The rest of the day passes slowly, and I feel more nervous with every passing hour. Maia and Nicole apologize to me all day long, and I keep telling them it's fine, not having the energy to be angry.
When Yorkie finally texts me, it takes everything in me not to cancel on him.
*I've got a family dinner tonight :( Wanna go for a walk in the park? We can catch a movie some other time.*
I feel a little relief. A walk outside actually sounds nice, much better than sitting in a dark movie theatre. I text him back, letting him know that I'll be there, and we agree to meet up at 4. It doesn't give me much time to change, but I figure my current outfit, a cozy argyle cardigan, a cropped white cami, and my favourite black jeans, is cute enough while still comfortable for a walk.
Nicole forces her lip gloss into my hand with a wink, and I woefully take it. It weighs heavy in my hand, and I hate that this is such a big deal. It's just a kiss, and I don't even like him that way! He might not even try to kiss me, I rationalize. I'm literally overreacting for absolutely no reason. I shake my head at myself and try to relax.
I pop a piece of gum into my mouth as I ride the bus over to Yorkie's neighbourhood. It's a fairly quick trip, and before long, I see him waiting for me at the bus stop.
He grins wide as I step off the bus, looking genuinely happy to see me. I smile back at him but feel a twinge of awkwardness over this morning's events, even though I know he had nothing to do with it and would be just as mortified as I was if I told him. I push it out of my mind and walk over to him, giving him a friendly hug. We walk over to the neighbourhood park, chatting idly about our class schedules and how different our schools are despite being less than 20 minutes away from each other.
As we approach the park, I realize that it's connected to his high school. It's well past the end of last period, but there are still groups of friends sitting on the grass, enjoying the early October air.
"Yo Yorkie!" Someone calls out from a gazebo. We both look over to see a group of guys sitting in and around the structure. Yorkie waves at them and then turns to me.
"Want to meet my friends?" He smiles, clearly hopeful. I bite back my nerves and nod, returning his smile. As we walk over, he places his hand gingerly on the small of my back. It feels a little awkward but not weird enough to push him off.
I assess the group of boys in my head as we walk up to them. One of them looks really familiar. He's short and tanned, with muscular arms and short brown hair. I suddenly realize that I passed him in the cafeteria just earlier today. I scan his face for recognition of mine but find nothing. Next to him, a redheaded boy loudly sucks in a breath. He's clearly making a show of checking me out, and it makes me super uncomfortable, but I try to ignore it. Instead, I focus my attention on a lanky blonde smoking a cigarette just outside of the gazebo. He's wearing black sunglasses, a black t-shirt, and black ripped jeans. He leans against the structure as he looks Yorkie and me up and down, one by one. I see Aaron sitting on the back of the bench behind the redhead and give him a weak smile that he doesn't seem to notice. Another guy is standing near him, with dark blonde hair cut really short. I look closer and suddenly recognize him, but say nothing.
Yorkie greets them all with a casual variation of a fist-bump-handshake that they clearly all share. I wait for him to introduce me, but he seems to feel just as awkward as I do... which is annoying since this was his idea. The muscular guy speaks first.
"Yorkie, you're not going to introduce us to your friend?" he says with a wide grin. He seems really friendly, and his smile is contagious.
"Hey, I'm Rachel," I say with a small wave and a smile that I hope looks confident.
"I'm Jason, this is Ethan," he says, motioning to the redhead beside him. "You know Aaron, of course," Aaron's head lifts at the mention of his name, and he gives me a wave before going back to what he was doing.
"That's Kenny," Jason continues, motioning toward the dark blonde-haired guy standing near Aaron. Kenny looks at me, and a flicker of recognition hints on his face, but he looks away before I can say anything.
"And that's Nathan," he motions in the general direction of the lanky blonde, still smoking. He nods once at me but doesn't look away.
"Cool, um, nice to meet you guys." I look over at Yorkie, who is now a deep shade of pink. I feel like he could probably use some space from the way his friends are boring into him with their eyes. I casually brush his arm to get his attention and then tilt my head toward the park. He nods and stammers a quick goodbye to his friends. I smile at them and wave. They all watch us walk away. Uncomfortable...
"Are you okay?" I ask Yorkie. He laughs awkwardly, running a hand through his curly hair.
"Yeah, um, sorry. I got kind of overwhelmed, I guess? Plus, I knew they were all thinking about-" he stops suddenly.
"About?" I press him for more, but he just shakes his head.
"Never mind, it's not important." He leans against a tree and looks at me. I bite the inside of my cheek and look around at the pretty October foliage, not wanting to meet his gaze.
When I look back at him, he's standing right in front of me. Shit. Here it comes. As he leans in, I consider the situation - the scenery is pretty, there's no one around...maybe it'll be nice. Then he shocks me by tilting his head a full 90 degrees.
"Um... what are you doing?" I say, taking a small step back. He looks up at me, confused.
"I was, uh, going to kiss you? Is that okay?"
"Oh, um, yeah," I stammer, "but why the... head tilt?"
He furrows his brow in confusion. "What are you talking about? You can't kiss head-on... your noses will bump into each other. Think of it like eating a taco." He says this so confidently that I feel like he must be joking.
I chuckle awkwardly. "I don't know if that's true... that's not how it happens in movies." I feel so awkward saying this, but he cannot be serious!
He shakes his head at me. "Life isn't like the movies, Rach. Just trust me, okay? I've done this before."
I'm dumbfounded as he tilts his head again, leans in, and envelops my mouth with his, sideways.
YOU ARE READING
The Kiss List
Romance"Let's make a list of places we want to hook up in and people we want to hook up with," Jessica says with a playful glint in her eye. - Making a hook-up list was not the way Rachel imagined 10th grade would begin, nor did she think it would take ove...
