“You like me?” he asked, as if hardly believing it. “You like me?”

I flinched but nodded. Couldn’t he see how horribly uncomfortable I was? Max was simply staring at me, however.

Then suddenly, he was really close. My stomach flipped over, my breach caught in my mouth. What was Max doing?

His face was not inches from mine, his eyes staring into mine. Then, quite suddenly, his lips were pressed against mine.

The kiss was soft and warm. It was my first kiss. And his, too, I’d imagine. He was quite popular with girls, but he would have told me if he’d ever kissed someone before, and he hadn’t.

For Max there were many more to come. For me, not really. He would be the only one to kiss me for years.

But the second after our lips parted we both wiped our mouths. “Ew,” he said. I nodded.

It felt like kissing a sibling. We were very close, but not in a romantic way.

Still, I often imagined, tonight included, a real kiss. Maybe Jake…No.

I turned off the light and went to sleep.