Debate Team

We’re known as the “debate team” around our school. We don’t even have a debate team. But he and I have somehow acquired that nickname. I shouldn’t say ‘somehow’; I know exactly how and why we’re called that. I bet you want to know, don’t you?

We constantly argue with each other. It’s almost like a sport between the two of us. I don’t know about how he sees it, but I love arguing with him; it’s so much fun. My day gets better if he and I start arguing about something. And it’s not as if it’s over little things (most of the time) and it’s not as if we argue with each other because we don’t like each other. We’re actually sort of friends. Plus, everything we argue about (usually) are things that we feel very passionately about.

As I think back on all the time that we’ve argued, I can’t recall a single time that one of us had actually won. We either were stopped by a teacher or we’d just settle on agreeing to disagree. That’s how I like it, really, because if we wouldn’t do that, we’d never let it go and we’d constantly try to prove the other wrong and it wouldn’t be fun to argue with him anymore.

You know, to tell the truth, I kind of like him as a bit more than a friend. I mean, I know some people might not think we’d be a good couple because of how much we disagree with each other, but what relationship doesn’t have disagreements? I actually think we might be a good couple, and so do a couple of other people around school. A few different times, after we’d finished arguing, someone had said, “You guys fight like a married couple,” and, “Why don’t you two just admit you like each other and get it over with?” or my favorite little rant, “Just kiss and stop fighting already, God! I t never ends with you guys! Just get together or whatever because you’re obviously made for each other!” I couldn’t help but laugh about that statement. He even laughed about it too.

Most of the time we would be arguing at school. But I think that’s mostly just because we don’t see each other outside of school a lot. So when we both sowed up to Meagan Donnelly’s party, I heard a lot of people talk about when they thought our next argument would be and what it would be about. I guess they figured out that even with such an atmosphere as a party, we’d end up finding something to bicker about. Well, those who were thinking that were right.

It started with a group of us that decided we were going to play sexual truth or dare, which Markus Cale had on his iPod. We were in the basement and could still hear the party thumping from upstairs, but it was slightly eerie still. Then we started the game and things got less weird. James had to lick honey off of Maria’s belly. Arthur, Max, and Holly had to do a three-way kiss. Markus had to strip to his boxers. Anne chose Arthur to give a “sensual massage” in another room. And so much more. Then, things became interesting, as if they weren’t already.

It was like the game-generator just knew. Maria – the only openly bi girl in our school – got dared to kiss both me and him and determine who was the better kisser. I'll tell you now, kissing her was quite awkward, but I did it anyways, as best I could. Then she went in for the kiss with him and for some reason, seeing that just sent a pang of jealously to my heart. I know it didn’t mean anything, but I guess I just liked him more than I’d originally thought.

As Maria came back from the kiss, she laughed.

“Well, I’d say Joe was better, but I think Jenna was a bit reluctant to kiss a girl, so I think we should give her the benefit of the doubt,”

“I think we should go with your original assumption, Maria,” Joe laughed, sitting back down on the big couch of the two down there. “Because I am definitely the better kisser.”

“Oh really? I’d have to beg to differ on that,”

“How do you know how I kiss?”

“Oh, here we go again,” Max chuckled, groaning a bit.

“How do you know how I kiss?”

“Touché,” he laughed. “But still, I'm nearly positive I'm the better kisser of the two of us.”

“Oh, but you don’t know that for sure,”

“I've been told,”

“You’ve been told that you’re a better kisser than me? By who?”

“Well, I haven’t been told that, but I've been told I was an amazing kisser, so I'm thinking that, logically, I’d be the better kisser,” he said, standing up and walking towards me.

“Oh really…because I've been told that I was the best kiss that a person had ever had – twice, at that, by two different people. I'm going to have to go with me being the better kisser,”

“Of course they would argue about this,” Anne muttered.

“You wanna go?” Joe asked, laughing slightly sarcastically, throwing his arms out at me as if he was trying to be intimidating. If it was any other guy with a mohawk, I might actually be intimidating, but he didn’t pull his off that way. His just made him lookcute athletic, somehow. One thing that was a bit scary was how his muscles flexed as we argued. I’d seen it happen before, and I've seen himkill play football on Friday nights, so I know that it’s normal, but I still wasn’t used to it, I guess.

“Oh, I would love to go,” I laughed, doing the same thing to him, just to mock him. ’If only my muscles flexed like that too,’ I thought, chuckling mentally at that.

“Oh yeah?” he asked, taking a step towards me again.

“Wow, I think this is the first time they’ve been reduced to asking two word questions,” Markus laughed. “This argument must be coming to an end soon.”

“Definitely, yes,” I whispered menacingly, steeping closer yet to him.

“Good,” he breathed, reaching his hand out to cup my face and kiss me softly. I really was expecting one of those angry, hot, face-mashing kisses, but the soft and slow one that actually occurred was by far the better choice. I found myself leaning into Joe and wrapping my arms around his neck while his other hand lay on my hip. I do have to say, he’s a pretty great kisser, but at the moment, I still stuck with my theory of who was better.

After a while longer of “deciding who was the better kisser”, I pulled away and smirked. “So what do you think now?”

“Agree to disagree?” he smiled.

“As always,” I laughed.

“Awe, and here I thought someone would actually win this one!” Maria exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air, jokingly in distress.

“We both won this one, I’d say,” Joe said, smiling and wrapping his arm around my shoulders, pulling my body close to his.

“This time I actually agree with you,” I smiled, giving him a quick kiss.