He was close to me, so close that I could smell the fruit on his breath. I didn’t know if it was me or if it was Kael, but one of us was inching closer to the other as we continued our little game. By the time Kael and I had asked each other random questions like how long we could hold our breath and what noise could he listen to all day, every day without being annoyed, we were inches away from each other, both leaning out of our seats.

It was a magnetic pull. An irresistible attraction. He was by far the smartest, most philosophical person I had ever met. He had the answer to everything; he knew exactly who he was. I really loved that, and his conversation drew me out. I told him how I first fell in love with figuring out life on my own. I told him how I would never change who I was for another person. I didn’t exactly know who I would become, but I knew it would be on my terms.

“I could listen to you talk all day,” he said, surprising me.

“No one has ever said that to me before.”

“It’s become one of my favorite things to do. I’m going to miss this when I leave.”

His eyes were on my mouth.

My heart was beating out of my chest.

“I wish you weren’t going,” I confessed to him.

“One day you’ll regret saying that.” Kael’s breath covered my cheeks.

His lips were so close to mine. Was he going to kiss me, here, now, out of the blue, with the dew of orange on his lips?

My mouth begged for his to inch closer, to touch mine. I had never wanted something more than I wanted him to kiss me, there in my kitchen.

Was he going to kiss me?

His lips soon answered my question. He leaned over and put his soft mouth on mine. Everything went quiet then. The traffic on the street outside. The faint sound of the TV. Even the noise in my head went quiet. I had no words. No thoughts. Just him.

He was timid at first, gentle . . . until I pushed my tongue between his lips and tasted him. His fingers cupped the sides of my jaw and down the skin of my neck. He pulled me closer and I sighed, feeling relief from a pain I didn’t know I felt.

The flooding relief was immense but short-lived when Kael gently pulled away, kissing the corner of my mouth while whispering, “I’m so sorry.”

The high I felt was ripped away, replaced with a different kind of pain taking stabs at me. The look on his face wasn’t just surprise, but remorse.

“I’m sorry. I really don’t know what I was thinking,” he continued, wiping his mouth with his fingers. “I shouldn’t have done that.”