FIRST KISS (High School Romance - FYI - In need of redrafting/rewrites)

Chapter One

"Mel?" Dad's voice boomed up the stairs.

"Yeh?" I yelled.

"Get the door? It'll be for you."

I hurried down the stairs, listening to the irritating ringing of the electronic doorbell. The sooner I got there, the sooner it would stop. My socked feet slipped on the parquet floor as I skidded down the corridor.

It was Bryce. I could see his blurry outline through the frosted glass panels in the front door. He was ringing the bell again, holding it down this time. He always did that. It was how dad knew it was for me.

Bryce is pretty much my best friend in the whole world. Round about when we were thirteen or fourteen I thought I had a crush on him, because all the other girls at school did. I even thought about trying to kiss him, but then he would do something gross like release a burp that smelt like pizza.

Most of the girls still crush on him I reckon, and I know they're jealous when he smiles over at me and swings across the classroom to share my bench in Biology, or throws his bag down on my table and sits next to me at lunch.

But we're totally platonic now. For sure. He's just Bryce. What more could he be?

I opened the door to see him standing there, one hand raised to press the bell. On top of his head was perched one of those Scream masks, with the face that looks like wax melting. He was frowning.

"What's up?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"You're not dressed," he said, looking me up and down.

I laughed. "Well I am wearing clothes." I pulled at my t-shirt.

Bryce rolled his eyes. "Ha ha. You know what I mean."

"You're early. I'm not ready. Wanna come in?"

Bryce's broad shoulders slumped and he dropped his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I'm not early. In fact," he said, looking at his watch, "we're gonna be late."

"You're not serious?" I asked.

He hung his head, raising his big brown eyes up at me. "That's lame, right?"

"Yeh. You're being really lame. For someone so cool, you're totally incapable of being late for anything. It's geeky. You know that right?" I grinned and he smiled back at me. Man that boy was blessed with a great smile.

"But it's the Halloween dance."

"So what?"

"You know..."

"You think Principal McIntyre is gonna be mad because the captain of the football team is late to a school dance? Don't be a dick, Bryce."

"I need a good report. You know, for college applications."

I laughed, reaching out and took hold of his jacket and tugged him into the house, closing the door behind him.

"Yale isn't gonna be too concerned if the great Bryce Williams was late to a Halloween dance in Junior year." I did a mock curtsey and he laughed.

"Really, I would have rathered wait outside," he said, dusting off the sleeve of his jacket like I had cooties or something.

I didn't answer, just gave him my best disapproving look.

He followed me up the stairs to my room, which is embarrassingly pink, but it has been since I was three and Bryce doesn't really notice that kind of thing anyway.

He went to sit down on the bed but I had to shout and stop him from dropping right on my dress, and he jumped up and raised his hands in apology and moved over to the chair by the desk and started tapping away on my computer, pretending not to watch as I changed. Or maybe he really wasn't watching. Facebook was probably way too interesting.