𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒂 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒏' ≛ m. kelso ✔

≛ chapter eleven

**lil warning for this chapter, a bit of nsfw o_O //before and after, I'll put one of these ~*+*~

JULY 1978

Juniper Clark stared up at her bedroom ceiling, examining the glow-in-the-dark star stickers that were miraculously still stuck up there from her spot on her bed.

She laid on her back, her eyes wide and restless. She hadn't woken up too long ago, but it hadn't been easy to fall asleep, either. The bed dipped beside her as the boy to her left rolled over to face her in his sleep.

If June's heart pounded against her chest any harder, he would surely wake up.

She had to get him out of there. The birds weren't even chirping yet, but her mother would be up soon and she didn't want to risk getting caught with Michael in her bed. She groaned internally.

How could she have been so reckless? How could she have been so stupid? She never should have even let him inside. And there he was, in all of his drooling glory, laying next to her in nothing but his boxers.

June was shocked out of her thoughts when he sniffled loudly out of nowhere and sighed. She turned her attention to him, examining the way the light from the beginning of the dawn gently skimmed his cheek. He wasn't wearing that giddy smile that he always carried around, and yet, he still seemed happy.

Juniper reached out and touched his face as if he were made of porcelain and a wrong move could shatter him. She reveled in the feel of his soft skin against hers, and she was reminded of why she had asked him to touch her, of why she had let him stay.

She brushed her thumb over his cheekbones and traced his features: his eyebrows, his nose... his lips. She found herself inching closer to him, even as the unbearably heavy pile of pure guilt sat tauntingly in the back of her mind. The tip of her nose was touching his now, and she suddenly had the urge to feel his lips on hers once again.

Before she could do anything more, his eyes fluttered open. Juniper just barely felt his eyelashes graze her skin before she leaped away from him and off of the bed, thankful for the long shirt she wore that covered most of her body.

Michael sat up slowly, not taking his eyes off of her, and rubbed his eyes as if he believed he was dreaming. Once he convinced himself that she was real, a grin spread across his previously-expressionless face. "Morning, Buggy," he whispered groggily. "What are you doing all the way over there?"

He hadn't felt her, then. That was good. June would never admit how intimate the moment she had just sort-of shared with him was.

"You have to go soon," she whispered back, her voice gentler than he had expected it to be. "My mom's going to wake up."

Michael nodded silently, searching around his side of the bed. "Could you, uh-" his cheeks burned. "Could you pass me my clothes?"

Juniper giggled, a sweet and unexpected sound that made Michael's lips quirk up. "Here you go, dumbass," she smirked as she tossed his shirt and shorts from the night before at him.

He caught them in his arms and she averted her eyes as he rose and quickly slipped them on.

June approached him cautiously, stopped in front of him, and tilted her head up to see him.

He brushed a piece of hair behind her ear, as he knew she liked. His hand came to a rest on her cheek.

She froze for a second, contemplating her next actions, before turning her head and kissing his palm gently.

"What did it mean?" Michael asked softly.

Juniper looked back up at him, forcing herself to make eye contact with him. "I don't know."