“Truth.”
“Ugh, you’re boring.Okay Is it true that … you still sleep with a stuffed animal?”Kim asked.
“What?!No.That was a dumb question.”Mallorie said, annoyed.
“Nick.”David turned to Nick.
“Yes?”Nick asked, eyebrows raised.
“Truth or dare?”
“Dare all the way!”he laughed.
“I dare you … to kiss Ellie.”David pointed at Nick then at me.
Nick looked at me, questioning, then he asked, “Can I do my dare but in private?”
“Um” the group looked at each other and everyone nodded, “Yeah, I guess we’ll allow that.”David said.
Nick grabbed my hand and pulled me to the other room where we could still see the group, but it was dark enough that we were hidden in the shadows.He asked me “Can I kiss you?I didn’t want to do this in front of the whole group because … I actually really want to kiss you, not just for the dare.”
I looked at him and squinted, trying to decide if he was being serious or not.Hehadbeen flirting with me the last few days, but I wasn’t sure if that was just his personality or if he actually liked me.I decided he was being honest.“Yes, you can kiss me.”
I smiled.
He smiled.
He kissed me.
It was a quick kiss, close mouthed.But then his hand came up to hold my chin and he kissed me harder until his lips released mine and I opened my eyes to see him smiling at me.
He didn’t know it then, butthatwas my first kiss.
After that night, Nick and I became an us and we were pretty inseparable for four months with many nights of us laying out on the hill at the plaza, making out for hours under the stars while the rest of our group walked around.
We were an us until he couldn’t see me for weeks on end because of his baseball schedule.We were an us until he didn’t want to take me to our homecoming dances because we went to“rival schools”and that’s“not allowed”.
I broke up with Nick.
He punched a wall.
I felt bad.
When it was closer to Christmas, and it was coming up on two years since the time that I had met Lee, I started feeling nostalgicor maybe it was just feeling bored.Since I broke up with Nick, I didn’t have much going on outside of school hours, so I decided to call Lee to say hi and maybe catch up on life from the last few months.It was too bad for me, because he wasn’t home.
Chapter Thirteen
LEE
19 years earlier
It’s my birthday today; I just turned seventeen.Steff and Ryan took me out to King Bowl tonight to meet up with Chris and Sarah.When we walked up, I saw a couple of kids making out on the stone wall by the parking lot.
I flashbacked.
It was me and Ellie.
And thirty questions.
