[2022 Wattys Winner] When love cynic Madison Watson starts university, she vows to follow three simple rules.
One: Work out at least twice a week.
Two: Get an internship.
Three: Stay away from men.
But after a chance encounter with th...
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Silence cloaked the room, a dense tension freezing the air. It was like a heavy smog had settled over us with only Noah able to breathe through it, his eyes glistening and his smile wider than I'd ever seen it.
And, as though my body could sense that it was an inappropriate time to laugh, a schoolgirl giggle was itching at my throat.
"Alright, I think this has gone on long enough." James pushed himself off the back of the sofa, sauntering around it to join us on the other side. "Madison isn't kissing anyone."
My eyes flittered to him without waiting for permission from my brain to do so. His expression was sterner than I'd ever seen it before, his gaze avoiding mine and piercing into his friend's.
A strange feeling pooled in my chest, as if his words had spilled from his mouth, crept down my throat, and were snaking around my heart. Constricting it with yet another serving of rejection. Maybe it was just the fact that it was my third of the day, but it stung more than the others.
"Right." I swallowed the pain. Like I always did. Down into the depths of my core it went, joining whatever else I'd repressed. "I think we should get back to the problem at hand—"
"But this is the perfect solution!" Noah cried. "You said so yourself, Madison. Show Dex the perfect first kiss."
"I was talking about, I don't know, YouTube-ing it or something! Watching an episode of Love Island."
"Having live actors is so much better! This way, he can really engage. We can tailor it, you know, go through it step-by-step. I'll narrate, you two just do what I say."
"That ... could work." Dex ran a hand through his hair, tousling the dark auburn locks. "Can we focus on head placement? And how to stop your noses from colliding?"
Noah nodded. "All valid concerns."
The color was draining from my face more and more, I was absolutely sure of it. My palms were heavy, my throat rough and dry. What if my lips were chapped? What would James think? That I have chapped lips?
Why did I care what James thought?
When I pulled myself out of my head, I realized that James, too, had been stunned into silence. Noah, meanwhile, was peering back and forth between the two of us bewilderedly, finally giving in to an incredulous laugh.
"What's the big deal here?" he asked. "You're both adults, right? You're friends. It's just a kiss!" He said the word—kiss—as if it was a breath of air, a passing cloud. Like it was no big deal.
And maybe it wasn't. Maybe friends kissed all the time. I hadn't been single since I was thirteen, so maybe I'd just bypassed that part of friendship. A kiss can be everything or nothing. It can be everything to people like me, and nothing to people like Elijah. A kiss was just a kiss.
