“Have you thought about what will happen… after?” she asks, her voice lowered as if worried anyone else might hear.
“After?” I repeat. I allow my mind to imagine the moment. Cameron leans in and takes fistfuls of my hair. I slide my hands over his broad shoulders and we play tonsil tennis. We break apart, and Cameron confesses his love and devotion to me. Then we run off to Vegas and get married before anyone can change our minds.
The image of Elvis singing at our wedding fades away as Katia’s severe expression comes back into focus.
“You two have the best friendship in the world,” she points out. “What if this changes things?”
I shrug. “That’s kinda the point, you know how I feel about him.” Just saying it aloud makes my heart race.
“We’ve been through this, Holly. If Cameron had feelings for you that way, surely he’d have said something by now?”
My frown deepens. “Well, I feel that way about him and I still haven’t told him.”
Katia sighs and crosses her arms. Her dark eyes avert from mine and she bites her lip. She knows she can’t argue. I have a point. And even though the odds might be slightly against me, it is still totally possible that Cameron secretly dreams of being with me and just hasn’t built up the courage to tell me yet.
“Do you really want to have your first kiss with Cameron like this? In front of all of us? You’re already risking your friendship… Don’t you want to give your relationship the best chance?”
Here’s the thing about best friends; they tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.
Like the time I went to Katia’s birthday party wearing a dress that had been left in the washer too long.
“You stink. Let’s get you changed,” Katia said. She grabbed my elbow and took me upstairs to give me another dress.
At the moment, I hated her. But she was just looking out for me, and that’s what a true friend does.
Right now, though, I don’t want her to look out for me. So I turn away from her disapproving look and grab the mouthwash.
“Thanks, Katia,” I say through gritted teeth, opening the bottle. “But I’ll be fine.”
Katia knows when to drop an argument. She leaves me alone and I take the time to freshen up for my big moment.
Wolf whistles greet me as I return to the living room. Cameron is reclined on the couch, and everyone else is on the rug.
Michelle dims the lights, Debbie lights candles in a uniform line on the coffee table, and I hope they don’t scratch the glass top; my parents will definitely notice that.
That’s the stress of living in your grandmother’s condo. It’s great that my parents cover half of the costs, but there's the constant worry of messing things up.
“Alright, ready for this?” Michelle asks. Cameron gives me a casual smirk as I sit next to him. I can’t decide if it’s the heat of the candles or his body, but my body is now on fire.
“Okay, so how are we going to do this?” I ask. Cameron drags a hand through his thick hair and exhales. The puff of cool air could have sizzled if it made contact with my skin. “It’s just like kissing onstage,” he says.
I’ve kissed guys in drama class before. But those experiences are not the kind I like to think about.
There was Marty, with his horrible garlic breath. Justin gave slimy, wet kisses, apparently with no clue what to do with his tongue. And then there was Freddie. He was stiff as a board, with lips that were as dry as a desert.
I inwardly shudder at the memory and blink at Cameron’s smooth, perfect lips instead. His words do little to calm my nerves and before I know it someone shouts, “Action!”
Time stands still. Cameron is hovering a couple of inches from me, waiting for me to close the space between us. But his face disappears from view as I picture Katia, frowning at me.
This is the moment I have been waiting for since I first met Cameron, but instead of taking the bull with both horns, I’m picturing my best friend.
I catch sight of my friends in my peripheral vision. The room is painfully silent; I can only hear Ryder’s laptop fan whirring away. I lick my lips and swallow against the uncomfortable lump in my throat, wondering if Katia is right. Do I really want our first kiss to be like this?
I clamp my eyes shut. “I can’t do this.”
“Oh.”
I sneak a peek at Cameron with a wince, and for a glimmer of a second, he looks back at me like I’ve just canceled Christmas. But then he shrugs, and his expression is nonchalant again. So, I’m not sure if I just imagined it.
“I can’t do it like this, not with everyone watching,” I explain, looking around the room. Michelle sighs.
“Well, you’ve got 24hrs to complete the dare. Otherwise, you have to do the forfeit.”
“And what is the forfeit?” Debbie asks. The corner of Michelle’s narrow mouth lifts. “Oh, the usual. Skinny dipping in the Hudson.”
Cameron’s brows rise. “I could get on board with that.”
Now not only is my body on fire, but my cheeks are alight too. “We’ll do the video. I just need to do it… without an audience.”
No one argues, thank goodness. And the arrival of pizza diverts everyone’s attention from me and the dare.
“Stay over tonight, we’ll do the dare tomorrow,” I whisper to Cameron just as he takes a huge bite of pepperoni pizza.
His cheeks bulge like a hamster and he chews thoughtfully, then he nods and my heart flutters.
Sure, I just chickened out of my first kiss with Cameron, but the idea of doing this dare without prying eyes makes my imagination run wild.
Cameron
It’s not like
