Page 96 of Rules for Rule Breaking
They walked down the senior center’s lawn to Bobby’s car. The sky was a black sheet littered with perfect sparkling diamonds. It was so dark that when Bobby drove off, it felt like they were driving right into space. Winter couldn’t stop fidgeting. She pointed to the Village Park on their way to her house. She wasn’t ready to go inside yet. That would have meant the night was over.
“Last time we were here, you were worried that the park was closing in ten minutes, but now it’s definitely been closed for at least six hours,” Bobby said.
“You’re still worried about rules?” Winter asked. “We haven’t gotten in trouble once. The odds are in our favor.”
Bobby glared. “Technically, we did get in trouble at the party, and that’s not how odds work. Statistically, our chances of getting in trouble increase every time we do something risky.”
“Will you shut up and pull over?”
Bobby obeyed, and there they were, parked in front of the basketball courts once again. There was nothing but a symphony of cicadas and the blanket of night to obscure everything. They stopped under the one streetlight in the lot.
“Don’t you think it’s funny we never got in trouble for all the stupid stuff we did? My parents didn’t even punish me. Did yours?” Winter asked.
“Nope.” Bobby was twisting his fingers into knots. “Breaking all these rules with you was fun, but I think I’m retired. Back to thestraight and narrow for me. No more Bonnie and Clyde.”
“You mean Soon-hee and Dae-seong.”
Bobby smiled and pulled his notebook from his back pocket. “Did you want to roundtable ideas for our first date? I have some suggestions you might like.”
“Is that why you were so eager to drive me home?” Winter asked, dropping her voice.
“No,” he responded resolutely. “But I didn’t want to assume anything... lascivious.”
She smoothed down his jacket lapel. “Don’t you want to wait until our first date? Or homecoming? It’s not too late to make an honest boy out of you,” she said in a mocking tone. With adrenaline pumping through her body, she leaned over the center console until she and Bobby were face-to-face.
Bobby shook his head. “I hate you.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
Bobby cupped Winter’s face. She nuzzled into his hand.
“I’m going to kiss you now,” Bobby said. “Are you ready?”
“Are you going to keep talking?”
“If we start dating, you’re going to have to be nicer to me.”
“Will I?” Winter asked, and moved closer so that there was only a breath between them. “You like—”
Bobby stopped the incoming insult by pressing his lips to hers. She gasped into his mouth. Her mind instantly became a vacuum. Bobby pulled her into him and then onto him. They were dueling with each other, both trying to win their kiss. Some habits never die.
Winter could feel his ragged breath in her body as he kissed her underneath the stars. Who was this boy in front of her? This eager, commanding kisser. This couldn’t be the same Bobby Baewho frequently roved Wikipedia looking for discrepancies to fix or had a safe word with his best friend for when he was talking about the political structures in Star Wars too much. He couldn’t be the same boy whose Instagram profile picture was a landscape and only posted twice before abandoning the profile altogether. He was the most serious goofball she’d ever met, but she couldn’t stop kissing him.
She wasn’t sure what part of the car they were in anymore. They could have been on the roof for all she knew, or higher, among the cosmos.
A sharp tapping at the window was the only thing that brought her back to Earth. Winter yelped, and her eyes shot open. Everything was swirling with red-and-blue lights, and there was a park ranger standing there with a long flashlight and look of judgment on his face.
“Oh—” Winter said as she touched her fingertips to her lips.
“Shit,” Bobby finished for her.
“ ‘Shit’ is right,” the ranger said. “Are you aware the park is closed?”
Bobby was looking at her with an expression that said,I told you so. She considered calling a moratorium, but his face told her she wouldn’t be getting one.