The Montage #2
I brushed the hay and dust from my hands.
“Alright, Evans, I’ll do it. But you owe me.
And this isn’t going to be like all the other times you owed me and never paid up.
We’re writing this down. If you’re getting the first crack at these babies, then you’ll have to pay.
” I pointed to my lips as though they were some sort of prize.
And really, all things considered, my lips were one of the few things I kind of liked about myself.
They weren’t too thick or too thin, but just right.
And when pressed together, they resembled the shape of a heart.
He’d be dang lucky to get some from me.
Jake leaned against his pitchfork, smiling at me. “I always pay up.”
“You never pay up. You still owe me, like, thirteen milkshakes for all the times you lost at basketball.”
He laughed. “All flukes. I was just about to—“
“Nope!” I shut him down and walked into the tack shed, grabbing a clipboard with a paper filled with feed prices stuck to the wall. It took another second to find a pen, but when I did, I sat down and spent some time writing my terms while Jake finished with the feeding.
I was absolutely not delaying any potentially scary thing in our immediate future by doing this.
When he found me a few minutes later, I proudly showed him my handiwork.
He snorted, skimming the paper. “I’m not signing this.”
“Then no kissing.”
He studied me for a moment. “You’ve really never kissed anyone?”
My only answer was to glower at him and his easy smile and friendly nature that instantly made him so dateable.
It was harder for people to find dateable qualities in someone who didn’t know a thing about the grooming habits of girls and frequently looked like their red hair got stuck in a light socket. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
“Tuck,” he said lowly, peering close to my face, “tell me all your secrets.”
“Who would I have kissed?”
For a moment, he looked genuinely stumped. Like he’d never given a thought about how he had lined up my date for all two school dances I’d attended. I still wasn’t sure how he blackmailed them into asking me out.
I attempted to get us back to the matter at hand. “And if I’m bad at this, you can’t tease me about it later.”
He made a face. “I don’t think I can promise that.”
“Don’t forget, I know your full name, Nancy.”
He sighed, full of drama. “Alright. I’ll show you how to kiss, make sure I can dodge the braces, and I’ll only tease you a little afterward.”
“Jake,” I whined.
“It’s the best I can do.”
“Fine.” I held out the contract. “No spit. Just sign.”
“Sign and spit. That’s the only way it’s binding,” Jake declared, a cheerful twinkle lacing his eyes.
When I still hesitated, he added, “We’re about to swap a lot more juices than that.”
“Ew.”
I spit into my hand and watched him do the same. We shook on it before we both wiped our hands on Jake’s pants. Once the contract was signed and put aside, my hands began to grow clammy for some odd reason.
“And you’re not worried that…” I trailed off, my foot toeing the dirt, not able to voice the worry about what kissing Jake might do to me.
“Nope,” he said, turning to me. “We’re just friends. This is not a big deal.”
“Fine,” I clipped, determined not to overthink this. I walked a few steps outside of the tack shed, near the haystack, so we could still see the sunset. Jake or not, no girl wanted her first kiss to be in a dark and smelly old shed.
Jake took in the cozy orange glow in the air and gave me a pointed look. “You wanting it more romantic, Tuck?”
“Shut up.”
He laughed softly and stepped closer.
My spine straightened, and my stupid breath hitched.
Jake’s dog, Rodeo, sensing something was about to happen, began dancing excitedly at our feet.
My eyes darted to his lips and then back up to his eyes before dropping to his lips once more.
I wasn’t sure where to look or what to touch, but Jake would never let me live this down if I backed out now, so I just stood there as he inched closer.
His body leaned against mine, trapping all the air inside my chest. He hesitated only a moment before pressing his lips to mine.
I instinctively moved backward. Jake followed, our lips still connected, caging me lightly against the wall of hay jabbing into my back.
He moved his hands onto my shoulders. Confusion shot through me.
Our mouths were closed. Had this been a joke?
He wasn’t going to be able to navigate the braces unless our mouths were open. Right?
As if on cue, to the sound of Rodeo growling somewhere below us, Jake opened his mouth slightly. I did the same.
This was insanely weird. But I couldn’t stop now. I wouldn’t stop now. For whatever reason, Jake needed my help with this, and to be honest, it wasn’t the worst way to spend a Wednesday night.
So far, there had been no brushing or clanging of our braces. It all felt…warm. A little squishy, but…warm. Was it supposed to be so squishy? Was I doing something wrong? My heart was pounding a thousand beats a second.
Rodeo’s growl cut through my thoughts. I was about ready to pull away when Jake’s body suddenly jolted forward, smashing me against the haystack.
His abrupt movement caused our mouths to clash.
I opened my eyes to discover that Rodeo had jumped on Jake’s back and now had a hold of his shirt, attempting to yank Jake away from me.
Jake went to move backward but pulled me with him.
We both jerked our heads backward on instinct, to no avail.
Our eyes widened as panic began to bloom.
Not just any kind of panic, the special kind of panic reserved for that place on the internet which claimed that, yes, in fact, braces can get stuck together.
We both tried at once to pull our mouths away.
A most awkward, desperate kind of tug of war.
Jake pulled so hard I thought the braces were going to snap off my teeth.
A metal wire jabbed into my gums, and I let out a gurgled cry, gripping Jake’s shoulders while I pleaded at him with crazy eyes to stop moving.
Jake had finally gotten Rodeo off of him, though the dog still growled, nipping at our feet.
When this was over, I would definitely be giving him crap about his dog liking me the best. We tried again, this time moving more gently away from each other, but our efforts were in vain.
Visions of the two of us shuffling into Jake’s house to have his mom disentangle us filled me with growing hysteria.
I would die out here attached to Jake’s braces before I allowed anyone to see us like this.
He attempted to talk a plan through, but nothing came out intelligible.
Our lips brushed against each other with each word he attempted to speak, crumpling my spirit a little more each time.
Finally, Jake gestured to me that he was going to lift himself upward to try to disconnect whatever wire had joined together in Rodeo’s protective shove.
He tried a few twists and movements, but still we remained, locked together.
Jake’s body began shaking until I punched his shoulder. He was not going to laugh at this. This was not funny. My first kiss would now be forever branded as a spectacular failure.
The smell of hay tickled my nose.
I stilled.
No.
The sensation came again, this time with more force.
NO.
I raised my hand and scratched at my nose, water filling my eyes.
I stood there in sickening dread as my mouth opened wider, slowly pulling in air, and me unable to stop it.
The last thing I remember seeing before my eyes involuntarily closed was Jake’s look of wide-eyed horror at what we both knew was coming.
I sneezed.