Kiss Cam [Teaser/Published October 2016]

CHAPTER FOURTEEN | CONDOMS FOR CHRISTMAS

THE LAST DAY of school before winter break is a Tuesday. Over lunch Lenny gives all of us candy canes and bunches of jingle bells to hang on our backpacks—making us the most annoyingly festive people in school. Allison and I exchange small gifts in history. She pulls a forest-green scarf from her backpack and wraps it around my neck, saying how much it complements my hair color. I give her a water gun—which had to be done discreetly because guns are not allowed in school, even if they only spray water—and tell her it's for spraying Jasper when he's bad. She shoots Jasper at least twenty times before the final bell rings.

At the end of the day, people elbow one another to get to their lockers and leave. Random caroling bounces from group to group, making "Deck the Halls" get permanently stuck in my head. The festivities are upon us all, and the excitement of winter break is so heavy in the air I could reach out and touch it.

Jasper meets me at my locker. A hat fit for Kris Kringle falls down over his eyebrows, and the white pom-pom at the end rests on his shoulder. "Why, happy winter break, Juniper," he laughs, eyes gleaming with holiday elation.

"With that hat you look just like Saint Nick." I wink at him, and he gasps when he realizes I've quoted How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the movie we previously locked lips to for Kissmas.

"Now, I thought you never wanted to talk about that again," he teases, and grabs the video camera I've ignored all day from the top shelf of my locker. "We had so many camera moments today, June. What a waste."

I roll my eyes and swing my backpack over my shoulder. "Nobody cares what we got for Christmas, Jas. They only care about how many times you manage to stick your tongue down my throat."

He chuckles despite himself and rolls the camera between his hands. Not even a little blush. I'm disappointed. Have we reached the point of no return with this? Have we done it so much we can talk about it out loud like we're discussing homework? He doesn't seem to notice my furrowed brows but replies, "Very true, but we do run a vlog, after all."

"Ah, yes," I sigh. "I forget how we got Internet famous in the first place. Yeah, we totally don't deserve the hype."

Jasper shrugs. "They think we're funny—and hot."

"Neither of which are true."

Jasper makes a noise of disagreement so loudly I can hear it over the slam of my locker door. He uses pushing up the fuzzy white brim of his hat as an excuse to flex his hardly there muscles and then purses his lips, making a face he thinks is absolutely smoldering but actually looks ridiculous. "I don't know what you're talking about," he says between pouty lips. "I'm a total babe."

I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow, shaking my head in a silent no, Jasper . . . no. He simply wiggles his now visible eyebrows and stares intensely at me behind squinted lids.

"What are you doing?"

Lenny steps around me, his blond hair also tucked beneath a Santa cap. The rest of him is bundled up in something I'm sure his mother made him throw on before he left the house. A bubble vest over his ugly red Christmas sweater, a knitted scarf that looks like it might have pink in it, and bulky gloves. I can't tell which one of them looks more ridiculous.

Jasper still holds his flexed-arm, squinty-eyed, pouty-lipped pose but looks to Lenny instead and replies in a theatrically deep voice, "Being a chick magnet. What the hell are you wearing?"

"I regret letting my mom drive me to school, okay," Lenny says defensively, and then makes a pinched face and tacks on, "Quit looking at me like that. It's creepy."

"It's smokin'."

"No." Lenny shakes his head urgently and grabs my sleeve. "Because I love you, June, and we've been friends for ages, I've got some advice I want you to take very seriously because I'm afraid you're on the receiving end of some creepy seduction tactic."