One-Shot: The Kissing Booth
Adam
‘Hey, Adam,’ Natasha grabbed my arm as Nathan and I tried to navigate the swollen throng of people in the school hallway. It was the period just before lunch and we had Mr Halloway for maths; he was not above giving out lunchtime detentions to anyone who was late. ‘I need to ask you something.’
‘Can it wait?’ I asked urgently, trying to pull away from her even though the mass of people was making it pretty difficult to move at all.
‘It won’t take long.’ Natasha is a pretty cool chick, I guess, but she can turn into a political warrior when she’s on a mission for one of her “causes” – of which she has many. Save The Rainforests, Save The Icecaps... Save The World, basically. ‘You know I’m organising that event for victims in Syria?’ Her pop-charity of the week.
‘Uh,’ I said. ‘Sure.’ Beside me I could see Nate shaking his head and rolling his eyes – neither of us had any idea about her latest assignment, but I could play along for peace’s sake.
‘Well we decided to do a kissing booth, and I need you to volunteer.’
‘Um,’ I mumbled, turning pink. ‘Volunteer?’
‘A euphemism,’ Natasha quipped, before clutching my arm tighter and begging, ‘Please? You’re like, the most sought-after guy in school and this needs to be successful. It’s not like you’ll have to do anything you don’t want to do, or anything. You don’t have to marry them. Just a quick kiss on the lips, no more, no less.’
‘Uh... Well, who else is doing it?’ I asked nervously. This sounded like exactly the kind of activity that could get me in trouble.
‘Some of the other guys on the basketball team, and a bunch of girls too. Six of us in all.’ She nodded encouragingly at me, widening her eyes like the fate of the world teetered on my decision to be her male prostitute.
‘What about me?’ Nate demanded suddenly, crossing his arms and tilting his head nonchalantly to the side. ‘I could do it.’
‘Oh,’ Natasha burned red, her eyes darting around as she tried to locate the words to explain why he couldn’t. ‘Oh, that’s really generous Nathan, thank you, it’s just, well, you know, girls, they won’t want to... Well, it’s the guys, they’ll be coming for... Um...’ she trailed off desperately, suddenly in a rush to get to her own class.
I stepped forward to come between Natasha and Nathan and smiled down at her, trying to keep the peace. ‘Sure,’ I said, knowing I’d probably regret it. ‘I’d be happy to.’
‘Really?’ She looked relieved. ‘Thank you so much, Adam! I’ll text you with the details!’ she called, disappearing into the now-thinning crowd.
‘Why do you do that?’ I demanded grumpily as Nate and I made our way to Mr Halloway’s classroom.
‘Do what?’ Nate asked innocently, like he was some sort of choirboy.
I scowled. ‘You know what. Making people uncomfortable about your sexuality.’
‘I really would have done it if she’d wanted me to,’ Nate said nonchalantly.
‘Bullshit you would have,’ I countered. ‘You know,’ I went on, ‘you shouldn’t try to aggravate people like that, you’re really lucky everyone in this school is so tolerant-’
‘Whoa!’ Nate exclaimed, catching hold of my arm and pulling me around to face him. ‘Excuse me?’
I scowled again, flushing as I realised what my words had implied. ‘You know what I mean. Compared to other kids, in other places. They get beat up and stuff.’
‘That doesn’t make me lucky,’ Nate pontificated in a speech I’d heard a thousand times before. ‘You think I should be grateful I don’t get beat up every day, like it’s some kind of divine miracle? Gay people shouldn’t get harassed, full stop. That’s like saying Graham was lucky he got that job in Tesco even though he’s black.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘Shut up,’ I muttered, using his grip on my arm to tug him further down the hallway towards class. ‘You know I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant you could stop being such an asshole all the time.’
‘As opposed to straight people, who can be assholes all they like,’ Nate stipulated, though he let me drag him along.
‘No,’ I hissed, pushing open the door to class just as the bell went, to see we were the last to arrive. ‘I just wish you wouldn’t purposefully make people uncomfortable; Natasha wasn’t doing anything wrong and you-’
‘Lovers’ quarrel?’ Mr Halloway demanded loudly, and I realised we were the only ones speaking in a class of silent students who were all staring at us, waiting for us to take our seats so the lesson could start.
As this enquiry was so likely to start Nate on another of his classic tirades, I quickly intervened, ‘No,’ and plopped into my seat before my best friend could say anything.
He’s not really even all that obsessed with gay rights – he doesn’t need to be, seeing as no one in our town cares one way or the other what way he swings. He’s just kind of an asshole, like all teenage boys I guess, so he uses it to get in people’s faces the same way Graham uses his skin colour and Elijah uses his religion.
---------------------------------------------------
I sat at home later that day, procrastinating over my homework by keeping an eye on the cartoons my little brothers were watching and waiting nervously for the text from Natasha about the stupid kissing booth thing. Shortly before seven, it came.
Natasha B 18:48
Hey Adam! About the kissing booth event, we’re gonna hold it on Saturday at the Green, just for a few hours between one and four. Hope that’s okay! X
The Green was the grassy area right in the centre of town where Natasha rightly assumed we’d get the most foot traffic. I wondered idly how much a kiss from me was worth in monetary terms, but decided not to ask in case the answer offended me.
For the rest of the week I endured the worrying threats of girls who promised to stop by “my booth” as well as Nate’s constant narrating of my shame, which he found incredibly amusing. The tables turned on him once or twice when girls quite bitchily threatened that if he’d been straight they would have kissed him too, which caused me to examine him a little more closely. I guess he was quite good looking; shaggy brown hair and blue eyes, good bone structure or whatever. I suppose if there had been any other gay kids in school he’d probably have no trouble getting them to go out with him, if he wanted. But as it was he the only one out of the closet and the closest he got to any action was when I got drunk and hugged him.
‘You’re not coming down tomorrow,’ I warned him on Friday, fearing he might have been planning exactly that.
‘Oh, I’ll be there,’ he promised earnestly, but I knew he was smirking on the inside.
‘No,’ I said firmly. ‘You can’t.’
‘I might film it on my phone and put it on YouTube.’
‘Stop it.’
‘At the very least get a few pictures.’
‘No.’
We reached an impasse and stared at one another resolutely until I sighed and shrugged my bag higher on my back. ‘See you tomorrow,’ I muttered miserably, getting into my car and driving home with his laughter echoing in my head.
--------------------------------------------
It was almost quarter to four and I still hadn’t seen Nate anywhere. It was possible he was hiding in the background filming and taking pictures like he’d threatened but that wasn’t really like him – if he’d wanted to get video he’d have been right up in my face and trying to direct everything I did.
As it was I’d been kissing girls all day, earning two euro for every pair of lips that landed on mine. As Natasha had promised, I didn’t have to do much – just pecks on the lips, no tongue or touching or marriage required. I’d been slipped twelve phone numbers and made about €200 so despite the fact that I could end up with cold-sores all over my face, I felt pretty good about myself.
The event was wrapping up and not many people were around anymore; a few kids from school hanging out in the Green, the last couple of patrons being taken care of by some of the others, when a hand dropped a tenner on my booth and I looked up to see Nate smirking down at me triumphantly.
‘Go on then, you slut,’ he teased, as I rolled my eyes.
‘How long have you been here?’ I demanded, picking up the note.
‘Just a little while. You certainly are popular with the ladies, aren’t you?’ he pointed out.
‘I’m keeping this, by the way,’ I snapped, holding up the money. ‘Consider it a charitable donation. The Syrians thank you.’
‘I would expect you to keep it, since I intend to get my money’s worth,’ Nate pointed out, and I scowled at him.
‘Your methods don’t work on me, and you know it,’ I informed him archly. ‘I am completely comfortable with your sexuality and you’ll just have to stop trying to...’
He effectively cut me off by leaning down closer to me, so his face was only a foot away from mine.
‘What are you doing?’ I demanded hoarsely.
Nate smirked and my eyes were drawn to his lips with the movement.
‘I’m not kissing you,’ I said, trying for firm but managing to still sound hoarse.
‘That’s okay,’ Nate said softly, and I was aware that we had attracted the wary attention of everyone still left on the Green. They were looking our way and whispering quietly. ‘I can do all the work.’
With which he reached forward and pulled me up by the front of my t-shirt, pressing his mouth to mine.
I struggled against him, pushing at his chest angrily and trying to pull away, but he held me tightly and then everything changed when I felt his tongue brush against my lips.
I don’t know if it was curiosity, or wanting to shove it in his face that I didn’t care about his sexuality, or just plain lust, but I melted a little against his body and opened my mouth, letting him in.
Nate let go of the front of my t-shirt with one hand and rested it instead on the back of my neck, his fingers inching into my hair and causing my spine to arch slightly as I shivered. His tongue probed my mouth slowly and I found I was kissing him back, brushing my tongue against his, eventually even fighting him for dominance as I forced him back and invaded his mouth instead. My hands ran across his chest where I’d been pummelling him and over his shoulders to pull him closer, suddenly wishing the booth wasn’t in the way and I could feel his whole body against mine.
He pulled away, gasping for breath and, after a second, I reluctantly let him go.
‘Why did you do that?’ I demanded quietly, aware of the people still staring at us but not caring.
Nate shrugged one shoulder noncommittally. ‘I wanted to see what it would be like, kissing you. Why did you kiss me back?’
I looked down, embarrassed. I wasn’t sure why I’d kissed him back, exactly, but the fact that my whole body was tingling with longing for him was a lot more awkward than his simple curiosity.
‘Cos you paid,’ I eventually settled on, and we both laughed a little, breaking the tension slightly.
‘Come on,’ Nate said. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
I glanced at my watch worriedly. ‘I should stay to help clear up-’ I started, but Natasha appeared out of nowhere, wide-eyed and glancing from Nate to me and back rapidly.
‘Don’t worry about that,’ she ordered. ‘I’ll cover yours.’
‘Are you sure? I could-’
‘No,’ she said firmly, all but pushing me out from behind the booth. ‘Go with him.’
Deciding she had a pretty good handle on the situation, Nate and I wandered somewhat awkwardly away from the centre of attention, heading, I realised, towards his house.
‘Hey,’ he said suddenly, after a few minutes of silence. ‘I want to hold your hand.’
‘Oh,’ I said in surprise, lifting my hand slightly and looking down at it.
‘Yeah. I want to hold your hand, and not just now. Like, all the time. And hug you and kiss you. And... And be your boyfriend, maybe. If you want.’
‘Oh,’ I said again, swallowing. ‘Okay. Can we do them in stages?’
Nate nodded. ‘Sure,’ he said, and slipped his hand into mine, intertwining our fingers. I felt my heart beat hard.