What Makes It Wrong for Us to Fall in Love?

I backed away from the eyepiece for the millionth time that afternoon in failure.

Why did we have to learn how to set up a light microscope anyway? When were we ever gonna need it?

Didn't need it in a band, didn't need it by myself.

It was a complete waste of time.

But then, I had no choice.

I was shallowly close to tears.

It counted as part of my lab grade, and I had no idea how it was done.

I was doing it as a make-up test because the day before when they were tought how to do that shit, I was home. Sick. All I knew were the parts, not even their functions.

I was clueless but I had to try.

But it was a bad idea, seeing I was completely unaware about everything.

Every fucking thing. What the knobs were for, why we had to use the low-power objective instead of the high-power objective, and how to gather light.. And how to "locate specimen."

I threw my pen down and crossed my arms. I looked at the wall clock at the back of the empty laboratory.

Around 4 minutes before our boring old Chem teacher showed up to check if I set up the microscope, if I already gathered the light.

I sighed in defeat. "Might as well accept the F."

"You can't give up on that stuff." A voice from behind me had me a little startled.

"What are you doing here?" I squinted. "You can't be in here, I'm taking a make-up test."

"Moral support?" He suggested. "Maybe, I just wanna be here, you can't give up on that stuff."

"I know," I groaned in reply, taking a step back closer to the microscope. "But this is stupid."

"Everyone thinks it's stupid, but you ought'a try to understand it if it means an A." Kennedy smiled at me before I looked down into the microscope again.

"I don't know how to do this." I threw my hands up. "I'm just gonna be honest, I don't know how to do this. And I'll accept the F."

"Then let me help you." He shrugged. "I got an A on this."

"No," I refused lightly.

"Seriously, you can't afford another F." He started walking towards the microscope. Before he could even lay a hand on it, I slapped his hands away.

"You can't touch anything, I have to do this on my own."

"Oh, so this is when you decide to finally be dependent?" He huffed as a joke.

"Bad timing?" I shook my head. "Seriously though, you can't touch anything."

"Can I touch you?" He asked, then without waiting for an answer from me, he stood behind me and put his arms around me, holding my hands. "I can, can't I?"

"No." I joked a little too late.

"Just look now," He said while he had me making sure my ponytail wasn't getting in his way.

So I closed one of my eyes and looked into the eyepiece.

"Do you see anything?" He asked.

"Nope," I answered.

He started moving my hands around after he made me hold onto the mirror. Then he started adjusting the mirror. "Tell me when you see light,"

"Okay," I kept an intent look in the microscope while he kept fumbling with the mirror using my hands.

"No light?"

"No," I bit my lip. "Are you sure you're doing it right?"

"Yes, I got an A on this." He repeated. "Wait," He mumbled before he continued moving the mirror around.

I stared into darkness for a couple more seconds when it all turned white. "Stop!"

"Do you see the light?"

"Yeah!"

"Good," He made me back off a little bit from the microscope. "And this is?" He took a glass slide on the table and showed it to me.

"I'm supposed to locate the specimen," I said, adding air quotes to the words 'locate' and 'specimen.'

"Okay, I'll help you with this too." He nonchalantly said. "Look,"

So I looked into the microscope for the I don't know how many-eth time.

"What's this,"

"It's.. Some.. Parame.. Para-something,"

"Paramecium," He finished for me. "Tell me when you see little pink things that look like rice, okay?"

"Okay," I said. Then after a while, I got tired of waiting. "I can't see anything," I pulled away from the microscope, but I didn't realize Kennedy was already breathing down my neck.

He was bloody close to me.

Then everything froze when our eyes clicked.

His nose was touching mine, and that was the closest our faces had ever been.

We'd been together for over a year and we'd never kissed until then.

We took our relationship seriously, okay? Since the start was too fast, we took the rest slow.

And he hadn't even let go of me.

After a couple more seconds, we finally leaned in. Both of us.

Then our lips brushed against each other's innocently and quietly.

Then we heard rumblings from the door knob, which made Kennedy pull off of me.

He let go of me the same time he detached his lips from mine before he went under the table to hide.

"Miss Bowen, are you done?" Our teacher asked as she entered the room.

I was still dazed from our kiss.

It was our first, it was my first kiss.

"Miss Bowen?"

I snapped back to reality and had her ask me if she could check my work.

I rolled my eyes without her seeing as I nodded.

She looked into the microscope. "That's an A for you, Jessica." She wrote something down on her record book. "You can go home now."

Then she left.

"Kennedy, hey," I bent down and saw him curled up under the table. "I got an A, thanks, babe." I leaned over and kissed his cheek.

"Babe," He laughed. "It's so cute when you say it."

"You're cute," I held my hand out for him to grab then I helped him up. "Let's go home."

We walked out hand-in-hand and went down the hall till we reached the parking lot.

"Can I walk you home?" He sheepishly asked.

"Stephen usually--"

"Of course." Kennedy rolled his eyes.

"But you can today," I tried to shake Stephen off the topic.

"Nah, Stephen can take you home,"

"You can if you want to,"

A little more bickering ended up with him and me walking home together anyway.

"Alright," Kennedy shoved his (then)long hair behind his ears. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"You too," I teetered myself back and forth.

It was some awkward shit.

We didn't talk about our first kiss.

"Yeah, it was fun walking you home." Kennedy faced me. "I'll see you tomorrow, babe." Then without any hesitation, he had us having our second kiss.

That was when we started calling each other babe.

"Bye," I replied with a love-struck vibe.

Then he ran off.

--

Maybe I had that dream because Kennedy was breathing down my neck the same way he did that afternoon.

And he had my hands in his.

Maybe.

I shook his hands off and gently turned around. "Babe, you okay?"

He subconsciously nodded his head. It was the way he was. He was always half-awake no matter what. And his lips formed a little grin.

"Why are you smiling?" I asked while running my fingers through his hair.

"It makes me happy to know," He mumbled against my neck after he pulled me close to him. "That I got to wake up next to you today,"

"Do you wanna know what I dreamt of?"

"Sure, babe,"

"Our first kiss. Do you remember that? Chemistry class? I was home sick so I had to do a make-up practical test on the microscope and you helped me."

"Ah," He beamed at me. "I remember."

"I love you," I managed to say.

"I love you too!" He replied enthusiastically.

I pulled away from him after kissing him and let out a yawn.

He yawned as well while he pushed the blanket off us.

I got off the seat and he sat up.

Then we stretched.

"Did you sleep good?" Kennedy casually asked me as he started folding up the blanket.

"Yeah," I combed my hair with my fingers. "You?"

He nodded. He finished fixing the blanket then he tossed it to the side. Then he opened the van door and had the both of us out.

He smiled at the sun. "What time is it?"

I took my phone out of my pocket. Before I could even check what time it is, I saw I had 17 missed calls.

I took a little time checking. 3 of them were from Pat, 2 from Garrett, 5 from John, 2 from Josh and 1 from Brian. Checking dates also told me that I haven't checked my phone since the party night, so that was probably when this got here.

And I had 1 text message from Jared. It was sent in to me around the time I fell asleep the night before.

Where are you? Where's Kennedy? Are you two safe? We're worried. Text me back. Please, even just a simple yes or something, let us know you guys are fine.

"Babe, time?" Kennedy reminded me of what he had asked me to check.

"Seven forty two," I answered with an annoyed tone.

"I'm sorry?" He sensed the irritatedness in my voice.

"No," I dropped the temporary anger. "It's.. Just.." I looked up from the phone.

"Give me the phone," He said sternly.

I looked down on it where Jared's text message was still open.

I had to reply to it. It was the least I could do.

"Give me the phone, Jess." Kennedy held his hand out.

I hit the reply button and texted Jared a We're fine, don't look for us. before Kennedy took my phone from me with mild force.

"You and me, babe." He took his phone out too.

"What are you doing?" I asked while I followed him.

He hopped onto the driver's seat and I got in the passenger's seat next to him.

He turned the engine on then took the batteries out of our phones. "Just you and me." He threw the battery-less phones onto the dashboard and tossed the batteries into the compartment in front of me.

"Okay," I decided to just agree.

And then he started driving. "Where do you wanna go?"

"Where are we?" I laughed.

"No fucking idea," He laughed. "Whatever though, I rather we don't even find out where we are if it means I get to sleep with you in the van all the time." He leaned over to kiss me but I stopped him by putting a finger on his lips.

All I did was look into his eyes.

And yes, he was happy being with me too.

Maybe this is good for us. I thought.

Hey, if you've been through whatever I've been, you'll think to yourself too, that taking a day off.. Time. Taking time off from the rest of the bullshit world might've been good for you.

Maybe..

What made it wrong for Kennedy and me to fall back into love?

What if it was what I needed?

What if it was what I really wanted?

What if?

"Babe, what are you thinking about?" He asked after he pulled my finger away.

"Nothing," I shook my head. "I just really love you."

"And I love you too, babe." He kissed me lightly.

Kissed back lightly too.

"Just you and me, babe?" He said when he turned the engine on.

"Just you and me." I repeated.