t e m p e r | ✓

04

Ever have those extra family members that make a big deal out of everything? For me, that was Anastasia and my father. When Judah "graduated" from middle school they threw this huge celebratory party for him. They treated it as if he was graduating high school or college or something major like that. Now, it's my turn. 8th grade year just ended and Andrew and I were walking home from school. He asked me if he could hang out for a while at mine since his parents were going to be working late and he didn't want to be home alone with his older brother and his high school friends. As we walked through my front door confetti popped out all over the place along with loud party horns. Andrew and I were both shook to say the least. We stood frozen watching as this all took place before our eyes.

Once realization hit I immediately yelled, "OH MY GOD, I FORGOT MY PHONE AT SCHOOL SO I CAN'T TAKE PICTURES!" and grabbed Andrew's hand and ran back out the door. I wanted no parts of that celebration.

They'll still have the party without me either way as it's more of a social gathering for Anastasia anyway. I walked hand in hand with Andrew until we got to Blossom Ridge, a park near our neighborhood. It was nicknamed "Cherry Pop Park" due to it being filled with gorgeous Japanese Cherry Blossom trees and the fact that that's where the popular kids went with their girlfriends or boyfriends to lose their virginity at the secluded corner of the park that had a secret treehouse that only the high schoolers that were at the top of the social hierarchy knew about. I learned about it from over hearing Judah and his friends' conversations. Aside from that, it's also a very popular hangout spot for us normal kids too.

I took Andrew to the lake and we sat and talked together for hours under the sun and eventually the stars. I looked over at him and saw that glimmer of light flash through his beautiful stone cold gray eyes. He started to fiddle with his fingers and avoided further eye contact with me. He always did that when he was nervous or anxious about something.

"Penny for your thoughts, Drew?" I asked genuinely curious as to what's on his mind.

"You know how we both haven't had our first kiss yet? I really don't want to go into freshman year still having virgin lips, so I was wondering if you want to share ours together?" he asked still breaking eye contact.

I had to process his request for a second and after steady thought I happily agreed. He smiled all while holding eye contact this time and slowly started moving his lips closer and closer to mine. Right before our lips collided he softly placed both his hands on either side of my head pulling me in closer. Our lips connected and danced together in unison and for a brief second I imagined that he was Archer instead before pulling my thoughts back in line. We pulled away from each other and immediately burst into laughter. There was no awkward silence, or moments of regret, nor were there any feelings other than pure friendship attached. It was purely experimental and just an experience for the both us.

Drew and I eventually regained our composure and was startled when we heard a deep voice behind us.

"Uh, hey guys I didn't know you two were a thing." Archer said so desperately trying to mask his emotions.

At that moment we both looked at each other and back at Archer a couple times in unison before blurting out,

"It's not what it looks like, we were just ridding each other of our lip virginity."

"Oh okay then. Well I'll leave you two to it." Archer replied with a hint of disbelief in his tone.

He then ran back over to the rest of the soccer team who were waiting up for him. I looked back over at Drew and decided it was probably time for us to head home so I stood up grabbed his hand yet again and pulled him along without muttering a single word.