Vacancy: A Love Story by Tracy Ewens

Author:Tracy Ewens [Ewens, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tracy Ewens
Published: 2016-08-16T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The first time Matt kissed Hollis had, not surprisingly, started with an argument and finished with a bet. They were in the water holding on to the dock. It was the week before school started and they were both thirteen. Matt remembered it vividly because it was the first year Hollis wore a bikini, one that didn’t look like a sports bra. This one had strings and in the span of one summer, he had gone from imagining kissing her to figuring out how to make that happen. It had been the summer of PlayStation and the first time he’d ever heard the word Yahoo. Hollis started watching Friends that summer. He remembered because years later, when they themselves were in their twenties, Matt had been standing in their tiny kitchen when he yelled, “Yeah, well I’m sorry this isn’t like Friends.” She had slammed the bathroom door and he’d slept on the couch that night. But back in 1994, she’d seen two episodes, they were suntanned from a summer well spent, and all he wanted to do was kiss her before they had to go home and start different schools on different sides of the bay.

“You can’t hold your breath for more than sixty seconds. No way, you barely made it to forty last summer.”

“So.”

“So”—she splashed him—“nothing has changed. You still have the same lungs.”

“They’ve grown.”

She snickered, her braces glistening in the last afternoon sun.

“Fine. If you pass out, I’m not saving you.”

“Fine.”

“Good. What’s the bet?”

“I hold my breath for sixty seconds or more and you… you kiss me.”

“What?” Another splash. “Quit screwing around Locke-ness, what’s the bet?”

“That’s it.” He switched positions, still holding on to the dock and facing her.

Brows furrowed, Hollis was about to splash him again when he took her hand.

“Why?” she asked quietly.

“Why, what?” He was still holding her hand, surprised her wrist was so much smaller than his.

“Why do you want to kiss me, stupid?”

“Because when I hold my breath that long I get dizzy and if I’m gonna do it, I want something good.”

She shook her head. “Well, I’ve never kissed anyone so I’m probably not going to be good at it and besides, I have braces.”

“So.”

“So, pick something else. Then next year, after I get my braces off and I’ve practiced on a few boys, then that can be the bet. It makes no sense to make that your bet right now. Sixty seconds, you could have anything. An ice cream. I… I could buy you a burger or candy. I mean, who wants to touch lips with some girl who’s never even done it before?”

“I do.” He moved in closer, nervous and unable to control his body in the water. His leg bumped into the slick smoothness of hers and Hollis’s eyes grew to almost perfect circles.

She inhaled, exhaled, took a wad of gum from her mouth, and stuck it on the dock. Their eyes held and Matt remembered being that mixture of nerves and excitement seldom recreated after thirteen. Looking back on it now, he wished he’d paid closer attention, but no one ever did that.

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