Variables | Joshaya ✔︎

The Kissing Booth

𝕛𝕠𝕤𝕙

I'm kinda nervous for tonight, us alone without her kids. All I know is that I'm going to do what feels right.

I walk over to the living room once Maya closes the door to Gabi and Dillon's room. I sit on the couch, nod to her as she follows, sitting next to me. She grabs the remote and asks, "Wanna watch a movie?"

I nod, "Sure."

She nods and exits out of Cory and Topanga's Disney+ and opens their Netflix, clicking on her own profile that they made for her, "So, what should we watch?"

I shrug, "Anything is fine."

She nods and gets to the movie tab and starts to scroll through the movies until she stops on the new releases, the first one being The Kissing Booth 2.

"How about this?" She asks, looking at me.

I shrug, "Seems fine to me, I've never heard of it though."

Her eyes widen in shock, and I realize that I should've known it, "You've never heard of The Kissing Booth?" She says incredulously.

I sadly shake my head, "No, sorry; normally I don't have enough time with school to keep up on all the cool new shows and movies on Netlix."

She still looks at me like I'm crazy, "But the original Kissing Booth movie came out 2 years ago! 2018!" She says.

I raise my hands up in surrender and smile, "Then enlighten me on what I've missed."

She sighs and turns her attention back to the tv and mutters frustratingly, "I'll show you enlightenment Boing."

I laugh, then realize the nickname, "Boing?"

Her eyes then widen and once she finds The Kissing Booth and clicks on it, she immediately turns back to me, "Sorry."

"No, it's okay, just I've never heard that before," I say, still shocked.

"It's just a name I call you sometimes, but it's mostly so quiet you can't hear me, but now..." She trails off, "I'm really sorry."

I smile and shrug, "It's really okay, normally I don't like nicknames, but I don't mind it. Just don't tell anyone I allowed you to call me a nickname, my college friends would kill me."

She laughs and smiles, "Okay Boing, I won't, but we're watching this movie," she says, completely determined and I laugh lightly at her seriousness.

"Okay, then let's watch it then," I say, and she smiles and turns on the movie.

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About halfway through the movie, I can tell that Maya's going to fall asleep soon; when I look over at her, I can tell that she's fighting to stay awake, "Maya, do you wanna stop? You look exhausted, we can always finish it another night."

She shakes her head as she starts to sway, leaning more away from me then towards me, "No, I wanna finish the first movie at least."

I nod and smile, knowing this is my chance to make a move, it's a small one but a good one, "At least lean this way, I don't want you to hurt your head if you fall asleep and hit the arm of the couch."

She smiles a little and nods, leaning over to me as I casually move my arm to the back of the couch, leaving the side that she's on free for her to lean on me. She scoots a little closer and leans her head shyly on my shoulder, "It's okay Maya, get comfortable."

She smiles and scoots even closer, slowly snuggling into me as we both put our attention back to the movie. She finally sighs, letting me know that she's comfortable against me, and I smile as I casually move my arm to her other side, keeping her close.

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When the big Kissing Booth part happens, I look down at her and realize that she's looking up at me. I look back at the movie to see Elle and Noah about to kiss, and decide that this is the moment. This feels right.

Right as they kiss, I look back at her, seeing that she's still looking up at me, and lean in, her doing the same. At the perfect moment, I feel our lips connecting, and I feel the electricity and fireworks going off through my body. I turn my body so my chest is facing her, cupping her face in my hands as we kiss slowly, yet passionately. We both have our eyes closed, but I reach out and grab the remote, pressing pause. She leans into me and a few seconds later, she's straddling me, running her fingers through my hair, then resting her hands around my neck, pulling at the hairs of the nape on my neck, making me moan. She takes advantage of that and deepens the kiss as I move my hands to her waist, keeping her steady.

"Maya," I say against her lips.

"Mm?" She hums.

"We can't do this," I say, realizing where this is going to go.

She pulls away suddenly, with a confused look on her face, "Why not?"

"Maya," I sigh, "Not that I don't want to, but I'm not ready to take that step."

"But you're ready to lead me on, letting me straddle you?" She asks, and I can tell I pushed a button as her anger grows.

"No," I say, regretting saying that. But then, a lightbulb goes off in my head. I can fix this, "But I'm ready to do this."

"Maya, will you be my girlfriend?" I ask. She smiles, but her smile then fades. Oh god.

"I wish I could, but I realized what I would've done," she says, remorse filling her face, "I wanna take this slow Josh."

"Okay..." I say, trying to think of something, "Maybe I can write down stuff that people do if they're in a relationship, and you can check with ones you're okay with, and we can take it from there?"

She smiles and nods, "Yeah, that sounds good. Like To All the Boys I've Loved Before."

"Sure," I sigh, trying to say that I know it, but failing as I get up to get a pen and paper.

"Okay, number one: We're watching To All the Boys I've Loved Before," she says, making me laugh as I write it down.

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Word Count: 1042
Who knows what this summer will hold?