City of Kinetics

THIRTY-SIX ✴ A First Time for Everything

       Mila felt nothing but happiness as Hunter kissed her. The feeling of his soft lips on hers was enough to make her head spin, but with his arms wrapped around her, she felt grounded. It was perfect, but it only lasted for a few seconds before she found herself quickly pulling away from him as reality came crashing down.

       Hunter blinked at the abrupt movement, a flicker of confusion crossing over his face as she looked at him with hesitation.

       "I'm sorry," she said immediately, her eyes on his. "That... I – just..."

       Mila suddenly felt embarrassment course through her as she couldn't find the words to say. She could feel his hands loosen their grip on hers and she knew he was about to pull away to give her space, but that only made her hold onto his hands tighter.

       "Don't," Mila told him.

       He tilted his head when she squeezed his hands and cast her gaze to the floor. Thankfully, he didn't pull away, instead wrapping his arms further around her as she stumbled over her words.

       "You, um, I -I should – you should know... well, I mean, you p-probably..." she tried to say, but she couldn't form the sentence. "What I'm trying to say is... well..."

       "Mila," he started, giving her a half-amused look. "You're hurting me."

       Startled, her eyes shot to his. "W-What?"

       "My hands," he said.

       Immediately, she realized she was digging her nails into his skin as she kept a tight grip on him so he wouldn't pull away. Mila quickly let go, grabbing his hands and bringing them out in front of her so she could see the damage.

       "I'm so sorry, I can heal this," she said to him quickly, seeing the nail marks.

       "Hey," he said, his voice a lot lighter as his eyes searched her face. "If you don't want this –"

       "No!" she said quickly, cutting him off with a wide-eyed look. "I – God, no, I'm such a mess."

       Using her kinetic ability, her palms began to glow lightly and the indentations on his skin disappeared. It wasn't a serious injury, but Mila still felt bad about it. She chewed on her lip as she stared at his healed hands, wondering how she was going to tell him.

       "You probably think I'm crazy," she mumbled to herself, shaking her head.

       Hunter smiled. "I think you're a lot of things, but crazy isn't one of them."

       Mila frowned at him. "I just... I don't have a lot of – how do I put this? I don't have a lot of... experience in... well, this."

       Hunter's eyebrows furrowed. "This?"

       "I've never..." she trailed off again, letting out a huff. "You – you're my first..."

       Mila didn't have to finish her sentence because she watched his eyebrows suddenly shoot up and a surprised look cross over his face. Her heart dropped at the thought of him re-thinking about wanting to be with her, but she was shocked to see a smile slowly spread across his face.

       "Are you trying to tell me I just took your first kiss?" he asked.

       Mila pursed her lips, before nodding her head.

       "I've been on a few dates," she told him, trying to amend the situation. "But they never... went anywhere."

       "Really?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "What did you do to scare them off?"