16
Kristen
Twelve Years Ago
“Mom! I’m going next door!” There was no answer from her office besides the usual grunt and wave as I gathered up my history book and headed for Damien’s house. My mother was too busy working on a case to care where I went, and Taylor had piano practice. Our history teacher Mr. Latham had assigned us a group project for our American History class. Damien and I had been paired up with the new French foreign exchange student Lacey.
I couldn’t get a good read on Lacey but that might have been because her English wasn’t the best. She was already pretty popular because she was the new girl and French. You’d think the boys in my school had never seen a girl before and they treated her like a pretty peacock with rare beautiful feathers to admire. I always thought peacocks were nasty, annoying birds that hid behind their tails but whatever. Boys could be really stupid.
I thought about the kiss Damien and I shared a week ago. We had been caught in the rain running back home from the bus stop after his junior high football practice and my cheerleading. I knew my parents weren’t home yet when he pulled me over to his house to hang out. His mom left us cookies and juice to snack on while Damien gave me a towel to wipe the rain off with. He asked me if I wanted to go up to the tree house since it had a roof to watch the storm roll through. He didn’t give me a chance to answer before tugging me outside and helping me up the rope ladder. We got inside and watched the clouds roll past over the ridge. Skytop Tower was in the distance, a lone beacon in the storm.
“Isn’t it pretty?” I asked him.
“Yeah, really pretty.” He replied, except when I turned to look at him he wasn’t looking at Skytop. Instead his eyes were on mine and it sort of happened as we were kneeling there on the floor of the tree house. I could feel the hardwood under my legs and the steam between us in the enclosed space. Wind whipped outside but the tree house protected us within its shelter.
“Damien?” He inched closer and his eyes dropped from mine and I knew, just knew he was staring at my lips. I was wearing peach lip gloss I borrowed from Taylor at the end of gym today. I knew my lips tasted
sweet and when Damien leaned down, I leaned closer until our lips met in a soft touch. I’d never kissed before and I still thought it was kind of germy and gross based on what my other friend Becky had said kissing a boy in the ninth grade after a football game.
“Shhh.” He shushed me and tentatively touched my cheek pulling me closer until our chests met and he cupped my face. Damien reminded me of a bull in a china shop, but this time with me, the two of us, time slowed as we explored each other’s lips.
“You taste like fruit,” he told me between nips. I felt a stirring in my body I didn’t have words for and giggled my reply.
“It’s peach lip gloss.”
“No, it’s my favorite cereal.” He kissed me again. “Fruity Pebbles.” I was going to have to get my brother to ask mom to buy it for us instead of the expensive fake stuff from organic grocery store she dragged us too. Fruity Pebbles would be my new favorite if Damien liked it so much.
We kissed for a little while, only touching with our lips until Damien stuck his tongue out and licked me pulling me in closer.
“Open your mouth.” I shivered when he demanded more and did as he asked. Damien was one of my best friends so I trusted him to be my first kiss. It was weird feeling his tongue move in my mouth but again, not as gross as Becky said it would be and so I moved mine slowly with him.
“Have you done this before?” I wondered how many girls Damien was sticking his tongue in.
“Nope, just you Pebbles.” We laughed together and kissed until my mother called me home for dinner and Damien went inside to help his dad work in the garage. My heart felt warm and squishy and I wondered how tomorrow at school go.
This last week of school seemed better because we saw each other. I hadn’t told Taylor about our kiss because I wasn’t ready and Damien didn’t talk about it either. It was like we pretended it didn’t happen between the hours of 7am and 5pm when our mutual after school activities ended. That was okay because we managed to sneak away each day this week to kiss in the tree house, our special place.
I saw a plate of box made brownies in the kitchen and packaged them up to take over to Damien’s house. I was pretty sure mom made them out of guilt for working long hours and box brownies were the best she could do since her cooking sucked. Chase and my dad didn’t care and I figured Damien would like food while we worked.
We had decided to study up in the awesome tree house his dad had built to get most of the project planning done. Taylor would be awhile so it would just be Damien, Lacey and me for the first half. I trudged across the street and into their backyard. I had been over to Damien’s house so many times there was no need for me to knock on the front door. I probably knew his parents better than my own.
I was about to call out to Damien as I balanced the brownies and my books to get up the ladder when I heard them.
“Oh Damien, you are exceptional.” That foreign voice that made the word sound extra special, smooth with elongated syllables x-cep-si-on-all. My stomach burned with acid and I pressed further to see something better left unseen.
“Lacey, I don’t think that…” My head peered over the side to see something horrific. Lacey and Damien were kissing. Or she was kissing him? But he was leaning half over her? My mind couldn’t wrap itself over the hurt at seeing my best friend lip-locked with another girl in our special place.
Had he lied to me?
Was he kissing other girls?
I thought that… I don’t know what I thought, but the image was a kick in the stomach. A burn on my soul leaving scars. I slipped down the ladder unseen dropping the brownies in the bag and hugged my history book hard like it was my only lifeline. I felt crushed and glad I hadn’t gotten the courage up to tell Taylor. Damien Hart was a jerk a real demon as far as I was concerned. I sniffed back tears that stung my eyes and stomped home. I wasn’t watching were I was going when I tripped in the driveway and landed face first. My left arm went out to brace my fall but I twisted and felt a sharp snap coming down hard. The pain was a shock and excruciating.
“Holy shit balls! Owww!” I rolled over on my back holding my arm to my chest.
“Kristen! What happened?” My brother Chase kneeled down on the ground next to me and tried to get me to loosen my grip on my arm.
“It hurts real bad–Chase.” The pain left me gasping. I bet Damien was busy welcoming what’s her name to America with his tongue and finger committee right now in our old tree house. Jerk face.