He leaned over and his lips answered. We’d kissed before. The embarrassing public mauling at the park certainly had its moments, but this kiss swelled with unknown pleasures, nervousness of exploration, embarkation. This was a first kiss. The best first kiss of my life.

My body hummed with tension. He stroked his hand through my hair, raining tingles down my scalp, my shoulders, my entire body. I’d woken up covered in his scent with no greater priority than washing it off; now I savored it like a new favorite, pulling it in and spreading it thick across my soul.

My voice trembled. “So, does that mean you wouldn’t watch the bears?”

“I don’t know,” he said with a wicked smile as his fingers drew my shirt open just enough to reveal my skin, “I’ve seen better … bares skinny-dipping at the reservoir.”

He leaned over and kissed me again. Everything pulled me closer to him, needing to touch him. My blood pulsed faster, faster, faster, as it revved wild through my veins. Lightning licked across my skin. And this time I knew it was real, because this time I felt it returned.

Even as his lips broke from mine, his arms drew me in closer. Our exhales mingled together as we caught our breaths, staring at each other.

A car whipped into the parking space next to us, breaking our goofy trance. “It’s late,” I muttered.

“Yeah, who do you have this hour? Doc Ramsey, right?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“I know,” he whispered, brushing my hair out of my eyes. He looked as disoriented as I felt. He kissed me again and quickly once more. “I’ll wait for you after school, take you home.”

Take care of her, Becks. Get my kitten home okay.

Home.

No matter what had happened, the town house with Mom and take-out Chinese was home. That’s where I wanted to go. That was where he would take me.

Cole turned to me as I slipped into class late and mouthed, Where’ve you been?

Later, I mouthed back, smiling, both because of Anthony and because Cole was still talking to me. But I was figuring out that friends didn’t abandon each other. They give each other chances, many more than they deserved.

I couldn’t help but notice Adrian sitting on the other side of the room scowling. As soon as we broke into groups of two to discuss the various aspects of self-fulfilling prophecies, I asked Cole what had happened.

“You missed everything! Marci Mancini is pregnant.”

I tried to look surprised. “Yeah? And?”

“And she claims jerkwad Adrian’s the daddy, but he says she’s lying.”

“I don’t think she’s lying,” I said, glancing over at Adrian. “I’m sorry, Cole.”