Bite-Size Beats

My Troll

If Clay had known that this line of conversation was to lead to this, then perhaps he wouldn't have gone down that line of conversation.

But how was he to know that talking about golf would eventually lead to talking about kissing? And how talking about kissing would lead to Viva actually wanting TO KISS?

"Just once," Viva said. "Don't you wanna know what the big deal is? I mean, unless... you've already kissed a girl..."

Clay quickly shook his head. "No, I haven't." He grimaced a little. Was it a shame for him to have been seventeen and have never kissed a girl before? He remembered how Spruce had had his first kiss when he was just fourteen, the very first year he entered high school (and had had an almost-first kiss when he was just ten!)

Viva's reply eased him a bit. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. Me neither! Well, kissed a boy, I mean. Or, been kissed at all."

So I'd be her first kiss, Clay concluded in his head. That was starting to unnerve him. "Are, um... we supposed to do anything special?" he asked, figuring it maybe was a stupid question.

But Viva's tone or expressions didn't give anything away that may have shown that she thought so. "Not that I know of," she said. "I guess it's just like a normal kiss. We could practice before we do it, you know!"

Clay cocked his head. "How?"

"Like this. Just take your arm - " She raised her arm up to her face - "and kiss it!" She smooched hers a couple of times. "See?"

Clay shrugged. "I guess." He raised his, pretending that his skin were the soft lips of Viva as he gave it a couple of short pecks.

"Okay... I think that's enough practice..." Viva said after a few seconds. She looked at him with confidence. "I'm ready for the real thing."

She shuffled closer to him from where he was sitting crosslegged across from her, still keeping her own crosslegged position. She began to lean her face towards his.

"Wait!"

Viva blinked. "What is it? More practice?"

"No," Clay shook his head. "It's just that... you sure you wanna do it with me? Not anybody else in the village?"

"Clay," Viva said, smiling at him, "You're my best friend. And you're a boy. So I trust you. You trust me, right?"

"Of course I do, girl."

"Great! Then, close your eyes."

"Close them?"

"Yep! I'm gonna close mine."

"But how are we going to see what happens?"

"I think we're close enough not to miss."

Viva was right. Their noses were almost touching. There wouldn't be a way to miss now.

"Well, all right." Clay closed them. His senses at first were focused mostly on sound. The sounds of their breathing, the sound of his heartbeat thrumming in his chest... the sound of her lovely voice.

"I'm going to do it on three," she said. "One..."

He swallowed.

"Two..."

He braced himself.

"Three..."

Bingo.

From the point that her lips touched his, it wasn't quite about sound anymore. It was about taste. And she was delicious. Like strawberries dipped in jam, or vanilla mixed in honey. The way she moved their lips was like something out of a movie: graceful, light. Her touch was gentle but firm. And when they pulled apart, there was a strange feeling left on his mouth. Like it was buzzing. Like everything was warm. Like there was a warmth inside him that he hadn't realized existed until they touched.

They were both silent.

"So, um... opinions?" Viva prompted, Clay not failing to note the deeper pink on her cheeks.

"It was... good. I liked it," Clay admitted.

Viva nodded. "I did too." Then she giggled.

Clay chuckled, too. Both were clearly shy and unsure what in the world to do with all these teenage hormones running on overdrive.

"Thank you, by the way," Viva said.

"For what?" Clay asked.

"For letting us do this."

"Hey, it's no problem." He got up, extended his arms out to her, and she too got up so the two of them could share a hug.

"Now come on," Clay said. "We've got some training to get to."

"Yeah," Viva agreed. "And I'm gonna kick... your... butt!"

"HA! We'll see about that!"

***

A/N: Inspired by that one scene in 'My Girl' :)