Page 97 of Kickoff

Yes. Take care of her. You promised.

I put the device back into my pocket and motioned to Melinda. “Come here.” I lifted her and positioned her over me until she straddled my thighs.

Her hands splayed on my chest, and my heart cartwheeled in its cage.

“Mase, you’re good at this. Making me forget. And caring for me.”

I pushed down the bulge in my pants with a palm, trying to conceal the effect she had on me.

“Oh.” She pinched her lips together as she followed my movements. "What now?"

I wrapped my arms around her body, and she relaxed against me. "You enjoy the ride."

A bit later, gone was the sunshine and the breeze felt colder against my skin, and chills traversed her body.

“Cold?” I asked.

“A little.”

I removed my hoodie, now dressed only in a red T-shirt and a pair of jeans.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m running hot. Here.” I slipped the sweater over her head.

“No, you should keep it.”

“Nah.”

“Thanks. Soon you won’t have any sweaters left if you lend them all to me.”

“They look better on you. Don’t worry, I have plenty.”

We returned to our previous position where her head was pressed to the crook of my neck and my arms were wrapped around her. “You good?” I asked.

“Yeah. And you were not kidding. You really always run hot.”

I kissed her temple. “I told you. It wasn’t a ruse the other night.” We stayed like that for infinite minutes. “Remember when you used to hate me?” I asked after a while.

She shook her head, her face still resting against my chest. “Hate is a strong word. I never really hated you.”

“Come on. Don’t lie to me.”

“Never. I would never lie to you, Mase.”

“Then tell me the truth.”

She sighed. “I wanted to hate you. It was easier than to like you.”

“So, you’re telling me all the banter, the eye rolls, the pushing me away was because you liked me?”

“When you say it like that, it sounds bad…but kinda. The day I moved next door to you, I watched you play ball and wanted to be your friend. You had that poise, that agility and confidence I admired. I recognized a part of me in you, but you appeared to be braver than I was. Then you wanted us to date, and it scared me. I wasn’t interested in boys, and I had never thought about dating anyone before you mentioned it. I had no idea what I should do or say. This was all new to me. Days later, you claimed me in front of everyone at school, and it made me so sad because I thought we had something special going on. You were my first friend in town, and people hated me because of it. I couldn’t understand what I had done wrong to deserve their hatred. After that, I tried to hate you, but it faded away with time. So, it was never just hate…mostly hurt or something like that. You forgive me?”

“Yes. I’m still sorry. I never had a girlfriend before, and I never thought about dating someone before you appeared in my driveway. There was just something about you I found enticing, and I didn’t like the idea of sharing you with my friends. It was clumsy. What I’m trying to say is that we both did stuff we’re not proud of. I realized something, right about now, though. I wouldn’t change the past if it meant you’re stuck here tonight with no one else but me.”

Once the ride went back in motion, four hours after it stopped midair, a part of me was ready to go back to the ground level, but the bigger part of me wished we could have stayed in our little suspended bubble for longer. Because even though Melinda and I still hadn’t defined what we were exactly to each other, I was aware that tonight had changed us. And since being together wasn’t an option right now, I had no idea how to return to how things were before without making things weird again.

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