Best Friends

I remember my first kiss very well. What girl doesn’t? Although, I don’t think any girl had a first kiss quite like mine.

I was twelve years old when it happened. I know what you’re thinking. And I agree. I was way too young to be getting a first kiss. But it wasn’t like I had planned it. Someone else on the other hand…

Hayden had been my best friend for as long as I could remember. He and his family had been living next door my whole life. So we were always together.

When we got into middle school, Hayden was accepted into the “popular” crowd. I was not. He didn’t turn into some huge jerk if that’s what you’re thinking. He had a lot of classes with them and he always ate lunch with them. But then we would go home and that would be our time. He never ditched me to go hang out with them. That made me happy.

But something did change about Hayden. He had never liked girls before. He thought that they all had cooties. Typical little boy, right? Even I, his best friend, had cooties. But he stopped saying that. Girls no longer had cooties. Now girls were cute.

And for some reason, I was especially cute.

“Ariel!” Hayden shouts, barging into my room unexpectedly. I squeal and throw my pencil across the room at him out of reflex. “A pencil, really? Because that would stop a robber,” Hayden laughs, bending down to pick up my pencil.

“You never know!” I say, sitting up and sliding off my bed. “What are you doing here?” I ask him as he hands me my pencil back. I toss it onto my bed next to my already forgotten homework.

“I need to talk to you,” He says, his jaw clenching. I nod my head quickly. Hayden only clenched his jaw when he needed to talk about something really serious. I quickly brush past him and shut the door to my room. I didn’t hear him following me so when I turned around and he was right there, it scared the shit out of me.

“Oh my god,” I say, gasping. “What the heck?”

“Do you like me?” He asks seriously, stepping closer to me.

“Of course I do, you’re my best friend.” I say as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. And wasn’t it?

“I mean, do you like me, like me?” He asks again, his eyes dropping down to look at my lips for a few seconds.

Was he going to kiss me? I wasn’t ready to be kissed! I didn’t know how to do it! What if I was bad at it? Did I even want to kiss Hayden? He was my best friend. I didn’t like him the way mommy liked daddy. Or did I?

“Hayden,” I start to say, but he cuts me off.

“My brother says that it’s normal for people our age to kiss each other.” He tells me. This was new information to me. I didn’t think my parents would be happy if they found me kissing Hayden. “He told me that I should kiss you.”

“And you’re going to listen to him?” I ask.

“Yep,” He says before smashing his lips on mine. And when I say smash,I mean smash. The kiss was horrible. Neither of us knew what we were doing and it ended not long after it started. I wiped the spit off of my mouth, trying not to gag.

“Well,” I say, scrunching off my face as I wipe my hand on the side of my pants.

“That didn’t go as I planned,” He says, shaking his head. “I’m so sorry Ariel! That’s not how it was supposed to happen!”

Hayden starts pacing back and forth in front of me. I watch him in silence for a few moments, trying to gather my thoughts. Despite how bad the kiss was, Hayden had really soft lips. And I liked feeling them on mine. I had seen a lot of the kids in the 8th grade kiss each other after school or in the hallways. So how wrong could it be for 7th graders to kiss each other. Besides, just because it happens tonight doesn’t mean it has to happen again, right? Oh heck, I’d probably come up with any excuse to get a second chance to kiss Hayden.

I reach out and grab Hayden’s arm, causing him to stop his pacing. I pull him to stand in front of me just like he was a minute ago.

“This time, less smashing,” I tell him, reaching my hand up to the back of his neck and pulling his lips to mine. He took my advice and lightly pressed his lips against mine instead of smashing them.

I liked it. I really, really liked it. And I liked it when he grabbed onto my waist and pulled me closer. The kiss didn’t last long though. We both pulled away at the same time and let out a sigh of relief.

“Much better,” We both say at the same time before we burst out laughing.

So that’s the story of my first kiss. And not long after that, I realized that I might like my best friend more than just a best friend.