Eleven years old

I pumped the brakes on my bike and hopped off before it came to a full stop. After propping it against the side of the house, I took the porch steps two at a time and knocked loudly, excited to get to Declan.

It had been three days since I last saw him. Thanks to the nasty flu that had been going around our school, my best friend had been out sick most of the week, leaving me all by myself.

Luckily, he’d called a little while earlier to tell me he was feeling better and that his mom said he wasn’t contagious anymore, so I’d jumped on my bike and sped to his house. I’d missed him like crazy. He was pretty much the only friend I had, and school had been lonely without him.

His mom opened the door and offered me a kind smile.

“Hi, Mrs. Forrester. I’m here to see Declan.”

“Sure thing, sweetie.” She stepped to the side so I could come in. “He’s upstairs with his other friends. You can just go on up.”

I jerked to a stop at the bottom of the stairs and looked back at her. “His other friends?” A sick feeling I didn’t like one bit twisted my stomach into knots. “What other friends?”

“Oh, just some boys from around the neighborhood.” She turned and headed into the kitchen, leaving me standing there with an aching chest.

I moved up the steps at a much slower pace, suddenly nowhere near as excited as I’d been just a second before. I knew it was a stupid thing to think, but he’d been my best friend for the past four years. It had always been just us. I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of sharing him with other kids.

I could hear a bunch of voices as I got to the top of the stairs and silently moved toward Declan’s open bedroom door. I stopped at the threshold and stared in at the unfamiliar faces, feeling totally out of place.

“Hey, Tate!” Declan cried when he saw me. He sounded happy to see me, and that helped to untangle some of the knots that had twisted up in my belly.

“Hi.” I waved shyly as the rest of the boys turned to look at me.

“Tate, these are my friends Will, Killian, and Garrett. Guys, this is my best friend, Tatum.”

I smiled brightly at Declan introducing me as his best friend. Unfortunately, Killian curled his upper lip and ruined it by asking, “You have a girl as your best friend?”

Declan shrugged like it was no big deal. “Yeah, so? Don’t you have girls for friends?”

“Not unless I wanna make out with them.”

Declan made a face like he’d just sucked on a lemon. “Oh gross! Are you for real? I’d never make out with Tate. She’s just my friend.”

Hearing Declan say that like it was the most disgusting idea on the planet hurt my feelings terribly. And because of my redheaded temper, when my feelings got hurt, I got mad.

“What’s so gross about kissing me, huh? I bet I could be a good kisser.”

His friends started laughing, and Declan’s cheeks turned a weird red color. “I just don’t think of you that way, Tate. You’re not like a normal girl.”

I put my hands on my hips and glared. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m just sayin’. You’re cool and stuff, but I’d rather kiss a girl who’s more… I don’t know, girly or something. Like a girl who wears dresses.”

Tears burned the backs of my eyes as I looked down at my outfit: a comfortable pair of shorts I’d made out of an old pair of jeans, my favorite T-shirt that had a hole in the left armpit, and my black Converse tennis shoes. My parents had taught me to dress and act however I liked, and not care about what other people thought, but just then I felt like I wasn’t good enough, and that was something I’d only felt around Stephanie Walters and her stupid friends. I never expected that Declan would make me feel like that.

“Yeah, well I wouldn’t kiss you either ’cause you’re a loser!”

Declan’s eyebrows dipped together as his mouth turned down in a frown. “Well you couldn’t pay me to make out with you. You aren’t even pretty!”

“I-I hate you!” My voice made a funny cracking noise as hot tears fell down my face. I turned and ran out of the house, slamming the door behind me before jumping on my bike and rushing home.

By the time I got there, I was crying so hard my mom freaked out.

“Sweetie, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

The only thing I could manage to get out was a garbled “I hate Declan Forrester so much! He’s a big fat jerk!” Then I let her hold me while I bawled.

* * *

My eyes shot open at the sound coming from my bedroom window. It was late at night, so the room was pitch black. The tapping came from the window again, and I pulled the covers over my head and burrowed down further into the bed, trying my best to hide from whatever was out there.

The tapping started again, and I was just about to scream bloody murder when I heard a voice. “Tatum, it’s me. Open up.”

Throwing the covers back, I shot out of the bed and rushed across the room. “Declan?” I hissed after pushing the window open. He was standing on the little ledge right outside my window. “Why are you at my house? How’d you even get up here?”

He looked over his shoulder toward the ground. “I climbed up the side of your front porch. Are you gonna let me in?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled. “No. I’m mad at you. Go away.”

“Ah, come on, Tate,” he whined. “It’s cold out here, and I’m scared I’m gonna fall. I snuck out to see you. Please let me in.”

Huffing out a breath, I rolled my eyes and moved back to sit on my bed. Once he climbed into my room, I noticed he was wearing nothing but a pair of flip-flops with sleep pants and a plain white T-shirt. “You climbed onto my roof in a pair of flip-flops?” I scolded. “Are you crazy? You could’ve fallen!” Even mad at him I couldn’t help but worry about his safety.

“It’s the middle of the night, Tate. I couldn’t knock on your front door. Your parents wouldn’t have let me in, and I needed to talk to you.”

My forehead wrinkled as I watched him move closer, coming to sit down on the mattress beside me. “Why? You want to be a jerk to me some more?” I asked bitterly.

He blew out a breath and ran a hand through his dark, sloppy hair before looking at me with those pretty gray eyes. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m really sorry for hurting your feelings. I can’t stand the thought of you really hating me. So, can you please just… stop being mad at me?”

I looked down at my feet, digging my toes into the tan carpet as the hurt from earlier came back full force. “I can’t just stop being mad at you, Deck. You were really mean. You made me feel like an idiot in front of your friends, and then you called me ugly.”

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

“Why’d you have to act like that, huh? You were totally different around those guys. You never treat me like that.”

His fingers tugged at a loose thread on his pants. “I don’t know.” He shrugged, watching that thread unravel like it was the most interesting thing in the world. “I just….” He puffed out a big breath before continuing. “We were all talking before you showed up, and Garrett mentioned that he’d seen you riding your bike around, and thought you were cute. I guess… I didn’t really like it, okay?”

My eyes bugged wide. “He thinks I’m cute?” That was the first time I’d ever heard of a boy thinking I was cute. I couldn’t remember which of them was Garrett, but the compliment still made my belly warm and floaty.

Declan stared at me with a strange look on his face I couldn’t quite understand. “Yeah. But Garrett’s kind of a jerk, so you totally shouldn’t like him.”

With a giggle, I bumped my shoulder against his. “You mean a jerk like you?”

He snorted and rolled his eyes. “No, not like me,” he grumbled. “Well okay, so maybe a little bit like me. But I promise I won’t ever be a jerk to you again.” His cheeks turned pink, and I could tell by the sound of his voice that he really meant every word he said. “So, are we okay?”

My face stretched into a huge smile. “Yeah, we’re okay.” Then I punched his arm playfully. “You know, you could’ve just waited until tomorrow. You didn’t need to climb on my roof late at night to talk to me.”

He gave me an embarrassed look. “Yeah well, I couldn’t sleep until I fixed it, so….”

My belly got that warm, floaty feeling again, but for a totally different reason this time. I sniffled and lunged, wrapping Declan in a big, tight hug. “Don’t worry, Deck. You’re still my best friend. You’ll always be my best friend.”

With a groan, he pulled out of my arms. “Okay, okay. Don’t go getting all girly on me.” I laughed, so happy Declan and I weren’t fighting anymore. He made a sound like there was something stuck in his throat and said, “And you know, you’re not ugly. Like at all. I think you’re really pretty, Tatum.”

That time my cheeks turned pink, and I ducked my head, suddenly feeling shy. “Uh, thanks.”

“And, um, if you wanted… I mean, like if you were cool with it….” He swallowed so thick I could see his throat bob up and down. “I know it wouldn’t mean anything, but since you’re my best friend and I’m yours, I was thinkin’ that maybe….”

“Maybe what?”

His left arm came up to scratch the back of his neck. “Maybe we could be each other’s first kiss? I just thought that since we were so close, it would be better if it was each other instead of people we barely knew,” he spouted quickly. “I totally get it if you don’t want to, but—”

I wasn’t sure what came over me, but after hearing him say he wanted to be my first kiss, all of a sudden I really wanted that too. So I did it. I leaned in and pressed my lips against his in a hard kiss.

Neither of us really knew what we were doing, and our mouths stayed closed the whole time, but I had a feeling just then that it was going to be the best kiss I ever had.

Because it was with Declan.