Break a leg #3
Maddy places her laptop aside and abandons her corner to reach forward to my end of the couch.
I shift a little forward and stop half movement with another wince on my face.
She laughs and sits back on her heels. “Sorry.” Then her gaze drops towards my mouth. “You have rice on your…” Her finger lightly points to the corner of her own lips.
I wipe the wrong side deliberately.
“Other side.”
I move to wipe my chin.
“You’re very bad at this.” Her eyes turn cheeky. There. My sunshine.
“Come get it.” I tilt my chin forward and tug a daring smirk on the corner of my lips.
Maddy reaches forward again, her thumb brushes the corner my lips before moving back to sit on her heels again. It was warm. So warm.
“Will. Quick question.” She presses her lips together.
“What is it?”
“Did you regret the kiss?”
I bark out a laugh at the objection of my entire body while Maddy stares at me in exasperation.
She rolls her eyes. “You’re fucking kidding me.”
I shake my head with a grin still on my face. “It didn’t mean nothing to me.”
Maddy looks straight at me. “That is a suspiciously emotional double negative.”
I no longer want to make it harder for her. So I tell her the truth. “I wanted to do it again before it ended.”
Maddy’s breath changes, so barely but I notice it anyways, faster than anything else I’ve been noticing about her.
“That is not an answer,” she raises her eyebrows at me.
“It is the one you’re getting.”
“You’re usually more articulate.”
“You’re usually louder when you’re nervous.”
“I’m not nervous.”
“Then stop crushing my fingers.” I grin.
She looks down to find her whole hand bending in index finger backwards. I don’t think I noticed when she started touching it. I don’t think Maddy did either.
“Do you want to kiss me again?” I ask her plainly.
“If we’re doing it again, we need a control experiment.”
“I know how I felt,” I tell her firmly.
“You need to be sober.” She keeps pressing anyway.
I study her. Some of the brightness is no longer on her face. I can’t work out what she’s thinking exactly.
Saying crazy shit about sex is easy for Maddy. Giving heads. Joke about her virginity. But asking for another kiss, and all the sudden, we need a scientific position.
“I’m not playing a game based on an event you keep claiming never occurred,” I tilt my head.
Her eyes sharpen. “You kissed me.”
“And you kissed me too.” Another smirk.
That softens her eyes. Maddy gives me a faint smile.
“You said to never mention it again.” I remind her and hold her gaze long enough to realise she has moved closer. Her laptop abandoned on the sofa armrest. “Do you really want that?”
I resist my instincts to pull her closer with both my hands when I repeat, “Maddy, do you want to kiss me again?”
“I don’t know.” Her gaze drops to my mouth again.
Not the answer I was looking for but at least that was honest.
Maddy’s finger has threaded into mine, then she moves her free hand onto my ribs.
“Will it hurt?” She whispered.
“Only if you tackle me.”
Maddy studies me. The sunshine is gone now. So is the gremlin. “I could hurt your ribs.”
“You’re very small.”
“Will, that’s body shaming.”
She shifts onto her knees beside me.
Her hand comes to my shoulder, careful to avoid the bruised side. The other holds her weight up by holding on to the backrest.
She is still giving me time to change my mind. Which is ridiculous. I have been changing my mind about nothing since she first brushed her mouth against mine.
“This is a control experiment,” she whispers.
I give her a nod. “Of course. Very professional.”
“And you cannot grab me suddenly.”
“My ribs prevent enthusiasm.”
“Your personality does not.”
“Maddy.”
“What?”
“Kiss me.”
She does. Soberly. Slowly.
There is no haze of weed or accidental contact we can blame on bad coordination. Just her lips on mine, her fingers on my jaw.
It is so gentle, how Maddy is touching me.
I thought maybe the weed has made every touch more electrified that night.
Holy hell.
It was definitely not the weed. I can feel every single fucking point of contact on my skin right now.
I pull her closer by just one careful inch and part my lips beneath her, tasting her lipgloss on my tongue.
She makes the quietest sound against my mouth and everything changes. That’s the same sound I’ve been trying not to remember.
My hand at her waist tightens before I could decide to move it. Maddy rises higher on her knees, fitting herself between my good leg and the edge of the sofa, pressing her body closer to mine. Her fingers slide into my hair and I kiss her deeper. Or she kisses me deeper.
Who the fuck cares?
I don’t even care that we’re the middle of our living room.
Maddy kisses me like she is still trying to prove something, and somewhere halfway through the kiss, she forgets what it was.
So do I.
Until pain pulls sharply across my ribs when I make a small turn towards her.
I inhale against her mouth and Maddy immediately draws back. “Did I hurt you?”
I slide my thumb once along her waist, grinning. “No.”
Then my hand pulls her back in and I kiss her again.
No holding back.