I can’t help laughing as she quickly signs out of the computer and walks around the counter to join me. “It’s not, it has just been a day, let me tell you. And it’s not anything like you’re thinking. Trust me, there was no sweeping romance, there were no fireworks; it was just a quick peck.”
She wrinkles her nose up. “He wasted the first kiss—in front of his rival—on a peck? He deserves to lose.”
“Oh my God, would you stop? Hunter isn’t his rival. Before today, I hadn’t even spoken to Hunter in four years. And he hates me—he banished me to social Siberia before he left, remember? Not exactly the stuff of great romance.”
She gives me another funny look. “Really? What kind of romance are you reading?”
It’s a rhetorical question so I don’t bother answering. “Don’t give him any more of my information,” I warn her, even though I think she has already done all the damage she can.
I haven’t changed my number since I got my first cell phone, I live in the same place, now he knows where I’ll be every hour of every school day…
If Hunter wants to find me, he can.
Still, I don’t want her helping him. I don’t know what he’s up to now that he’s back, but when he left, he promised to punish me for betraying his confidence. Maybe he’s over it by now, but just in case he’s not… it seems wise to be cautious.
___
I never look forward to going to the cafeteria for lunch, but as we grab our trays and go to find seats today, I’m actually anxious about it.
Sara must notice. As we make our way to one of the empty tables, she says, “The first day’s always the worst, you know.”
I offer a weak smile. “Yeah. Anderson might sit with us. I tried to talk him out of it, but he seemed pretty insistent.”
“You don’t want your boyfriend to sit with you at lunch?”
“He’s not really my boyfriend.”
Sara shakes her head. “You and your mother, I swear. Most girls like having a boyfriend. You guys have boyfriends and pretend not to. I can only imagine how confused men must be by the both of you.”
I shoot her a look for comparing me to my mother. I love my mother, but we’re not the same. “It isn’t remotely the same situation. Things are new with Anderson, that’s all.”
“Mm-hmm,” she murmurs, clearly unconvinced. “You’ve been dating for two months. How do you date someone exclusively for two whole months and not call him your boyfriend?”
“It hasn’t been two months,” I say, frowning.
She nods, more sure of the timeline than I am. “More than that, depending on which date you go by. I know you guys started talking before the Fourth of July because he came to fireworks. It was the first time I was like, ‘Oh my God, she has a boyfriend’ and then I kept waiting for you to make it official and you just never did.”
That doesn’t seem right, but Sara is much better at keeping track of stuff like that than I am, so I guess I should take her word for it.
“Huh. I didn’t realize it’d been that long. Still, he didn’t even kiss me before today. That doesn’t seem like boyfriend territory to me.”
“When you get married, you’ll be walking down the aisle in a big white dress convinced you’re not in wife territory yet.”
“Hey, until the vows are spoken, nothing’s official. I could still change my mind,” I joke.
“See,” she says, shaking her head and opening her fruit cup. “Boys are wasted on you.”
I almost tell her about the flowers that were delivered to my house this morning since I haven’t had a chance to yet, but looking around the cafeteria, I can’t find Anderson. I don’t want to start telling Sara the story and then have him come over—especially since now I know who the flowers are actually from, but I’m not sure I want to tell him.
Thinking of the flowers makes me think of Hunter and my gaze drifts toward the table I know he’ll be sitting at.
Sure enough, there he is. I knew he’d be at the popular table with all of his dumb friends. Their table is always the loudest one in the cafeteria, but today they’re buzzing with even more energy because their king is back.
The sound of a tray hitting the table right next to me draws my attention away from Hunter and his most ardent followers. I look up just in time to see Anderson’s smile before he drops into the seat beside me.
“Hey, you came.”
“Of course I did.” He leans in. I fight the urge to lean back—two kisses in one day?—but it’s another quick peck, then he looks to Sara. “Hey, Sara. Hope you don’t mind me crashing your party of two.”
“No, of course not. I was just telling Riley…”
She keeps talking, but my attention fades out. I feel eyes on me. I look back at Hunter’s table and our gazes lock.
I break it quickly, trying to focus back in on Sara and Anderson, but I can’t help wondering if Hunter saw Anderson kiss me again.
He saw it in class, too, but it was different that time. I didn’t know he was even there, and once I realized he was, I was too blown away to even think much about him watching my first kiss with Anderson.
His commentary on that kiss crosses my mind. If he saw this one, it probably looked like another kiss I didn’t want.
My stomach tightens thinking about it. Why don’t I want his kisses?
Maybe if Anderson would have kissed me somewhere more private, I wouldn’t feel so reluctant. I certainly wasn’t reluctant or cold when Hunter kissed me in my bedroom. Maybe I’m just not into PDA.
Yeah, that’s probably it.
Even as I think it, I’m not convinced. I know that kiss with Hunter has lived in my memory for so long, I may have made some unintended revisions on it, but thinking of it still brings a flush to my cheeks, and it happened four years ago.
Hunter has the most perfect lips. Kissing him felt so much different. So much more meaningful.
I shake my head, trying to drop thoughts like that. They make me feel guilty. I shouldn’t even be comparing the quick pecks Anderson has given me with the tender, emotionally charged kiss I got from Hunter.
Maybe Anderson doesn’t kiss like Hunter, but he doesn’t hurt like him, either.
I fight the temptation to look at Hunter again and keep my attention where it’s supposed to be as I make small talk about the school day with Anderson and Sara. I figure he might ask me questions I’m not excited for if Sara and I stop talking, so we don’t. Sara hasn’t spent much time with Anderson yet. Now that school is back in session, we’ll all see a lot more of each other, but for now, she takes advantage of the opportunity to get to know him and I encourage it, figuring as long as they’re talking about nothing, he can’t ask me about Hunter.
“Favorite Disney movie?” she asks, dipping her plastic spoon into her fruit cup.
Anderson pops a fry into his mouth. “Lion King.”
“Best pizza topp—”
Before she can further quiz him, someone walks up to our table and steals all the words from her head.
Only one person can do that.
I glance up at Wally Kazinsky. His dark hair’s shorter this year—he buzzed it over the summer, so it’s just starting to grow back out. Like Anderson and Hunter, he’s wearing his letter jacket even though it’s a hot day.