Best Friends...Forever?

When I woke up in the morning, I saw Hunter lying beside me and I freaked out. Then I recalled last night, after the ball dropped, Hunter and I kissed. Hunter and I kissed?!!! We made out on his bed before falling asleep next to each other. What a….great… no… horrible way to start off the new year. We didn’t like each other like that… did we?

As I looked at Hunter still sleeping, I thought about me and Hunter together and it seemed weird to me. Like a totally foreign concept. Me and Hunter Together together. Impossible. That only made what happened last night something horrible and not something great. We weren’t supposed to be together. It wasn’t like that, he wasn’t my best friend who I was going to fall in love with. So what happened? Why did we kiss? He kissed me right? So that had to mean he liked me didn’t it? I was confused beyond belief.

I stared over at Hunter lying next to me for a few minutes. I actually took a really hard look at him. I never really took the time to really look at him before. Especially not in the way I was looking at him now. I always looked at him as a friend nothing more. But looking down at him now, I saw for the first time, that Hunter was hot. Yeah we joked about that and I told him he wasn’t but I never really thought about it but now that I did I had to admit, he was hot. With his messy brown hair, and muddy green eyes, his toned body. Hunter wasn’t all that bad to look at. I could now easily understand how Marisa felt when she looked at him. Not that I would ever flirt with Hunter like that but I could see his potential.

I watched him sleeping for a few minutes and I kind of zoned out. I got lost looking at him. Then his eyes opened and they stared right into mine. I jumped surprised by the action and got up off his bed.

“I have to go, bye Hunter.”

He rubbed his eyes, looking confused and said, “Bye, Jessica.”

I walked to his bedroom door and went home. I didn’t go over to Hunter’s. I was too confused and a bit embarrassed, I think. Susie called after lunch.

“Hey, Jessica. Happy New Year.”

“Yeah, Happy New Year,” I said glumly.

“What’s the matter with you?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I’m just confused and shocked, I guess.” I didn’t know what I was feeling.

“About what?” she asked.

“Well, after the ball dropped…” I paused as Susie urged me to continue.

“Go on.”

“Well after the ball dropped Hunter and I sort of…” I trailed off.

“You and Hunter sort of what?” She said excitedly.

“Me and Hunter sort of kissed.”

“You kissed?!!” She screamed into the phone.

“Yeah, and made out a little then we fell asleep on his bed,” I confessed.

“Oh my gosh. I can’t believe you two finally got together. I knew you liked each other,” Susie said proud and happy.

“We aren’t together, we just kissed. I don’t like him as anything other than a friend,” I stated. Even though I wasn’t quite sure if that’s how I felt any more.

“Are you kidding me? You guys finally kissed and you don’t want to be more than friends. Does Hunter want to be more than friends?” She asked.

“I don’t know. We fell asleep last night. Then when I woke up I was staring at him. Then he woke up and that scared me so I jumped up and said bye and left,” I blurted out.

“What am I going to do with you, Jessica? Go over there and talk to him,” she ordered.

“I can’t, Susie. You know how embarrassing that would be if I go over there now after running away this morning and I ask him if he likes me? He could have just been joking around or something or maybe the root beer got to his head or something or he was caught up in the New Year’s spirit.”

“Jessica, Jessica, Jessica.” I knew she was shaking her head.

“I can’t go over there. I can’t see him.” That was one thing I was certain of.

“Whatever. I’ll be back soon,” she said.

“Can’t wait. Bye,” I said.

“Bye and you should talk to Hunter,” she said quickly and hung up before I could say anything else.

I knew talking to Hunter would sort out this whole mess in my head. But I also knew for certain that I just couldn’t do that. I didn’t have the guts to go over there and ask him about the kiss. I think it was mainly because I was afraid that he might actually like me or even worse was that he didn’t like me at all. So it was better not knowing either way, I figured. I spent the rest of the day in my room doing absolutely nothing being completely bored out of my mind.

The next day we were back at school. I called Hunter in the morning quickly waking him up.

“Hi, Hunter,” I said trying to make it short.

“Hey, Jessica,” he yawned.

“So I have to get ready, bye.” I barely heard his bye, before I hung up the phone. I didn’t wait for Hunter to show up at my house and left. Fate had a funny way of working because as I walked out of my house Hunter walked out of his. We walked to school together in total silence. It was the weirdest feeling being with Hunter but neither of us saying anything.

When we arrived at school, Cody and Susie were on the front stairs of the school kissing and holding hands. I smiled as Susie looked up and waved at me. I waved back and walked over to them with Hunter by my side.

“Hey, Jessica. It feels so great to be back,” Susie said once we reached her.

“Yeah it looked like you and Cody were enjoying seeing each other again,” I said as Susie and
Cody had slight blushes on their faces.

“Yeah, I missed her so much. My family’s great but not all that fun to hang out with,” Cody said as he slipped his hand into Susie’s.

“So your vacation was good. Besides missing Susie,” I asked him.

“Yeah, me and my cousin rode dirt bikes in their huge woods behind their house,” he explained.

“That’s sweet, man. I wish I came with you. I would have loved to ride the dirt bike,” Hunter replied. He and Cody went off to continue talking about the dirt bikes and other things. Cody kissed Susie on the cheek before leaving.

“So did you talk to Hunter yet?” Susie asked once we were left alone.

“No, we didn’t say a word to each other on the way to school. It was really weird,” I answered.

“So do you like him? Or are you still in denial?” she asked.

“I am not in denial,” I stated.

“So you like him then.”

“No. I just haven’t decided whether I like him that way or not.”

Susie just smiled like she knew something I didn’t and said, “See you later.” Before walking off to French class. I walked to my homeroom too.