“Apparently, not him.”
“How is that possible?”
“My brother told me several times that Aaron didn’t think of me like that, and that Aaron didn’t even know I liked him, but I didn’t believe him. I finally convinced myself that if I was just brave enough to ask him to the prom, that he’d finally notice me
, take me, and we’d have this happily ever after sort of moment.”
“So, what happened?”
“He and my brother were at the house watching movies with some friends. Matthew had gone to bed, and so had the other kids.”
“Sleepover?”
“Yeah, something like that. Everyone was crashing on couches and stuff. I wasn’t invited, so I’d stayed up in my room. My parents were pretty relaxed and let everyone have parties when they wanted to.”
“Nice of them.”
“Yeah. Well, there were guys and girls at the party. In the middle of the night, probably at like, two in the morning, I wanted to get a drink. Lo and behold, he was in the kitchen. Like I said, it was late, and it was dark.”
“Wait,” Tabitha scrunches up her nose. “Don’t tell me you accidentally kissed your brother thinking it was Aaron.”
“What? No! Gross!” The idea makes me want to puke. “But Aaron couldn’t see me clearly. He turned to me and was like, ‘Who is it?’ And I said something I thought was coy and obvious, like, ‘It’s the girl you’ve been waiting for.’”
“Oh, that’s a good line.”
“He thought so, too. He took a step forward, grabbed me, and kissed me.”
It had been totally unexpected and totally wonderful and totally sloppy, at least on my part. Aaron, even then, had been completely calm and collected. He’d been in control of everything in that moment.
He’d guided me, and I had completely melted into him.
“That’s romantic.”
“Yeah, it was, until someone else came into the kitchen and turned the light on. He saw that it was me he was kissing and immediately jumped back, like I was burning him or something.”
I had been horribly embarrassed. The guy who’d walked into the kitchen was tired, and honestly, probably drunk. He hadn’t noticed us at all. He’d just looked around, turned the light off, and left, but the damage had been done.
“He asked me what I was doing.”
His exact words had been worse than that.
What are you doing? You’re just a child.
Immediately, it made me realize that he actually hadn’t known it was me. He’d probably thought I was Cindy or Megan or Hannah Marie. He obviously thought I was one of the many beautiful women that he and my brother ran around with.
“He called me a kid,” I shook my head. “It was horrible.”
“Ouch,” Tabitha cringes. “That’s rough.”
“I took it pretty hard. It was the first time I’d ever kissed anyone. I felt...gross. Unworthy. I felt like he’d been into it until he saw my face, and then suddenly, he wasn’t anymore.”
“I’m sorry,” Tabitha reaches out and touches my hand. I give her a gentle squeeze and then nod.
“Thanks,” I tell her. “I appreciate that. A lot.”
“Did you ever tell your brother?”
“I did.”