First Kiss - Visitors Pass!

Hey Ya'll!

Anna said I could post my short story here on writing rants on a visitors pass to get all of your opinions and Constructive Criticism on it. I'm not actually joining Writing Rants since I don't actually do any real writing. But I had a really good dream the other night and Anna told me to write it into a short story. So I did. Here it is, and I hope your eyes and minds are not too tortured!

First Kiss

"You know Leah, just because you spent a month and a half away at that insane camp of yours, and won all the awards and drove me crazy with your postcards does not mean you're allowed to call me at 2:30 IN THE MORNING."
"You also know, Ian, that if I hadn't called you now, you would have been extremely upset at me tomorrow. Er, today, but whatever. You said, "Call me as soon as you get back," and that's exactly what I'm doing. So blame yourself."
"Ah, it's true. You'd think I'd learn after eight years that you take everything literally."
"Yeah, but that would be expecting too much from you."
"Oh, Ha ha."
"Usual place tomorrow?"
"Yep. See you soon, Leah."
"Sweet dreams, Ian."
I hung up and smiled. It was nice to be home.

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Ian and I had been meeting at the Coffee and Cookie Café for a really late brunch almost every Saturday for two years now. It had become tradition as soon as I turned fourteen and my mom said I was old enough to go into town by myself. Of everything I'd missed during the six weeks at summer camp, not seeing Ian, my best friend of eight years, was what I'd missed most.

It was also an unofficial tradition that I'd get to the Café first. Ian was always at least ten minutes late, which was fine with me since I needed a good eight minutes alone with my coffee to get my brain working. I was completely absorbed in the double latte cradled in my hands when I became aware of a large presence beside me.

I looked up and gaped in surprise. It's hard to imagine anyone completely changing in only six weeks, but Ian had. When I left at the beginning of the summer Ian was a skin and bones, five foot six boy with a buzz cut I'd hated, braces, and the smallest seventeen year old male in the school.
In six weeks he had transformed. He must have grown at least three inches, he'd put on some weight which was fine because it all had turned into muscle, and his gorgeous brown hair, which he apparently had started styling, had grown out to just the right length.

"Hey," he said grinning, and viola, no braces. My nerdy best friend was gone, and in his place was an extremely hot guy. The kind every girl in my school would moan about for weeks, whose sparkling blue eyes and amazing smile would weaken the knees of anyone. I wondered briefly how many girls had been all over him since I was gone.

"Leah? You o.k.?" he asked, his eyes narrowing slightly when I still hadn't moved.
"Oh my gosh Ian!" I said, standing up and throwing my arms around him. "What happened to you? Since when were you allowed to grow up? I mean, you might have had the decency to do it while I was around so I could wave a tearful goodbye to my little boy!"

Ian laughed and hugged me back before stepping away and sliding into his seat. "I haven't changed that much" He said as I sat down. But I could tell he was kind of pleased, so I just grinned at the huge understatement and let it go.
"I like your hair like that," I said as Janice, the café waitress came to give us our menus.

She smiled down at us and said "Nice to have you two back. The café's missed you." Janice had been working at the Coffee and Cookie Café for as long as I could remember and knew Ian and me quite well, since we were regulars there.

"It's really nice to be back," I said, grinning, and handed the menu back. "I'll have the usual"
"And I'll have the same," Ian said, handing his menu back as well.
"Alright," Janice murmured, scribbling quickly on her notepad before disappearing into the kitchen.
"So. Tell me all about camp," Ian said, leaning forward intently. "Those ten worded postcards you sent me with reminders of things you needed to tell me were incredibly annoying." He rolled his eyes and I laughed.
"Yeah but they'll work. Did you bring any with you?"
"Yep I have them right here." Ian pulled a stack of cards out of his coat pocket and spread them out on the table. "First one," he said, holding one up. "Remind me to tell you about Honey Baby Sweetheart 'The Game," he read, his voice dipping dramatically on the last two words. "What the heck is that?"

I cracked up at the memory of the most embarrassing moment of the last six weeks and launched into a highly complicated and detailed story of how I not only broke the games most important rule, but the camps most important rule as well, at the same time.

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Two hours later we had worked our way through the biggest breakfast imaginable, eleven postcards, two cups of coffee each, and we were now walking along the seawall on the way to Ian's house.
"So that's pretty much it, and we're all through with the postcards," I said, kicking a pebble off the seawall and into the water. "Now tell me everything you've been doing, and all the drama I've missed. Did Dan and Callie ever get back together?"

"Two days after you left," Ian replied. When he didn't elaborate I looked at him and saw that he was walking with his hands deep in his pockets, his head bent and frowning intently at the ground. There was obviously something bothering him.

"Hey, is everything alright?" I asked, bumping his arm slightly. He looked at me with surprise, and then grinned and shook his head.
"Sorry, no, just thinking. Anyway. We're not all through the postcards," he said, pulling another one from his pocket. I frowned, knowing Ian was just avoiding my question, and tried to remember what I'd forgotten to tell him.
"Remind me to tell you alllll about Chris," he read. "This one has been driving me crazy the most. Who Is Chris?"
I groaned and covered my face. "I can't believe I forgot about him!" I half wailed, half laughed. "Chris was, well, He was Chris."
"Uh-huh, that explains everything," Ian said, laughing a bit. We'd reached his house and he pushed past me to open the door. He held it open for me and bowed extravagantly as I walked past him into his house.

"Hi mom."
"Hello Mrs. Nelson," I called as we headed down stairs into the den. Mrs. Nelson poked her head out of the kitchen and waved.
"Hello Leah, nice to have you back. Ian missed you like crazy." She said, smiling, before disappearing back into the kitchen. I looked at Ian, amused at what his mom had said and he shrugged.
"It's true. Anyway come on, I want to hear all about your latest wonder boy."

Ian and I told each other everything, and that didn't change at all when it came to dating. I was often getting into short little flings that never amounted to much and didn't hurt either me or the random guy. I never let anything get serious between me and a guy, because, well, I guess I was waiting for someone special. Some perfect guy who probably didn't exist.

Ian on the other hand had had only bad experiences with girls. He was the nice guy that everyone loved, but girls tended to see him only as someone they could use to make their boyfriends jealous and not someone they could date. I was fairly certain that this was going to change very quickly

I settled down on the huge comfy arm chair across from the couch where Ian lay down and began my story. "Chris came to camp the second week I was there and was just so sweet at first." I smiled. "We flirted for three days before he finally asked me out, and of course I said yes. We had fun for about three weeks and then it hit me that he was kind of a jerk. He stopped being the really sweet guy and turned into a demanding, insecure, annoying person who needed me all the time." I didn't mention that Chris had suddenly wanted to do a lot more then kissing, which is where I always draw the line.

"Not to mention he lives in Texas, and I refuse to keep up a long distance relationship. Anyway, we ended it in the middle of week five, and remained somewhat friends for the last couple days. And that's that," I finished.

"Huh" Ian said, flipping over to lay on his stomach so he could look at me. I knew he knew I was leaving things out, but I also knew he wouldn't push it at all. "So why him? I'm sure there was lots of other, better guys around. What made him so special that you chose him?" he asked, sounding almost, I don't know, annoyed.

I suddenly had the feeling that this conversation wasn't really about Chris anymore. I suspected sometimes that Ian didn't approve of the way I dated, but he'd never said anything about it. I occasionally felt guilty about seeing other guys, and I always kind of wondered what it be like to be more then friends with Ian, but I'd always shook it off, except now for some reason, it was harder.
I laughed a little, trying to lighten the suddenly very serious atmosphere in the room, and shrugged.

"He was a really good kisser," I said, grinning. Ian didn't laugh like I expected him to, instead he nodded looking thoughtful. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then grimaced and shook his head.
"What?" I asked, straightening in my chair and feeling curious.
"Nothing, it's stupid." Ian answered, looking away. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
"Nuh-hu I'll decide that. Tell me!"

Ian sighed and gave me an exasperated look before he rolled back onto his back and looked at the ceiling. "I was going to ask if, well-" He hesitated before going on. "If you'd um, like, teach me how to kiss," he finished in a rush. Whatever I'd expected him to say it wasn't that and I stared at him in shock. Teach him how to kiss? What?

"See," he said, talking fast, while sitting up and turning to face me "There's this girl, and she's really beautiful and amazing, and I really, really like her. But I haven't exactly ever dated anyone you know, and I've never kissed before. And I really, really don't want to make an idiot of myself if I ask her out sometime and she says yes and we start, you know, dating, and then I want to kiss her, but I don't know how, but I do it anyways and she'll think I'm and idiot and not want to be with me anymore. So I mean, you don't have to, but I'd be a lot more comfortable asking her out if you did…" He finished, an almost pleading look on his face.

That was when I finally understood. There was something, or rather, someone bothering Ian. He was freaking out about his crush, someone he must have met while I was at camp. It made me happy to know that there was a girl he liked, since I always worried he wouldn't find someone, and then, surprisingly, I felt a little jealous. Ian had always been my boy. What would it be like if he had a girlfriend? Someone who came before me? But I knew that was ridiculous, and incredibly selfish. Ian had every right to date someone. I was just his best friend, and that's how I'd always wanted it. Right?

"Leah?" Ian asked, cutting through my thoughts and pulling me back to the present. I realized I still hadn't answered him.
"Um," I said slowly thinking it over one last time. "Yeah, okay." A look of relief passed over his face and I couldn't help smiling a little. "But listen," I said. "I'm only doing this once okay? Just today." He nodded looking pleased.
"And I'm sorry, but I have to get all girly on you and say this: Your first kiss is special. I don't want you to consider anything we do today as your first, or even, like, real. It doesn't mean anything. Save your first kiss for someone special kay?"
"Yeah, definitely," Ian said, as I moved over to sit next to him on the couch. I took a deep breath and thought about how I was going to go about doing this. Would it be weird? Well, duh. This was Ian, not someone I was actually interested in romantically.

"K first, kissing isn't all um, wonderful. I mean it is, but it gets wet and messy and I have to admit I didn't like it at first." I said, shifting in my seat slightly uncomfortably. "Um, I'll start, and when you feel comfortable you can you know, kiss me back." I said. Ian nodded and swallowed. His eyes were wide and I realized that he was actually scared.

"Hey," I said poking him in the ribs and laughing. "Lighten up, I'm not going to eat your face or anything. Just close your eyes and relax."
Ian nodded again and taking a deep breath he shut his eyes. I smiled at how adorable he looked as he waited. And then, before I could think about the oddity of what we were doing again, I leaned forward and kissed him.

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Hours later Ian and I walked down to the peer, to our favorite dock to watch the sunset. I was rambling on about some of the girls I'd met at camp, trying to fill the awkwardness that had sprung up between us after we'd finished the 'kissing lesson'.

Ian had learned extremely quickly and the whole thing had been without emotion and very business like. I showed him different techniques, he asked questions, we tried different things, and I showed him different ways to hold me, and so on. It'd only taken about an hour before we decided he was good enough to pass inspection.

Ever since we'd finished though, things had been weird. Ian had been quiet and distracted. Always messing with his hair and not quite looking me in the eyes. I recognized these as signs of him being nervous, which made me nervous, and that turned me into a blabbering, rambling idiot who couldn't stop talking.

So I went on and on about Lisa and Natasha's huge fight over Tim, one of the camps hotties, while Ian nodded occasionally and muttered "Cool" even less. I figured Ian was thinking about this mystery girl of his and I was dying to find out who she was. Earlier that afternoon I'd tried to get him to tell me, but he had refused, saying I would meet her soon, and he wanted it to be a surprise.

Finally, I gave up talking to the unresponsive Ian and turned away to stare out over the water, watching the sea reflect the light from the gold and red sky. It struck me how beautiful it was and I breathed in the sea air, suddenly feeling very happy and peaceful. I leaned on the dock railing and sighed, wishing everything in life could be as simple as a sunset. Beautiful and peaceful almost all of the time. With something like a sunset, there was no way things couldn't be perfect.

An ocean wind was blowing towards me, lifting me hair up and away from my face. I smiled, loving it. Ian, who had been standing behind me silently for a while, walked to the dock railing and leaned on it next to me. Our arms were touching slightly and I got the urge to rest my head on his shoulder. Any other day I would have done it without hesitation, but right now I didn't know what to think or how to act with him, so I wrenched my thoughts away from that and said softly, "Beautiful isn't it?"

Ian didn't say anything and I sighed inwardly, wishing again that everything was fine between us and that we hadn't done the whole stupid kissing thing.
"Yes, it is," Ian murmured, interrupting my thoughts. I smiled and looked at him out the corner of my eye. But he wasn't looking at the sunset like I thought he was, instead he was staring at me, smiling just the tiniest of smiles. "But it can't compare with you."

He didn't give me anytime to react to what he said. Instead he leaned forward and brushed his lips against mine in the smallest kisses. And then he kissed me again and again, longer this time.
I didn't move as my mind was hit by a torrent of thoughts, all of them screaming confusion. But there was one thing I knew for certain, this kiss, this boy - Ian. It was what I wanted most right then, and I'd worry about everything else later. So I shut my eyes and leaned into that kiss, wrapping my arms slowly around his neck, feeling every emotion I had forced myself not to feel before.

We broke apart, both breathing fast, and all the doubts and worries came back into my mind. How long had Ian wanted to kiss me? How long had I wanted him to kiss me? And what about his mystery girl? My confusion must have showed plainly on my face because Ian put his arms around me, and pulled me to him placing his face against my neck

"There's this girl," he breathed into my ear. "And she's really beautiful and amazing, and I really, really like her. I've always wanted my first kiss to be with this incredible girl, and I want you to know, Leah, that I'm considering this my third kiss with her."

He kissed me again and I knew for sure then, standing there in the fading sunlight, wrapped in his arms, that everything was going to be alright. Perfect, even.

So there you have it. All done, you may now continue with your lives!
~Erin