Page 63 of Theodore

I climbed into the seat beside him, as Mara chuckled in the back seat.

"What?" I asked as I pulled up the app to order the pizza on my phone.

"He's not perfect, after all. He doesn't share!" Mara cheered.

Theo lifted his emerald green eyes to look at her in the rear-view mirror.

"It's because I don't share that Iamperfect, Mari Moo," he teased, and she blushed.

Mara was better at being around Theo but still couldn't speak if Jax was around.

"Jax doesn't share either. So is he still Mr. Perfect?" Theo yawned.

Mara quickly looked away, suddenly engrossed in her phone as I swatted his arm.

"Why are you so mean?" I chided, adding a smoky Spanish chicken pizza to the order. "Mar, are you coming for pizza?"

Theo glared at me out of the corner of his eye as Mara sat up.

"Ooh, can I? Can I get a Hawaiian with extra pineapple?" Mara grinned happily.

Theo pointed to his trousers, then to my mouth, shaking his head.

"Ruined," he grumbled as I laughed out loud.

Mara looked up at us both with confusion as I shook my head.

"Did you ever play Street Fighter, Mara?" I asked, an idea forming in my mind.

Theo smirked then, as I recalled our most ridiculous attempt at a first kiss while we played.

Flashback

"Why are you always Chun-Li?" Theo groaned as I selected my character, the screen flashing in response.

I nudged him as he shook his head, his dark curls bobbing around his face.

"Why are you always Ken?" I retorted as the game began.

I furiously pressed all the buttons as I tried to recreate the special moves, cheering when Chun-Li delivered the perfect spinning bird kick to Ken.

"No fair, I was already down!" Theo hollered as he jumped up, pulling out a can of whoop-ass on my character. He won the fight, and I threw my controller in anger.

"Aw, poor baby," he crooned as he messed up my hair, earning him a punch to the kidneys.

"Ow!" he yelled as he dragged me towards him, tickling me mercilessly as I screamed for surrender.

"Stop!" I breathed as he held me still beneath him.

My twelve-year-old self breathed rapidly under his emerald gaze, as I noticed him smirk in the way he did when he looked at Sarah Crocker. My heart was beating so fast I thought he would hear it when he spoke the words I never expected to hear.

"I'll stop if you kiss me."

"What?!" I yelled, tempted to kick him in his nuts.

What was he doing?

"One kiss. I wanna know what it's like. At least if we do it together, it won't matter if we do it wrong. Make sense?"