“Holden, look!”
They immediately drop to the floor beside it, cross-legged without a shred of self-consciousness. I swallow at all the bare skin peeking out below their shirt. Korie’s definitely trying to kill me today. Between the skirt, that shirt, and the shiny lip gloss… I’m a goner. Totally fucking gone.
I purposely graze my hand on their skin as I sit close. They shiver and widen their eyes at me.
I shrug. If Korie is going to tease me, I’m going to tease right back.
“This is so you,” they say, carefully sliding the box of records toward me.
I flip through a few of them, becoming more and more interested. Each album is dusty and some covers are cracked, but an old Aerosmith one makes my eyes widen.
I pull it out, inspecting each side. “This is in decent shape.”
I catch Korie watching me and turn.
They have that same soft, almost bewildered expression on their face, like they’re trying to figure out if this is is real. It’s been wrecking me for days, in a good way.
“What?” I say, bumping them.
Korie blinks, as if coming out of a spell. “Nothing.”
“Mm-hmm. If I can’t stare at your pretty hair, you can’t stare at me like you want to kiss me.”
Korie blushes. “So what if I do?”
I raise a brow, curious if they’d kiss me here. Korie’s gaze drops to my lips, but they don’t lean in. Instead, they shift closer, causing tiny electric pulses to fly up my arm.
Dammit.
I shift subtly in my jeans, hoping they won’t notice.
The noise of the store fades into the background as we sift through more of the old records. I find two more that pique my interest, but end up putting them back.
Finally, we crawl off the floor. Korie sees me debating about the Aerosmith one and takes it from me, tucking it under their arm. “I’ll get it for you.”
“Not sure I want it. It could be cursed.”
They laugh.
Outside, we stroll past a few more stores, but none of them seem interesting. At the end of the street, a drugstore gets my attention.
“Oh, I need some shampoo. Let’s stop in.”
We’ve kept shampoo and conditioner at each other’s apartments for years. I wonder if it would be weird to buy shaving cream to keep there too. I’ve been using Korie’s, and I don’t like it as much.
Korie drifts away from me as I rush to find what I need. And when I meet up with them later, their cheeks are bright pink. “What?”
They carefully hide something behind their back. “Nothing.”
“Korie.”
They try to back up, so I snatch their wrist, and pause when I see a box of condoms.
“Oh.”
They duck their face, stifling a laugh. “It’s, um, been a while since I’ve needed these at my place, is all.”
I tug them close and kiss them, not caring if we’re in the middle of the damn drugstore. Korie can’t tease me about sex and not expect some kind of reaction out of me.
