The Kissing Thief.

I still hadn’t packed everything at my parents house. As usual, I had already stayed a week with Val and nobody noticed. When Sam or Aaron saw me around, they would say a quick “What are you doing here?” or, even, “I thought you were moving?”. My excuse would always be, “Spending time with Val before I move.” It wasn’t a complete lie either. I just didn’t mention the part about me moving in to the same house as them.

It was a Saturday, and the sun was out and giving me a much-needed tan. I had Stars blaring on the roof of the East wing, while I smothered myself in tanning oil. Val and her band, Flux Pearl were practising- or rather, pretending to practise while they goofed around- a few feet away from me. The song called Bitches in Tokyo had ended, and Alan, the bassist, turned the stereo off.

“Hey! I wasn’t finished listening to that!” I complained jestingly. Alan stuck his pierced tongue out at me, before doing a sound-check.

“Testing- testing, testicular testing!” He yelled in to the microphone. I laughed, and got out of my seat wearily. So I wasn’t completely naked, I slipped a blazer on over my one-piece bathing suit, and sidled up to the microphone. Val joined me and tapped the tip of the microphone cautiously.

“Hey V, what are we playing first?” The drummer, Rob asked. Val looked at me out of the corner of her eye, and made some weird hand gesture that I didn’t understand. Rob started a loud drum solo, which was followed by the keyboard. The song was very familiar, seeing as though I had just finished listening to it.

“You can write my place out of the life you make, and all then things that mattered when you knew my face,” Val started to sing softly, nudging my shoulder encouragingly. I shook my head, and made for the chair once again, stage fright rattling my brain. Charlie poked me back in to place at the microphone alongside Valerie, with the tip of his guitar. My heart hammered against my ribs, and all I could think was That must be unhealthy. The pace began to slow down until it reached a complete stop, while the band glared at me playfully.

“Cross off all the ways I failed you because I failed you. But I'm still in your blood, I'm still in your blood,” I finished, and the band perked up happily. My singing voice was very crackly. Val said it was gorgeous, but I thought it sounded like a dying raccoon. The chorus music heightened, so I continued to wail like a dying animal. “The time when all our mistakes made sense, you needed it. The time when all the lying, you sympathized with sin. All this sabotage and blame- Well I can take it. Because I want you back- I just want you back,” I bowed as Val began singing the next lines, and I got encouraging smiles from the guys. It was seldom that I ever sang with the Flux Pearl, but I would usually treat them every so often to some terrible vocals while in the shower, bathtub, or while baking something.

I turned to go back to my chair, but a minuscule man caught my eye. He wasn’t really a small man. He was actually tall. None the less, he looked small from the distance between us. Aaron was topless, which didn’t really surprise me, and his hair was a curly mop. He was smiling as far as I could tell, and he waved slightly. I looked intriguingly at the man who was standing on the rooftop of the west wing, and waved back. Was it just the heat of the sun that was making my cheeks burn up? I couldn’t quite tell. It could also have been the fact that I didn’t shave my legs because I normally wore pants or long skirts and shorts in the summer. As luck would have it, here I was in my one-piece, singing terribly and most likely looking like a lobster-yeti hybrid.

I couldn’t say how long we stood there, staring at each other. We made faces, played some amazing tunes on the air guitar (actual guitar dialogue due to Charlie), and tried to play charades. We failed, but it was fun while it lasted.

The band practise ended when Flux Pearl got tired, and hungry. I was about to make my famous Greek salad, but I didn’t have any ingredients. No lettuce, no olives, no feta cheese or vinegar. I could have strangled Val due to her lack of groceries, but everything was solved when Charlie said he would drop us off at the nearest Metro, before he drove the rest of the band to their destinations.

With a wave of his hand, Charlie drove off in his car, and I dragged Val in to the store. I got weird looks from some of the older people as I walked by. I had on my bathing suit, but I put on a one-piece strapless jumper over top of the suit. I was still clad in the blazer, and I didn’t bother to shave my half-hairy legs. I didn’t think anybody noticed though, which was probably a good thing.

As a rule, Valerie and I would always grab a shopping cart, and we would take turns pushing one another around. Val hopped in to the cart, and began grabbing all of the items she wanted. I thought it was a bad idea of Sam to give her daughter a credit card, but then again, they were rich.

As we were strolling down the isles, Val’s hand flew up and smacked me right on the nose. “STOP!” She whispered loudly. I reached my hand up to my face to rub my sore nose, but Val took my hands in her own so she could jump out of the cart. Once she was out, she practically tackled me to the freshly-waxed floor and held my face so it wouldn’t move. I was stuck staring at the back of a tall- Aaron!

“Why are we being sneaky?” I asked, ripping my face from her grasp. I looked at the jars surrounding me, and smiled. “Olives!” I said happily, taking three jars and putting them in the cart.

“Because! If Aaron is here, Sam is bound to be here. It turns out, there were bugs living in the tin can. I guess it was older than I imagined. She’s still pissed off at me.” Val replied. I saw a few more canned goods I needed for the chili I was making with the salad, so I went to get them.

I was nervous, to say the least. I always was nervous when it came to Aaron. He was so sweet, so adorable, and so totally not mine. What was that old saying? Oh, right, The heart wants what the heart cannot have. Or something like that. I became giddy with excitement as I saw out of the corner of my eye, that Aaron was coming closer to me. I turned my back to him, and walked over to the cart. Val waved her hand politely, leaning toward my ear.

“You are lucky you are my best friend. I’ll keep Sam away.” She said, before heading off in the opposite direction, saying something about candy and crossword puzzles. I placed the canned goods carefully in the bottom of the cart, and went to push it when Aaron grabbed my waist. I jumped, and pulled away from him cautiously.

“Hey, Juniper!” Aaron greeted.

“Hello, Aaron!” I replied enthusiastically.

“Do you remember the note I gave you?” He asked playfully. I raised an eyebrow at him and nodded my head. His soft hand grabbed my chin carefully, and before I could deny anything (not that I would have, if I knew what was coming) and he crashed his lips on to mine. I felt the isle around me crowd up, and Aaron was pushed in to me. I couldn’t help but laugh as we pulled away from one another. I let my hand rest on his chest, as he bent down to kiss me again.

“Goodbye…” Aaron said, inhaling deeply. He placed a last, sweet kiss on my lips and embraced me in an awkward one-armed hug. His other hand was occupied by a shopping basket. “I’ll miss you.”

“I already miss you.” I blurted out, biting my lip as soon as I let the sentence slip. My face flushed red as he looked in to my eyes, as if trying to decipher something. Without another word he slipped away in to the crowd, and I was left in the isle to find Val.