Goodnight Kiss

“Jake you are helping Chloe in there, aren’t you?”

I sent a long withering look to my left at the boy who was decidedly not helping in anyway at all; I looked back down at the bowl of hot soapy water I had my hands submerged in before I could get wound up further. Oh Jake was holding a dishcloth; he just wasn’t drying the dishes.

“’course I am!” He replied his voice all cheery and a grin present on his face.

I muttered darkly sotto voce and slammed another plate down in the drying rack, the bubbles sliding down like an avalanche. Of all the nights the dishwasher breaks! Of all the nights it has to conk out and it picks the night my mother invited the Harris’ over for dinner. I wouldn’t have minded otherwise but their son, Jacob, came this time and I‘m not overtly fond of him.

Usually when my mother invites Elaine and Phillip for the weekend or for dinner, Jacob goes out with his friends but on this occasion he was grounded for a considerable amount of time after being caught smoking weed on school property. This meant I had no choice but to put up with him for a Sunday because they didn’t trust their son. To be honest, I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could launch him strapped to a rocket.

“Why do you hate me so much Coco?” He suddenly spoke. I jumped, not expecting him to address me in a voice so…serious and unlike Jake’s natural joker-type. He was picking at a loose thread in my mothers tea towel and frowning, his shaggy black hair falling forward into his face. I pushed my glasses back up my nose with a wet finger dripping bubbles onto the middle of my nose.

I opened my mouth, closed it when nothing came out and looked back into the bowl of dishes. “I don’t hate you Jacob,” I began. “I mean, hate is a very strong word.” I methodically began scratching at the bottom of the roasting tin; pork rind and roast potatoes are a bastard to get off if you ask me. I usually find myself hacking with knives when the wire brush doesn’t succeed.

“I can still tell Chloe, I’m not dumb,” Jake replied, frowning even more now as he continued to pull at the snag in the cloth.

“Jake,” I sighed with exasperation and pulled the towel from his hands. It was mums favourite souvenir from Edinburgh after she had eaten the tin of shortbread. “I don’t hate you I just…you’re just not my type of person, okay?”

He appeared to relax and stepped up to lean against the draining board whilst I continued to wash the roasting tin. “Why am I not you’re sort of person?”

I sent him a withering look. “You got caught smoking weed on your school grounds, Jake,” I began. “You lie to your mum!”

Jake’s expression soured further and he kicked the table leg with a growl. I jumped, startled and as such dropped the wire brush and splashed my shirt with dirty water. He was now glaring out of the back door into the snow covered garden complete with paw prints from the cat. I remained still, wondering what I had said that could possibly have set him off.

“Jake?” I spoke softly, taking a small step across the kitchen towards him. He didn’t look at me, so I took a few more steps closer. “Jacob?”

“Elaine and Phillip aren’t my parents,” he informed me. “Not my birth ones anyway.” We were silent for a while as I picked apart this piece of information. Finally he looked up at me, his eyes filled with sadness. “I guess I just wanted to know what others lies I had lived with unknowingly. I can see, though, that you‘re probably one of the only people who ever told the truth Coco.”

I don’t actually know why I let him call me Coco instead of Chloe like everybody else does. Our neighbour’s two year old daughter calls me Clo-Clo but that is the closest to Jake’s name for me. Like I said, everybody else calls me Chloe; it’s just him who feels the need to call me Coco. He stayed a moment later before disappearing into the back garden.

I didn’t follow him. I had a roasting tin that needed urgent attention and if he was sulking anyway it wasn’t my place to pry. We weren’t friends after all. Didn’t mean I didn’t keep my eye on him though; I guess that’s just in my nature with a mother for a nurse. It was getting dark outside and only the motion-sensor light lit the garden where he sat on the bench by the fence.

He wasn’t wearing a jacket, just his white sleeved shirt with his jeans; it wasn’t snowing right now but I knew it to be cold from when I had tackled the ice-rink of a path to get to the bin outside. I squinted, trying to see what he had in his hands but when it dropped down in glittery dust I realised it was just snow from the arm of the bench.

Eventually I gave up on the roasting tin, and left it to one side, drenched in Fairy Liquid and filled with hot water. Just got to make sure Alfred doesn’t think he can drink it; he doesn’t like the vet (probably because the vet isn’t fond of cats either) and I’m sure he would rather he didn’t have another trip for another ridiculous reason.

Jake was still on the bench too and tiny fluffy flakes of snow were beginning to descend slowly upon Britain once more. Standing at the backdoor, I wrapped my arms around myself and peered down the garden at him. He was just sat there, in the freezing cold and being snowed on, not even bothering to move. His lips sure looked blue though.

“Jake come on in!” I called down the garden, my teeth clattering against each other as pimples formed all across my shivering body. “You’ll catch your death.”

“Never mind my death,” he said, coming to stand and steadily making his way back through the good foot and a half of snow that covered the lawn. He then nodded in my direction as he got closer. “What about you? You’re top is wet.”

I had forgotten about that, swore, and dashed away upstairs to my room to pull on a dry top. I slung the wet one away into the wash basket before heading back downstairs. Elaine and Philip were getting ready to leave, whilst Jacob was complaining about his wet jeans. I rolled my eyes, pushing past them to get into the living room.

I hated Sunday night TV but at least I didn’t have to brood because Jake was here too. He was going home, my house was my home again and hopefully by next time they are invited Mr Mood-Swings will no longer be grounded. I flicked through the channels, hoping for something halfway decent I could watch but my luck wasn’t willing to be flexible today.

Sighing I threw the controller back down on mum’s new sofa she had bought in the January New Year sales. It was dark brown leather with baby pink satin cushions to match the chocolate and pale pink cherry blossom theme of the wallpaper. The family had all clubbed together to redecorate the living room for her as one of her birthday treats. Last year we had done the bathroom, and in the summer we were apparently ripping out the kitchen and redecorating in there.

To me it just sounded like they were planning to put the house up for sale.

The Harris’ were still stood in the hall, talking, and Jake was stood with them, still complaining. In the face of being polite I shuffled to the living room door and leaned against the door frame. “If you hadn’t sat on a snow covered bench you wouldn’t have this problem now would you?” I muttered at Jake.

“We could go up to your room and get warm,” he smirked back with a wink.

I sneered, my lip curling back over my teeth, “You pervert.”

“Chloe!” Mum exclaimed. “That was really nasty, apologise!”

“It’s okay Mrs Carter,” Jake said before I could make a move to yell that no, I was not going to apologise to him for calling him a pervert. “It’s just a little game me and Coco have going, I’m not offended. Quite the contrary actually.”

Mum and Elaine began to grin and they both giggled. They already thought there was something going on between us with the way he had called me Coco ever since I was fourteen and he was fifteen. Then they decided that there was something going on because I always seemed moody whenever he was at our house (their theory was that I got moody because I wanted to get him alone to myself).

Er, no, ladies.

“Well anyway we best hit the road,” Phillip then announced. I stepped forward to hug him and say goodbye, then moved onto Elaine as further niceties were made between the grown-ups. I think they expected me and Jake to say goodbye to each other, it felt like they were dragging it out as long as possible before they left.

It didn’t happen, not while they were looking anyway; as soon as his parents were outside at the car with mine, Jake grabbed my wrist pulled me closer and kissed my cheek. “See you later Coco,” he said softly. “Thanks for the talk, earlier.”

I just nodded. It wasn’t really a ‘talk’ as such more like he’d asked a question I had answered and then he’d gone angry and gone and sat on a snow covered bench. I was kind of stunned actually, standing there and watching him leave my house. I could feel the imprint his lips had left, all warm and fuzzy and instilling a long lost crush I had once had on him.

Okay, I admit. On three occasions in my life, three entirely separate occasions, I’ve had a thing about Jake. The first time was when I was six, the age when boys are the most disgusting thing in the world but there is still that one boy in your class you secretly want to kiss anyway. The second time I was twelve; twelve, the age when you start secondary school and boys are okay to be friends with again. The third time was when I was fifteen and boys had gone from friends to objects of desire.

I stood at the window in the living room, watching Mr. Harris trying to start the car, and getting increasingly angered the longer nothing happened. Eventually dad moved forward and Phillip popped the hood before he got out and the both of them looked in at the engine. I could see, even from here, the shine of the frozen engine parts.

Then dad pulled his hand back out, engine grease covering his fingers and he pulled a face. That didn’t look good; I mean I know you would inevitably get engine oil on your fingers if you were tinkering about under the hood of a car but not so much that it would drip off your fingers. Dad was a grease monkey, he’d be able to fix it surely.

He rolled his sleeves up and began digging around whilst Elaine and Jake sat in the car. Since the front door was open anyway, I was able to hear the words ‘exploded’, ‘bad weather’ and ‘spare room’ and my heart dropped out of my chest and into my stomach. I had a horrible feeling I could take a blind stab at filling in the sentence and get it right.

“Chloe, hun,” Mum said as she came back inside, shaking her head of water droplets from snow. I looked, a grave expression already on my face and I could feel an angry onslaught bubbling in my throat. “You’re going to have to shar-”

“No!” I snapped. “Mum we have a spare room-”

“Chloe it is almost ten o’clock at night,” she retorted. “There isn’t enough time to clear out the spare room and besides where are we going to put all that stuff anyway? We have no room, you know this.”

I growled and stomped away to my bedroom. Angrily I kicked aside my school bag and shoved my shoe collection underneath my desk before crouching down and yanking out the spare bed from underneath mine. I couldn’t believe this; I had to share my room with Jake. I didn’t see why we couldn’t just make a small path to the spare room bed and shove him on that! He’s not fat and I wouldn’t have to look at him in there.

Downstairs I could hear Phillip and Elaine thanking my parents profusely, and then I heard my Dad giving Jake a talk. It started with ‘she’s on the war path’ and then it led onto ‘you better not try anything funny’. Then I heard his own dad give him his own version of the talk. Both times he informed them he would be good as gold. This only riled me because I knew he would wind me up tonight, without fail.

As soon as I had thrown a sheet, a duvet and a pillow onto the spare bed (it was just a heap, he could sort it out for himself) I went in the shower to get away from him a bit longer. I managed to eke even more time by hiding away in my parent’s room to dry my hair and remove the last of my make-up and stripped my nails of the varnish ready for school the next day.

By eleven I couldn’t stay away any longer and I resigned back to my bedroom. He was looking at my board of photographs when I entered; he’d made his bed, shoving it right against the edge of mine from where I had originally left it. This was over by the window instead.

Flicking the light switch, the room fell dark, but for the small amount of orange glow that crept around my curtains, from the street lamp between our garden and the neighbours. I then stumbled my way in the dark to bed and grabbed my remote from under my pillow. The TV cast a blue glow over the room until I switched it to the DVD player; I had every intention of watching more Black Books whether Jake liked it or not. This was my room, we were on my terms.

“What are you watching?” He enquired, sitting on the spare bed with his back to me to pull off his shoes.

“Black Books,” I muttered, reaching down the side of my bed for the packet to see which episode I needed to go to pick it up where I had left off last night. When I had decided (it was the episode where Manny goes to work at the book shop next door and sleeps on the counter) I shoved both remote and packet back down between my mattress and the wall and settled down.

Jake removed his shoes then lay back too, constantly flicking his floppy hair back from his eyes. That was how it was for twenty minutes, us two silent in bed talking not to each other but laughing at Bernard and Manny instead. I was secretly annoyed that he liked this, but on the other hand at least he wasn’t talking to me.

“Do I get a goodnight kiss then?” He asked eventually, turning his head to look at me.

I frowned as I took my glasses off and put them on my bedside cabinet. “No.”

Switching off the TV, the room went dark again. I rolled over onto my right side to face the wall so my back was to him and firmly shut my eyes. He was shuffling around behind me, and suddenly the mattress depressed behind me and I rolled back slightly.

“Please?”

“No, go away.”

“But Coco!” He protested, flicking on my bedroom lamp. “Coco, I’m your guest!”

“No, you are not my guest,” I retorted angrily, shoving him away from the bed. “Go to sleep, I’m tired.”

“Just one, please.” Damn it he was being persistent! “One kiss and I’ll go to sleep.”

Frustrated I sat up and kicked my covers off me. I then put my glasses back on and looked at him. “Why do you even want me to kiss you anyway?” I snapped before climbing round him and stomping out of my room.

I couldn’t care less what time it was. I couldn’t care less there was nowhere to put everything. I just cared that he was in the same room as me. I flipped on the spare room light and grabbed the handles of mums exercise bike before dragging it out onto the landing. Once that was out of the way, I stacked the boxes precariously around the room till I was able to reach the bed. It was covered in stuff which I just pushed onto the floor.

“Chloe what are you doing?” Jake asked curiously.

“I’m making the bed.”

I moved back onto the landing and headed to the laundry closet, pulling out the required bed sheets but Jacob stepped in my way to prevent me going back. He took the items from my hands and put them back on the shelf. His dark eyes met mine and he was silent for just a moment; his face softened the way I’ve seen it do with previous girlfriends and he smiled at me.

“I want to kiss you because I like you, Coco.”

I sputtered, shoving my glasses back up my face. “L-like me?”

Jake nodded vigorously.

I pursed my lips and folded my arms, “So why are you such a git?” He shrugged, like this was a perfectly acceptable excuse. I’m not going to lie, I was disappointed; I had been secretly hoping for something along the lines of ‘because it was the only way I could get your attention’. I span round and grabbed the bedding again.

I felt like cursing myself. One Sunday and he had already wormed himself back into that old little fond spot I had for him. I mentally berated myself for letting this happen as I unfolded the bedding and let it fall onto the floor at my feet before grabbing a pillow from the floor and stuffing it into the case.

“Let me get this right,” he followed me into the room, flipping the light switch off to annoy me before moving further in. I know he was standing right behind me, I could tell. “Would you have made this bed if I had given you a good enough answer?”

I hesitated, hoping he didn’t notice. I didn’t reply though.

“You like me don’t you!?”

“No!” I snapped, spinning round to look at him, my reply coming too fast for someone who was telling the truth. Damn soft spot and damn Jake for putting himself back inside of it. This was ridiculous. One day, one day and he’d found it without even trying to. “No I don’t, why would I like you?”

Jake grinned taking a step closer so I took one step back. “You’ve never told me not to call you Coco,” he informed me. “But nobody else calls you it.”

“Shiv next door does!”

“No she doesn’t,” he shook his head, hair flapping about his eyes and ears. This time when he stepped closer he pulled the pillow from my hands and dropped it on the floor behind him when I tried to grab it back. “She calls you Clo-clo, there is a difference.” He paused. “Do you know why I call you Coco?”

“Because you want to annoy me?”

Jake shook his head with a laugh. “No!” He stepped closer yet again and this time when I stepped back, the back of my legs hit the bed; I had been about to fall back when his hands found my waist and steadied me on my feet. I don’t actually remember the last time I stood within such a close distance to Jacob. Oh no, I remember. Last year at the height of my crush for him, in a queue for Nemesis at Alton Towers. Good times.

Suddenly one of his hands was in my hair and he was running his fingers through it, admiring it in the dark.

“I call you Coco, Coco, because of your hair,” he laughed lightly, bringing his hand up onto my cheek and then dropping it back down to my waist. “It just seemed fitting especially since I love the colour.”

I tried to step back again, forgetting I was already pressing into the bed and fell back upon the mattress. Jacob tried to hold me up but it was a futile effort and he came down with me. I couldn’t help but laugh and he lay upon me, laughing too. That was until he stopped and I stopped because I felt outrageously silly laughing on my own. My face flushed instantly to the colour of Heinz Ketchup for several reasons, the first being the fact he was laid on top of me. The second, his face was hovering right over mine and he was smiling at me. Thirdly he was looking straight through my glasses lenses and into my eyes.

I gulped and cursed my racing heart for surely he would feel that just like I could feel his. The worst part was, I liked it. I liked this situation we had found ourselves in and I liked it even more when suddenly his lips were upon mine and my hand involuntarily was reaching up towards his cheek. I gasped initially and he smiled, waiting for me to respond.

Now I can honestly say there were no fireworks exploding in the sky. There were no butterflies causing chaos in my stomach. There were no bolts of tingling electricity passing between our bodies. It was so much more real, and much better than any story book or movie could ever make it out to be. Jake kissed me so tenderly and yet with so much passion I got the impression he had been waiting to do this for quite some time now.

Eventually, he pulled away. “Sorry,” he whispered, flicking his hair from his eyes. “I’ve kinda wanted to do that for a while.”

“Yeah I thought as much,” I replied as an assault of girlish giggles escaped. I clamped my mouth shut instantly before I looked anymore stupider than I probably had already portrayed to him today or at any point during my life. Especially now, I didn’t want to look stupid now, right after we had just kissed.

Jake only laughed and kissed the tip of my nose. “You’re cute, Coco,” he said before standing up and pulling me up with him. “Are you really going to sleep in here?” I shook my head, a little too lost for words since I didn’t want to look stupid. Mute was the way to go. “Good, do I have to sleep in here? Because honestly unless you sleep in here too, it’s much too cold.” I shook my head again. Jake smiled, taking my face in his hands. “Chloe?”

“Yes Jacob?” I breathed, wishing to kiss him again.

“Do you like me?” He asked. “Because I sure as hell like you.”

“I like you,” I nodded.

He smiled, bringing his face closer to mine. “So does that mean I can have a goodnight kiss?”

“Yes Jacob,” I smiled back before rising up onto my tiptoes and kissing him softly. “It does.”