Page 18 of Just Like the Brontë Sisters

“Sounds delicious, but how can you even think about food right now? Aren’t you stuffed from dinner?”

Gavin flicked his floppy brown bangs out of his blue eyes. “When I think about food it’s not usually about eating. It’s just, I don’t know, about aesthetics. Does that sound stupid?”

“No. It sounds generous.”

He laughed. Gavin’s laugh always seemed to come from the pit of his stomach. It was one of the things I liked best about him. “How is it generous?”

“Because you’re thinking about food for other people and not for yourself.” I let my right index finger stray across the counter, so it brushed the taut skin over one of Gavin’s knuckles. His hand was warm, like a conduit, and it made heat travel through my body. It was the first time I’d voluntarily touched him and I guess that was all the encouragement he needed. Gavin put down his pencil, closed his notebook, walked around to my side of the counter, took my hand, and gently tugged. I slid off the stool and put my feet against the floor.

He looked at me with such intensity that I stopped breathing for a second. “I’m going to kiss you now, okay?” he asked in a raspy voice.

“Kiss me or don’t kiss me, but don’t ask my permission.”

I was expecting a gentle, tentative, messy sort of kiss, with too much saliva or an overly aggressive tongue. I’d never actually been kissed before, but I’d heard girls on the ski team talk, so I had some idea of how bad kissing could be. But Gavin used a confident strength to pull me toward him, and when we embraced, suddenly he was Heathcliff and I was Cathy. We were standing on the moors, hearts beating wildly in our chests.

Before I knew it, the kiss was over, and I was left with a tingly dizziness. “Your parents are watching TV in the basement,” he said calmly, like nothing momentous had just occurred. “They said to join them if we want to.”

“Do we want to?”

He shook his head no and then silently led me to the guest bedroom. My parents had issued a standing invitation for Gavin to use it any time, but I doubted that this was what they had in mind. Yet I followed willingly and let him close the door and take me in his arms. Then we were kissing again and it occurred to me that being so close felt like the red velvet cake he made last week: delicious, but after one or two bites, I’d had my fill.

When he started to walk me towards the bed I pulled away. “If my Dad catches us, you’ll lose your guest room privileges.”

His chest heaved up and down. “Why can’t we just tell them about us?”

One kiss and we were an us? “I think that’s a bad idea.”

His smile disagreed with me. “Maybe they’d approve. After all, I’m not some stranger and they know I’m a nice guy.”

Gavin’s arguments made sense and were nearly impossible to refute. This left me with two options: admit that I was way more interested in sneaking around than in being his official girlfriend, or resume kissing him—a distraction device. I chose option two. He was easily distractible and I felt my body respond as he pressed himself against me. I let him lower me to the bed, where we made out for a good twenty minutes. I even let Gavin get to second base, but when he tried to get to third, I pushed his hand away and sat up.

“I think I heard something,” I whispered.

Gavin breathed deeply. “It’s nothing.”

“No, there were footsteps.”

Then, to my horror, there was a knock. I lunged under the bed and hid.

“Yes,” Gavin answered in a strangled voice. The door opened.

“Hey. Sorry to interrupt. I just wanted some Advil. Skylar, do you know where it is?”

Jo Beth’s voice was flat, as if there was nothing strange about speaking to me while I hid under the bed. She crouched down. “Skylar, come out from there. I need your help.”

The humiliation was so intense I thought I might spontaneously combust, but I crawled out. “Sorry. I was worried you were Dad.”

Jo Beth’s eyes were so glazed, I felt a spurt of alarm. Why wasn’t she taunting me?

“Can you get me that Advil?”

I brushed the dust off my pants legs and out of my hair. “Sure. Of course.”

“Or maybe something stronger? Do you know where Mom keeps her meds? I looked in her medicine cabinet and it was empty.”

Gavin and I exchanged a look. His raised eyebrow annoyed me. How dare you, I thought. Don’t pass judgment on my sister.

“Come on,” I said to Jo Beth. “We’ll find what you need.”

I didn’t give Gavin a second glance as I closed the door to his room behind me.