Page 2

CHAPTER TWO

Levi

“So, you realize you’re going to have to kiss him, right?”

I drop my fork in my lap and blush. I look over at Mav who’s serving himself another helping of our spaghetti tacos—courtesy of our favorite kid’s sitcom that we’re far too old to watch—and hand him my plate.

When I don’t respond, he snickers. “Don’t tell me you haven’t thought of it.”

“Well, of course, I have,” I snap back, wrenching my full plate away from him. I’m a healthy twenty-year-old. Of course, I’ve had fantasies about kissing the hottest guy on our small college campus. Asher, with his plump pink lips and sparkling blue eyes. That little dimple in his chin he gets when he smiles. Yum. “You mean to tell me you’ve never thought of kissing Asher?”

Mav freezes, and I can see his flush spread down his freckled-covered neck. He gets all fidgety and mumbles, “He’s not really my type.”

I scoff right back at him. Asher? Not his type? He’s everybody’s type, men and women alike. “Who’s your type then?”

Mav ignores me and digs into his food. He’s being weird and slightly sketchy, but I don’t have the chance to interrogate him when my phone beeps. I nearly hop out of my seat as I grab it with twitchy fingers. I end up pouting when I see it’s just a text from my mom asking if I’ve cleaned my toilet recently.

Mav looks at me over his plate, a string of spaghetti hanging out of his mouth. “Still no text?”

“No,” I say sadly, slumping in my seat.

“He’ll text back.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I told you, Levi. You’re awesome.”

Sure, I believe that. I push my spaghetti around with my tortilla and reach for my cherry ice slushy. Yes, I went back to the gas station to get another one. I needed a fix after the day I had. “So, he’s going to kiss me?”

“Well…yeah?” Mav chuckles, slurping up his noodle. “Isn’t that the point behind a first date? Don’t they traditionally end with a kiss?”

“I’ve never been on a first date.”

“Me neither, but we’re smart enough to guess what’s going to happen.”

I bite at my straw. I’ve never kissed anyone before. Neither has Mav. We’re completely and pathetically inexperienced for our age, but can you blame us? We spent our teenage years hiding out in each other’s bedrooms building Legos and playing fantasy games instead of living in the real world. But that’s what college was supposed to be about. We were supposed to come out of our codependent shells and make new friends. Party and shit.

Still, I might be terrible at this whole kissing thing. Asher is probably very experienced and my amateur lips could turn him off. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance I’ve been given here, and I refuse to mess it up.

“We should kiss,” I blurt out.

Mav—who was in the middle of taking a bite—drops his taco. The noodles go everywhere and I wipe at the sauce that lands on my cheek. He just stares at me, slack-jawed and like I just asked him to sell his firstborn to the Devil.

“Or not?” I ask, suddenly feeling like an idiot. “We totally don’t have to.”

“Why do you want to kiss me?” he asks, almost suspiciously.

“Because I need practice!” I argue, throwing my hands up in the air in frustration. I nearly whine as I look at my phone and turn back to Mav. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Mav.”

Something in him morphs, and his face softens. He stares down at the table for too long, then at his tacos, and finally his gaze lands on me. Or, more specifically, my lips. “Okay.”

“Okay?” I ask, almost hopefully.

“Yeah we can…” he trails off, letting out a deep breath before he nods. “We can kiss.”

“Now?”

“You want to kiss now?” he sputters.

I nod. “I want to get it over with.”

“Well, isn’t that the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard,” he says with a roll of his eyes.

I narrow my eyes. “It’s not meant to be romantic.”

“Fine,” he huffs, standing up and taking both of our plates. “Let me just clean up and I’ll meet you in the living room.”

Thrilled, I hop out of my seat and head to the other room. A few minutes later, Mav joins me and sits down awkwardly on the other side of the couch. I stare at the mountain of space between us and scoot closer. “I don’t have cooties.”

“You better hope you don’t since I’m actually about to kiss you,” he mumbles, looking almost reluctant as he closes the distance just a bit. “So… what do we do?”

This is the point where I flush. I’m just as lost as he is. I have no idea how to kiss someone. Neither does he. We’re just two awkward virgins fumbling through this together. So, I do the only thing I can think of.

“YouTube.”

Mav chuckles as I pick up the TV controller and flip over to the apps section. Turns out typing ‘ How to Kiss’ brings up multiple very interesting videos. I click on the one that seems the most legit, and we both watch in rapt attention as the lady on the screen gives some very detailed instructions.

“So, we just kinda like, open our mouths and smash them together?” Mav asks, tilting his head to the side as he watches the lady make out with a mannequin. “I don’t think I’m ready for tongue.”

“Okay. We got this,” I say, hyping us up. “You’re double majoring in biochemistry and theoretical math, and I’m a physics major. We’re smart. We can figure it out.”

Mav nods, cracking his neck side to side like he does before he starts a quest. We both turn to each other at the same time and lean in and?—

“Ow!” he shouts, rubbing at his nose. It seems that we were clumsy enough to smash our noses together instead of our lips. “That hurt!”

“Sorry,” I squeak, fidgeting with my superhero watch. “Um, maybe I should grab your face?”

He narrows his eyes. “You’re liable to rip it off at this point.”

I roll my eyes and reach for him, cupping his cheeks as I move closer. “Shut up. Let’s try it.”

“I just open my mouth like this?”

I can’t help it. I cackle. He’s doing this weird thing that makes him look like he’s birthing a baby from his mouth. It’s like he’s trying to be a sperm whale and ring out a mating call. “What is that?”

“It’s supposed to be sexy,” he complains with a frown. “Was it not sexy?”

“Um, no?” I chuckle, laughing when he does it again. “Okay. Okay. Be serious, Mav.”

He sobers and gulps. I can see the way his Adam’s apple bobs as he tries to figure out where to put his hands. He settles for awkwardly placing them on my hips. “Let’s try this again.”

Very carefully , we lean toward each other, and I hiss when he catches my bottom lip. “You’re using too much teeth.”

“You’re not any better,” he snarks back, tightening his grip on my hips. “You have to open your mouth to kiss me.”

“Says who?”

“Says the lady from YouTube.”

“Fine,” I huff. Crap, why is this so hard? “Maybe…let’s just do what comes naturally. Okay?”

He nods. This time when we lean into each other, it’s a lot less clumsy. The second my lips properly settle on his, it’s like it all clicks into place. Our lips brush against each other, and he opens up just a bit so I can slot my mouth against his. He tastes like marinara sauce and Mexican seasoning, but it’s actually not that unpleasant. I have a feeling there’s too much saliva being exchanged right now, I can feel it pooling on the corner of my lips, but fuck me it’s my first time.

“You taste like cherries,” he mumbles against my lips, his hands wandering up to settle on my back.

“Keep going,” I say, capturing his lips once more.

We kiss for a few more minutes, growing more confident by the second. What started out as a bit awkward and mechanical, slowly morphs into something natural and thrilling.

I actually like kissing.

Like a lot.

Mav seems to be enjoying it too because he pulls me closer as I brush my thumb against his jaw. We’re so close I’m practically on his lap, but I don’t think either of us care.

When we pull back, there’s a bit of saliva that connects our lips, and we both chuckle as I wipe it away. Mav looks like he’s caught in a bit of a daze, something unreadable in his green eyes that makes my stomach churn pleasantly. He looks really fucking hazy and satisfied, and a bolt of pride courses through me at the idea that I put that look on his face.

“Levi…” he whispers, resting his forehead against mine, a goofy smile on his lips. “That was?—”

Ping!

I throw myself across the couch and reach for my phone. I jump and squeal when I see that Asher Rashford texted me back.

Ash: Hi, Levi :)

“It’s Asher!” I yell, hopping up and down as I wave the phone in front of Mav’s face. “He got back to me!”

For a split second, something passes over Mav’s face. His eyes widen a tad and his lips quirk downward, but that quickly disappears as he smiles softly at me. “I told you he would.”

I cock my head and study him. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, me? Yeah,” he says, brushing me off with a wave of his hand. “Totally.”

“You’re not still thinking he’s using me, right?” I ask, a little bit of fear in my gut at the idea. “I mean, he even put a smiley face after his text.”

“I’m sure he means it, Levi,” he assures me, standing up as he rubs his hands up and down his thighs. “I think it’s great.”

I cheer again and clap my hands. I throw myself at Mav, wrapping my arms around his neck. It’s a bit awkward because he’s so much taller than I am, but he happily accepts the embrace. “Thank you so much for helping me.”

“Anything for you, Levi,” he whispers against my hair. “You know I’d do anything for you.”

I pull back and show us both my phone. “What should I text back?”

“Why are you asking me?” he chuckles. “I don’t know what to do either. I’m thinking?—”

“—the internet.”

We both laugh at the same time as we sit back down on the couch and start scrolling through my phone. We find out that the ‘hard-to-get’ strategy is an option, but I’m too excited to wait. So, we sit together and come up with my oh-so-eloquent reply.

Me: Hi!

“ What do we do now?” I ask, looking up at Mav as he chews the inside of his cheek.

He raises his brows and scrunches his nose at our board game cabinet. “Wanna play a game?”

I smile widely as I smack a kiss on his cheek. “Always.”