“She told me that you’re into me.”

“What?!” I shook my head, almost hysterically as the first wave of embarrassment threatened to knock me to the ground. “No. I’m not . . . I swear. I . . . no!” I protested loud and long, and a part of me didn’t know why. Just say it, Lori, one part of me screamed. But the other part was saying something completely different: Guys like him don’t like girls like Lori Fatty Palmer.

A strange expression contorted the features of his face and I wondered if he could hear the voices in my head too. I tried to recover from this as best as I could, the only way I knew how.

“Wait, did you think I was?” I forced amusement into my voice as if this was the craziest, funniest thing I’d ever heard in my life. Except it wasn’t, it was so mortifying, and despite the cool water rushing over me, my skin was boiling.

“Well, I kind of . . .” His face dropped.

“Kind of what?” I asked as he stepped again, almost closing the gap between us entirely.

“Never mind,” he said softly, looking down. The water splashed over his face, and he’d never looked hotter than he looked right now. He looked down at me again and then everything went silent. I can’t explain the feeling, and I don’t really know how it happened. It was something that couldn’t be controlled. Like the formation of the great galaxies, the colliding of black holes with their infinite gravitational force. We were like that. Pulling, falling, closer, until . . . I was kissing him.

Time stood still and sped up at the same time. Everything around me buzzed and hummed and although my eyes were closed, I could see colors. Indescribable colors blending together to form hues and shades that I’d never seen before. Every smell, every feeling, every sound was crisp and clean and sharp, like living in superhigh definition. And yet, it was also soft, diffuse. Slightly fuzzy around the edges. The moment was a stack of contradictions. Mixed emotions. A million thoughts. I opened my eyes again.