Page 18 of Run
It makes me laugh. So, of course, when Ari finally opens the door, I’m standing there laughing.
She goes to shut it in my face.
“Wait.” I stop the door with my boot, and she gives me a glare. “Get your ass out here. We need to talk.”
“Why don’t you talk to Catherine? Oh, wait, it’s kinda hard to talk when you’ve got your tongue rammed down her throat, huh?” I lightly grip her upper arm and lead her outside, and she closes the door. I guide us as we sit on the top step, side-by-side. “So, are you two, like, dating?”
“No. I didn’t invite Catherine over. She came to check on me. And I certainly didn’t mean to kiss her, it just happened.”
Ari scoffs. “Yeah, well, it sure looked like you were enjoying yourself.”
“Ari, I’m a teenage guy. You think I don’t kiss girls or, you know, mess around with them?”
She picks at a piece of lint on her jeans with mitten-covered fingers. “No. I was just surprised.”
“Well, so was I, actually. Like I said, I didn’t plan for it to happen.”
“Sorry I interrupted. Would you have like, you know … had sex, if I hadn’t?”
I run my hands down my thighs. “I don’t know. I didn’t have a plan. But, you know … I’m a guy and some things, I guess, feel good. Shit, it’s weird talking about it like this.”
“It’s OK. We don’t have to talk about it.”
“No, Ari. We talk about everything.”
“And like you said, it’s not like I expect you haven’t kissed girls before. You probably assume I haven’t kissed any boys before.”
I whip my face toward hers and pull back a little as I take that punch to the gut. “Have you?”
She shrugs.
“Ari, who the hell have you been kissing?”
She lets out a breath and flushes a little. “No one, OK? I haven’t been kissed, yet. Are you happy?”
“Yes, actually, I am.”
She looks like she’s feeling a little pathetic, which is not at all what I was going for. “Look, Ari, kissing is supposed tobe something fun, and meaningful, and passionate. And there’s supposed to be fireworks and lightning and butterflies and all sorts of other shit detonating in your body when it happens. It’s not supposed to be just, you know, because someone seems like they’re willing.”
She nods, and we sit for a moment before hearing Axel’s car coming down the road, so I stand to put some distance between us.
Axel stops his noisy car in the driveway and exits. “What the hell is this stray doing here?” he asks Ari, pointing at me.
“It’s a pleasure seeing you this evening, too,” I reply at the same time Ari says, “He was just leaving, sir.”
“Good riddance,” he mumbles under his breath, stepping past Ari and going inside, leaving the door open, obviously meaning she should follow.
She stands up as I ask, “We good?”
She nods but doesn’t go inside.
“What is it?” I ask.
Ari looks at me and her green eyes hold mine. “Were there butterflies?” I pull my brows together in question. “When you kissed Catherine. Were there butterflies, and lightning and fireworks and all that stuff?”
I look up at the sky and ask myself those questions. Then I look back at Ari. “No, Red, there weren’t.”
CHAPTER 6
