the side of her nose looks like Orion’s belt. I feel her fingers trail my forearm, and it’s a zephyr-like jolt of electricity. It zaps through me. Like a lightning bolt that bursts through my chest, sparking something vibrant and stirring.
“We should probably head back,” she whispers. “Josh might wonder where we are.”
I hear a tremble in her voice. It matches the reticence in her eyes.
Should I not have kissed her? Maybe I gave in too easily. I should’ve been the more responsible one. Waited a beat before letting my body act on impulse. Unease starts to wind its way down to my stomach, churning this fear inside me that I might have ruined whatever is budding between me and Teeny.
When she doesn’t say anything else, I reluctantly agree, standing with my hand extended toward her. She tugs at it, and we start to brush the sand off from our clothes and the bare skin of our arms and legs. I see specks of sand on the back of her head and reach for her hair, dusting it off. She turns around and faces me with a sheepish smile.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
We quietly walk back to the car, the air a vast difference from when we arrived. While we drive back, it’s still quiet. The only sound between us is the low hum of the music playing off the radio, turned down as if to amplify the silence between us. When we reach the party again, we sit in the car for a minute before getting out.
“Teeny,” I say, my voice suddenly so loud in the stretched silence. “I’m sorry.” I’m not even sure what I’m apologizing for. It sure as hell isn’t that kiss. I wouldn’t take it back for anything. But I need to make things right with Teeny. I care about her too much to walk away without making sure our friendship remains intact after tonight. Especially if that’s all she’ll give me.
“For what?”
“For what happened back there. Maybe that wasn’t the right thing to do.”
