First Kiss by Dan Richards

Author:Dan Richards [Richards, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: little bee books
Published: 2019-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

I froze midstep. What were they doing together? The image of Jackson on Becca’s porch the other night flashed to mind. I should’ve plucked that chin hair when I had the chance. Could there really be something going on between them? First, they square-dance together in PE. Then they slow-dance together at the school dance. Then they ride on his church’s parade float in the festival parade. And now they were on the playground looking like a newly married couple. When I thought about it, Jackson had spent a lot more time with Becca than I had.

As if to prove my point, she looked up at him and laughed, as if even his jokes were funnier. My stomach flipped over, climbed up my throat, and slapped my face from the inside.

“C’mon,” I said. “Let’s get out of here before they see us.”

“Don’t you want to go over there and say hi?”

Ben could be such a naive idiot. “No, let’s get out of here.”

My eyes stayed on the sidewalk until we got to Ben’s house.

“What’s going on?” he asked once we were safely inside.

“She dumped me for Jackson.”

“What?”

“Didn’t you see the way she was looking at him? And how he stood there looking all fatherly like they were discussing what to name their next child?”

Ben led me to the fridge and got out two ice-cold root beers.

“You might be overreacting a little bit. They were just standing on the playground talking.”

“They were more than talking.”

I tossed back a swig of the dark brew. Fizzing bubbles burned my throat as the sweet syrup slid down. Before long, I’d be lost in a sugar stupor. And then maybe I could forget, at least for a little while.

“They were just standing there.”

“I saw Jackson on Becca’s porch the other night.”

Ben set his bottle down on the counter.

“Hang on. What do you mean you saw Jackson on Becca’s porch? You didn’t tell me that.”

“What was I supposed to do? Call you up and say, ‘Hey, Ben, thought you should know Jackson that giant gum wad is currently hanging out on Becca’s porch’?”

“Yeah, that would’ve worked.”

I lowered my root beer. Even with ice cream it’d never give me a sugar buzz big enough to forget what I’d seen. “Well, I didn’t, so shut up.”

“It was probably nothing.”

“It was probably everything.”

“I’ll ask Kirsten.”

“NO!”

The last thing I needed was for Ben to go blabbering to his girlfriend about me being all paranoid. She’d tell Becca and then Becca would— What would Becca do? Confirm the rumor? Deny it? It didn’t matter. I knew what I’d seen with my own eyes. Why make things worse by triggering a chain of gossip bound to embarrass me even more? It was over, and I needed to face the truth of it.

“Promise me you won’t say anything to Kirsten.”

“Okay, okay, take it easy.”

Yeah, right. You take it easy.

The short walk home took forever. Mostly because my feet sunk into the sidewalk as I neared Becca’s house. What if they were inside? What

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