I’m so shocked that for a second or two I don’t reciprocate. What the hell is going on? And then without warning, it’s the best fucking kiss I’ve ever had. So I wrap my arms around this mystery person and pull her even closer until our bodies are pressed into each other so tightly you couldn’t get a piece of tooth floss between us. The kiss changes. It gets better if that’s even possible. It deepens and becomes more urgent, and is the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced, and I want her more than I’ve ever wanted anyone in my whole life—and I don’t even know who she is—and then as fast as it happened, it stops.
She’s gone. I swing around in the dark with my arms out, hoping to catch onto her. But she’s disappeared and I'm left spinning, or something. Something that doesn’t feel quite normal and I’m not sure I’ve ever felt this way before. It feels like the sounds of the party have disappeared, the people have all vanished into thin air and it’s just me.
The lights flicker back on and everyone cheers loudly. I look around frantically hoping I might see her, but there’s no one near me. No one is even looking in my direction because they’re all too preoccupied with what just happened. She’s just gone. And then…
I bite down and feel it. Her gum. It tastes of cinnamon and mint and reminds me of her and how she tasted. Suddenly, this is the best flavor in the world. And then a thought strikes me, I have to tell my best friend about this. She’ll never believe me. Plus, she’ll probably laugh her head off. It’s the kind of thing she’ll find funny.
“Dude. Dude, you won’t believe what just happened.” I climbed through her window like I do most nights and found her sitting on her bed. Her room isn’t like other girls’ rooms, there’s nothing pink or frilly about it. No big mirrors for applying make-up, no clothes lying on the floor because she perpetually can’t decide what to wear and her walls aren’t covered in male torso’s - thankfully. Instead her walls are filled with maps and pictures of Nellie Bly. Who is Nellie Bly I hear you ask? I wouldn’t have knowen either if it wasn’t for Maria. She was a famous female explorer who once went around the world in seventy-two days. Maria’s always saying that the second she graduates, she’s putting on a backpack and heading out. She’s the only person I know that wants to escape this place, other than me. I think that’s what drew us together in the first place, a sense of adventure.
“Dude…” I was just about to launch into the whole story when I stopped. “What’s wrong? You look a little weird?” Because she did. One second she had a smile plastered across her face, and the next second it was gone.
“Ag, nothing.” She shrugged at me and turned away quickly.
“Where were you?” I asked. I’d gone looking for her after the kiss but hadn’t found her anywhere.
“I left. The party was a total waste of time.”
“Not for me,” I flopped down on her bed like I always do. “The weirdest thing just happened…guess?”
“Um…what?” She got up off the bed, walked all the way to the other side of the room and started doing something that resembled tiding.
"Are you okay?” She never tidied.
“Fine. So what’s this big thing that happened?”
I sighed loudly. “I think I’m in love.” As the words were out of my mouth I couldn’t help the fucking Cheshire cat smile that broke out across my face. That felt like it was going to rip my whole face wide open.
Maria swung around. “What!” The word came out loudly and she had this look in her eye that I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen before.I couldn’t figure out if my best friend was about to burst out laughing, or beat the crap out of me.
“Yeah. There was a power failure, and someone just kissed me. It was…” I trailed off as I thought about it again. My heart decided to beat a little faster. My hands tingled as I remembered how they’d felt on the small of her back. I could almost feel her tongue and taste her breath.
“Who was it?” She asked, still with that look in her eye.
“I don’t know. That’s what’s so weird.”
“You seriously have no idea? Seriously?”
“Nope.” I put my hands behind my head and stretched out across her bed. It’s so much more comfortable than mine and I can’t count the number of times I’ve slept on it. Sometimes, after a long gaming session I’ll just crash here. Brett thinks it’s weird that I’ve shared a bed with a female and nothing’s happened, but it’s not like that with us.
“But you have a suspicion? Right?” she asked, walking over and sitting down.
“Nope. But she did leave a calling card.” I took the gum out of my mouth and held it up in the air like it was some kind of treasure. “Behold, the glass slipper.”
“She left gum in your mouth?”
“It’s like the modern day version of Cinderella, right?”
Maria rolled her eyes. At least this was somehting I was familiar with. It was Maria's signature look.
“What happens in it again?” I asked, “ Does the guy get the girl and all that stuff?”
“In Cinderella?”
“Yeah. Do they get their happy ever after?”
“It’s a fairytale, they all live happily ever after, which of course is completely unrealistic and fake.” Maria paused, “But…it’s also not who he thinks it is."
I sat up, intrigued by this statement. Who did I think it was? Clearly it was one of the dancing girls, maybe one of the girls in the corner finally decided to stop waving and walk over, probably one of the dancing girls though. Not to sound arrogant,
