Kiss Me Anyways

I hear a sharp noise and I automatically tense, fear filling my veins, my head lifting up to find the source of the noise. I hear a noise again and then Eve reaches towards me and grabs my free hand and pulls me into a run down the block. The wind flows through our hair and we laugh, stopping behind the back of an empty abandoned store. I put my spray can down and lean against the wall and try to catch my breath but Eve's laughter is infectious, the way that her laughter fills her whole being and happiness radiates from her eyes can pull you from your worst mood and make you break a smile. She puts her spray can next to mine and moves next to me, leaning on the wall.

"That was so dumb, why did we decide to do that?" She asks jokingly.

"Well, we did decide to put together a high school bucket list of experiences. Vandalism is one hundred percent an American rite of passage."

She laughs again and sits on the ground, back leaning on the wall. I sit next to her and she puts her head on my shoulder.

"It was harmless, it's only a bridge and barely anyone uses it. We probably got scared by a raccoon or something."

"Yeah, but better safe than sorry. Unless you want to spend the day in jail and have to call your parents to come bail us out." I groan, my parents would definitely be the safer choice for that. Eve's parents are always working and if we tried to call her parents to bail us out they either wouldn't answer or they'd be very angry that they had to leave work to take care of us.

My parents are like Eve's second family anyways, she's always at my house, and we always get into trouble together. My parents love to complain about how we're always getting into mischief, but I know they find our antics amusing and they love that we're having fun.

That doesn't mean I'd ever want to tell them about what we just did though.

"What's next on the list?" Eve asks me.

I shift to pull the small notepad out of my back pocket and grin impishly when I see the next thing, "Skinny dipping."

Eve blushes and I smile at her cute pink cheeks. "Tell me again why we made a bucket list full of American high school stereotypes?"

"Because we want to experience life and make dumb choices before we're forced to grow up and be serious. Because it's our junior year and we're probably going to go to different colleges in two years and get busy and lose contact with each other. Because I want to spend time with you and pretend like all of that is never going to happen."

Her head lifts up off of my shoulder and she angles her body so she can look at my face. "Hey, it's going to be okay. We're best friends, we've known each other our entire lives, I practically live at your house. There's no way we would ever get too busy for each other and lose contact. And if we did then when we come home for the holidays I'll beat the shit out of you and remind you how awesome I am."

I look at her before shyly turning my gaze to my lap, "Thanks Eve, you always know how to make me feel better."

She snorts, "Of course! I'm your best friend and I probably know you better than you know yourself."

"You're not wrong."

"I know I'm not."

We sit there in silence for a few minutes just resting, listening to the sounds of nature and the occasional car that passes by.

"Rahela..." Eve starts.

I look at her again and shift so I'm facing her, "Yeah?"

"I've....I've been wanting to tell you something."

She looks nervous and my heart jumps to my throat. What could she tell me that I don't already know? What would have her so nervous to tell me, her best friend?

"Eve?" I question softly, "Hey, whatever it is you don't have to be scared or nervous to tell me. We'll get through it together, just like we always have, and like I hope that we always will."

She sends me a small grateful smile before taking a deep breath, "I..I know that you're my best friend, but lately, I've just...I've been having feeling things for you. Like more than what people feel for their best friends, like romantic feelings. And when we're together and we're laying on your bed not doing anything just hanging out all I can think about is how much I want to kiss you. And I know that it's weird and that you probably don't return my feelings and that's completely fine, we can just ignore it and keep being best friends. Or if you need space because my feelings have made it weird that's fine too. I just don't want to lose you. But I think that either way you deserve to know."

I stare at her in shock. She...likes me? Likes me likes me? Wants to kiss me? My cheeks turn red at the thought of kissing her, but then I realize that maybe I want that too. Eve is pretty and smart, and when I'm around her I feel happy and sometimes I get butterflies, but it had never occurred to me that I might like her as more than a friend too.

I must've been quite too long because her head droops and I can see her trying her best to hide her feelings, but I've known her for way too long for that to work on me and I can tell right now that she feels crushed and that she's scared.

"Hey," I reach out and lift her chin, forcing her to look at me, "I'm not mad, or upset, or disgusted by anything you just told me. It's just a lot to process Eve. But I promise that it's okay, that we're okay...Can I...can I kiss you? I've been having weird feelings lately too but I didn't know-"

She leans in and before I can even register it her lips are on mine and words just leave my head. Her lips are soft and plump and my heart is beating so hard I think that it might jump out of my chest.

She goes to pull back but I chase after her and one of my hands goes behind her neck and I pull her back to me and I'm tasting her lips again. Eve's tongue teases my bottom lip and I gasp. She takes advantage of it and her tongue explores my mouth. Her hands come up and she holds both sides of my face for a minute.

She gets up on her knees, pulling back just a little and I unintentionally let out a whine when her lips and hands leave mine. Her eyes are darker and it excites me.

She smiles in amusement and gently pushes me back, guiding me to the ground. She's on top of me and we're kissing again, her tongue dominating mine effortlessly.

My hands lift and grab her sides, one accidentally going under her shirt and touching her bare skin.

She gasps at the contact and kisses me harder, making me moan.

When we both run out of air we resurface and pull away. She lays down half on top of me, half on the concrete, and my hand finds her hair. I absentmindedly scratch her scalp in the way I know that she likes.

"What now?" She whispers.

"Well," I grin, "would you like to be my girlfriend?"