The Kiss List

Seven

💋 THE LIST 💋
- Lip ring...
- Harvey

SUNDAY

"He just sat down and started talking to you?" Maia asks over the phone.

"Yeah," I reply. We're in another three-person call, on speaker, while I paint my nails. "He called me a reckless heartbreaker and a saucy minx," I smirk.

"What the fuck?" Nicole laughs. 

"It was kind of hot, though!" I reply with a giggle. "It was like, the way he said it. He was joking, but in a flirty way? Am I crazy?"

"You might be," Nicole teases. "What's his name?"

"Nathan. He's in that friend group with Aaron and Yorkie." I wave my hands to speed up the nail-drying process.

"Oh, I know him! The skinny one with the blonde hair, right?" Maia exclaims.

"Wait," Nicole says, "he's friends with... Kenny?"

Maia and I are both silent. I had completely forgotten about seeing Kenny the other day.

"Yeah," I say. "I totally forgot; I'm sorry. I won't text him." Nicole doesn't say anything.

"Nic, tell us what you're thinking," Maia urges softly. "I don't think Kenny talks about it anymore, Will never mentions it. Does Aaron?"

Nicole sniffs. "No, he doesn't. I'm just... I didn't think that they would even hang out. Do you think that's why he didn't try to kiss me at the movie last week?"

Kenny and Nicole met at camp the summer before ninth grade and immediately clicked. They spent the entire summer together, practically attached at the hip. Everyone knew they liked each other, and they didn't really try to hide it either. When Kenny finally kissed her, she was over the moon. He asked her to meet him at his cabin later that night when his cabinmates would sneak out, and thinking that he wanted to spend one-on-one time with her because he liked her, she said yes.

What he really wanted, though, was to see how far she would let him go. After kissing for a few minutes, he started nudging her head down. She said no, but he was insistent. When she realized that he wouldn't give up, she left, thinking that was the end of it. But it wasn't.

By the next morning, Kenny had told nearly everyone that she had gone down on him in his cabin. As hard as she tried to dispel the rumours, his word was more powerful than hers, and everyone believed him. The teasing was relentless, and she asked her parents to let her leave early. She hadn't returned to that camp since then.

I had spent the next week at her house, and when Maia returned from camp a week later, so did she. That month, the three of us cycled between our houses, rarely splitting up, if at all. I always admired how strong Nicole was for going to school that September and acting as though nothing had happened, ignoring the whispers about her that circled the ninth-grade classes.

"Do you really think he would do that? Reject you because of an old rumour?" Maia asks, her voice soft.

Nicole sniffs again. "I don't know. I hope not. God, what a dick. I hate that we're even talking about him." She forces a laugh. "Rach, you should text Nathan. It's hardly his fault. He might not even know."

I smile even though I know she can't see it. "Maybe I'll add him to my list," I say, half-joking.

Nicole laughs then, a real laugh. "You should, if he's cute. Maia, what's going on with Will? Are you guys dating now?"

Maia sighs into the phone. "No, and I don't think we will. He's sweet and a good kisser, but I'm just not really into him. It's not a big deal, though. I have other items on my list to work on." I can imagine her eyebrows wiggling as she says it, and the thought makes me laugh.