Flowers for the Dead by C. K. Williams

Author:C. K. Williams [Williams, C.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-08-22T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

It is the first day of the new millennium. Three seconds in. A group of teenagers is celebrating in a forest. All the underage drinkers of the surrounding villages, sixty, seventy, maybe even a hundred.

Three seconds in and Linn is looking around her. All night, all everybody has been worrying about is who their New Year’s Eve kiss is going to be. Linn is looking around even while she cheers and hoots and whistles for the year 2000. Teo and Anna are on her arms, Anna on her right, Teo on her left; they’re jumping up and down, all three of them.

Before midnight, all she wanted was to kiss Teo. She’s been planning it for ages, right? But now that they’re jumping, and she’s looking around, Linn’s eyes get caught on Anna’s face. And Anna is gazing at her. They’re both smiling. And it feels natural, drunk as she is, to throw both of her arms around Anna and kiss her on the mouth.

Teo hoots and claps. Anna smiles under the kiss. Linn puts her hands to Anna’s cheeks. They’re warm.

‘Wow, that’s hot,’ someone calls out.

When they separate, Linn sees who it was. It’s Jay. Jay, who’s stopped drawing in class, just staring at his stupid fingerless gloves, jaw working, hair falling into his face. Oliver Dawson is standing next to him, his new best friend apparently. He’s smiling shyly. Unlike Jay, who whistles. ‘Now, who’s up for a New Year’s Eve kiss?’ he asks, his grin only pretending at jovial.

Linn laughs, uncomfortable. ‘We just had one.’

‘A girl can’t be your New Year’s Eve kiss. That’s cheating.’ Jay pushes Oliver towards them. ‘You go, mate.’

Linn feels Anna go rigid next to her. She’s gone rigid herself. ‘Shut up, Jay,’ Linn says. Oliver mumbles something. Linn can’t understand what it is. He’s very quiet. And really good at swimming. There might be a scholarship in it for him. Linn likes Oliver. He never makes her feel awkward. And his arms have become really well defined with all that swimming, his frame broadening. It’s hot.

But she didn’t think Jay would do something like that. She even thought that they might be friends again one day soon, Jay and Anna and Teo and her. He’s just trying to get back at her, isn’t he?

Anna’s already turned around, turned to Teo. Before he can say anything, she’s pressed her mouth to his.

Linn sees it. She bites her lips, then she takes the two steps towards Oliver, grasps his jacket and kisses him. Longer than Anna.

Jay laughs but he seems pissed off. Or not pissed off. More like he’s about to cry. His eyes are glistening.

But Oliver’s lips feel nice. He’s had vodka to drink, Linn thinks, and no orange juice either. He doesn’t pull at her like other boys do, or do stupid things with his hands in her hair. He just seems to enjoy it. When she separates from him, he is smiling, a little dazed. Linn grins, then returns to Teo and Anna.

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