It's October 2, the day the Fall Festival is taking place on. Denise took her time in preparing everything; all that is left is for the students to take their places at their assigned booths. It's been decided that all the money that's been gathered at the end of the festival will be donated to an orphanage facility in the neighborhood. It was for a great cause, and I'm glad Denise is responsible for all this. She gets the ideas, plans everything, and sets everything accordingly. It is a lot of work, but as she once said, this school needs a leader, and that leader is her.
The twins and I volunteered to help with the booths, so stayed after school with some of the council club members to put everything together. Denise was absolutely grateful for what we did and even paid for lunch yesterday. She texted me today and told me to meet her in the school gym, where the festival will be held.
"Hey, girl," she walked towards me in her pink turtleneck top and wide pants.
"Hey, you," I say back, "What's up?"
"I have a job for you," she puts her hands on my shoulders and looks into my eyes, "Are you willing to take it?"
"It depends..." I narrow my eyes, "What kind of job?"
"A very serious one. I want you to stand at one of the booths."
"Which one?"
"Come, I'll show you," she locks her arm with mine and leads me to the end of the gym. "Laurel was supposed to do this, but she got sick and couldn't make it."
We stop at the last few colorful booths, and Denise points at one of them.
"Test your boogers? No way!" I look at the booth with both disbelief and disgust displayed on my face.
"Not that, you idiot. It's the one to its right," she refers to a small booth with a white banner and red and pink hearts stuck to every available spot on it. It was a fucking kissing booth.
"I wanna test my boogers," I shake my head. "I'm not standing in a kissing booth, Denise."
"Why not?"
"I'm not ready to kiss random guys, you know."
"It's charity work," she says like it's the most obvious thing.
"That won't work on me."
"Come on, Nicky, do this for me. Everyone bailed out on me and ditched this booth."
"Oh, I wonder why" I say sarcastically with a look of fake shock on my face.
"Please."
"No. What would Ryan think of me?"
"He won't know," she tries.
"Sure, until he sees one of those pictures in your stupid magazine," I fold my arms in annoyance. What does she take m for? I'm not the kind of girl that would do something behind her boyfriend's back. Even if those kisses are nothing and are void of all possible emotions, it would still hurt Ryan if he knew I kissed a good number of guys other than him.
"Are you still mad about that?"
"Hell, I'm still mad. Can't a girl have her privacy?"
"I'm sorry. It won't happen again, I promise. Can you at least fill the spot till I get someone else?"
"Fine, but I ain't kissing anybody."
"Of course," she gets her phone and starts going through her contacts before leaving me in the gym, which was starting to fill in with people for the festival.
I stood at the booth, embarrassed by the whole idea, hoping that none of my friends see me.
"Dude, isn't that Nicole?"
Holy shit, am I that lucky?
"What are you doing standing here, Nic?" Tyler asks, walking with Jordan and some of the members of the basketball team.
"Nothing," I shrug.
"Damn, do we just pay for a kiss from you?" Luke, one of the member, asks.
"No, I'm not kissing anyone. I'm just filling in till the other girl comes."
"That's a bummer," Luke says, earning himself a hit on the back of his head from 742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEqPP7OngVP
Tyler. "What, man?"
"She's got a boyfriend, you know," Tyler tells him.
"Right, can you guys not tell him I even stood here? He might get the wrong idea," I look at all of them to receive a nod from each one of them.
"Sure thing, but it's not free," Luke leans closer to me with a perverted look on his face.
"Dude, stop that," Jordan says.
"It's okay," I smirk, "I'll give you something, Luke." I turn around the table to stand in front of him. I hold his face, catching him off-guard. I get closer to him--close enough that our noses almost touched--and with all my will, I bring my knee up to his crotch, hard enough to cause him pain for at least a few days. The guys let out noises of pain and then started laughing. They cheered for me and praised me for a good job. I thank them dramatically, and then I laugh at Luke as he groans in pain.
Luke is a cool friend. I used to hang out with him even before I came back to school. He usually tags along with Jordan and Tyler since they're together in the team. Luke is the type of guy who knows no boundaries with girls. He would shamelessly tell sexual jokes, carelessly touching them where he shouldn't, and might even act aggressively towards girls like it's normal. Still, some girls strangely find that attractive about him, but I don't. Today is not the first day I kick Luke in the balls, I tell you.
Denise texts me, "Remi will take over. Just wait for a few minutes."
Man, can't I just leave this place?
A line already started forming, and no matter how many times I told them that I won't be kissing anybody, no one left. The line suddenly had more than 20 people or so, and I panicked. Let me tell you, they were not all guys.
"Yo, guys, I ain't kissing nobody," I call out and wave my arms in a NO gesture.
"But you're standing at a kissing booth," some guy retorted.
"Shut up, smartass."
"I wanna donate," the first guy in the line says, bringing out a few bucks from his pockets.
"Donate somewhere else." People are smart-talking me and using the donation as an excuse now.
"Just wait for Remi, alright? She'll kiss you all you want."
"Oh, man," he grunts and leaves the line. Others start walking away as well, leaving only 6 guys. More minutes pass and that Remi chick did not show up. Someone comes to me and tells me that she'll be running late, and Denise says make some money till she comes.
Damn you, Denise; you couldn't even tell me in the face. She's got to be kidding me. Now, I'm stuck with a line of guys that I'm supposed to kiss. That bitch owes me so much.
I unwillingly kiss a couple of guys standing in the line. I would quickly peck them on the lips, much to their dislike. After kissing several guys, who started doubling up by time, Will shows up in front of me with a smirk on his face.
Ok, now what?
"Is that a kissing booth?" He asks with humor dripping from his mouth. Whatever he's thinking about, he's an idiot to think I'll accept. His mind must've twisted and gone to all wrong directions.
"I don't know, I can't really read it while I'm standing here."
"Well," he places a few dollars on the table between us, "I've got my money on the table."
"Good for you," I fake smile him. I can't believe him, what a dumbass.
"Don't you owe me something?"
"Do I really?" I put my hands on the table and lean on it.
"Don't play dumb with me," Will moves forward and steals a kiss from me. I was so shocked I froze in place and kept my eyes wide open. The kiss lasted for seconds, but time stopped and it felt like hours. When he pulled away, his eyes stayed on my lips for short moments then moved up to my eyes.
"You're really stupid," I exhale, looking at him incredulously. He smirks and walks backward away from where I'm standing, still utterly shocked. He says, "I just did charity work. It felt great."
Fucking idiot!
I was still out of breath. My head pounded with thoughts, and my heart beat with crazy speed. I ignored everything about me and focused on the memory of his lips on mine. I still felt a tingling sensation on my lips and brought my fingertips up to touch them.
As I try t get myself together, some girls with a pixie cut blonde hair and fake glasses shows up. "Nicole? I'm Remi," she kept a straight face. "Thanks for filling in for me," she swept her head to the side in an effort to get the bangs off her eyes.
"Why so early?" I ask sarcastically with some bitterness in my tone. I leave the booth, annoyed at everyone--Denise, Remi, Will, and all the lame guys who stood in the line--and myself, frankly. I just Will get to me so easily. Yes, I did not kiss him back, but I also didn't stop him or push him away. If anything, I might've slightly been into it--
Fuck no! I'm dating Ryan now. I should not be thinking about that, especially when Will is one of my best friends.
It was just a stupid kissing booth. Will wasn't the only guy I kissed today (as slutty as that might sound), and knowing him, he'd take any chance like that to play games. That's what he's good at after all. He just likes messing with my head and making me confused.
That's right, I'm just confused. All that's happening inside of me is plain confusion because of him.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTN5M1tpttv
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We helped Rosie with moving and settling in. She bought a two-story house that was a good ten minutes away from Kat's. It was a little bigger than Kat's with a big backyard and a small garden at the front door. I liked its coziness and the warmth I felt when I first entered it.
Kat and I helped arrange the furniture and clean the house. I tried to avoid Will as much as possible after what happened at the booth. I prevented staying with him in the same place by ourselves that I practically followed Kat around like a child.
While Kat and I helped Rosie with her room, which was about triple the size of mine, we talked about Marc. For once the conversation did not revolve around Ryan. Kat said her date was tomorrow and that she as really nervous about it. The conversation moved to talking about first dates, first kisses, and first "times". It wasn't awkward or anything talking to them about such topics. Kat and Rosie were more like girl friends to me, and I was really comfortable around them. They didn't act like adults, nor treat me like a child, and I was very grateful for such a relationship.
Rosie cooked us fabulous dinner that night and even served it with wine.
"Let me pretend I'm a good mom and ask you to drink only one glass, deal?" Kat says.
Cody laughed at that and finished his drink in one gulp then asked Rosie for more.
"I'm serious, Cody," Kat attempts a warning look, but fails. The thing about Kat is that as a mom, she's not taken seriously, while as a casual friend, we'd actually listen to her. That being said, Cody poured himself another glass and drank it like it's nothing. Kat sighs and chooses to ignore.
"May I raise a toast for change, new beginnings, and family," Rosie raises her glass of wine up.
"Damn it, I finished my glass," Cody exclaims, "Can I have another one for the toast?"
And Cody drank four glasses of wine and two cans of beer. He got drunk, and Kat and I dumped him in the backseat on the ride home. That bastard knows nothing about grace and elegance.
Hiccup.
And neither do I.
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