First Kiss

43

Curse all of these plasticky environmentally-unfriendly rocks! If they didn't exist, we wouldn't have to sweep the majority of the loose dirt into a dustpan. But no. Somebody thought that this was okay. Well, guess what? I hope you feel sorry for the ten turtles that you just killed.

Geez, I think I need therapy. Anyway, my point is that sweeping took the rest of the afternoon, one of the reasons being that my backyard is larger than most and that the hot summer wind kept blowing the dirt out of the dustpan. Of course, the sweeping wouldn't have been an issue without the stinkin' rocks...

We are both disgusting messes too.

"Lovely Clickchat couple, aren't we? #Couplegoals, am I right?"

Cole wipes his brow with the back of his hand, his eyes squinting at the setting sun.

"Yeah, I know. Golden hour too. Perfect lighting to catch all the sweat and dirt on my face."

His voice drips with sarcasm.

"I'm gonna go shower," I say, waving breathlessly while stumbling towards the door. "You can go to the downstairs one if you want. Or the one right there."

I point to the one with a little window just in the hallway leading to the kitchen.

"Just as long as we're on different floors," I finish.

He blinks.

"How many bathrooms do you have?"

I shrug.

"Four. It's ridiculous, since there's only me and my dad. Honestly, your family could move in."

He smirks.

"Did you just ask me to move in with you?"

I feel the blood rush to my face until I'm certain I'm the equivalent to a fire engine.

"No! No, not like...I didn't--"

I sputter, trying to regain control over my thoughts and my tongue. Doesn't happen.

Cole watches me, his signature cool-kid-jock-hot-playboy expression growing even more...cool-kid-jock-hot-playboy.

"You incredibly amusing when you're flustered," he comments.

I laugh nervously.

"Isn't everyone?"

He pauses, thinking for a moment.

"Nah," he says. "Only you."

The way he says it, the way his eyes could literally melt me off of the face of the Earth...I'm all for it. There's no way anyone else in the world could make me feel these things that I feel for him. Not even Shawn Mendes.

I wonder what he thinks of me.

Of course, that is a little bit of a deflating thought. As the saying goes, we're our own harshest critics. I can't find one aspect of me that can even compare to this boy in front of me.

You're too young to even know what love is, idiot.

My mind is at it again. Chirping away. Telling me things I don't want to hear. But the real question is...are they right?

"What's wrong?"

Dang it. He can always tell. Either that, or I wear my emotions for all to see. Probably both.

"I um...smell really bad right now."

Smooth. Good one, Bri.

But I guess this isn't weird to Cole, because he says, "This? Pssh. You've obviously never been within an a hundred foot radius of a guys' locker room."