Free The ABC's of Kissing Boys by Tina Ferraro Page B

down the driveway and across the street.
    “Hey, stranger.”
    He bit back a smile, dribbling the ball. “Well, well, if it isn't the love of my life.”
    “Yeah. About time you realized the effect I have on you.”
    He rolled his midnight blue eyes, but a smile hung around his mouth. “I assume this all has to do with soccer and Chrissandra?”
    “Don't all my roads lead there?” I let out a big breath and recounted what had happened by my locker and how I'd come to announce that we were victims of star-crossed love.
    “Risky,” he said when I was done. He rested the ball on the pavement and stopped it from rolling with the tip of his sneaker. “But good going.”
    “Well, I figured I had two things working for us. Agewise, you really should be a sophomore, which still isn't great, but better than a freshman.”
    “There's that.”
    “And you're …,” I said, and shrugged, “you know … okay-looking.”
    “ Okay- looking?” he repeated, probably because he liked how it sounded.
    “Sure,” I said, then caught myself gazing past him. Funny, I couldn't begin to pinpoint when I'd stopped seeing a slightly annoying neighbor and started seeing someone worth looking at. “Well,” I tried to clarify, “not Luke Anderson, prom king, okay- looking. But, you know, as okay- looking as a guy in your grade can be.”
    “Thanks. I guess.” He took a step closer. I could feel the warm puffs of his breath on my forehead.
    “The way I figure it,” I told him, “about the time I go off to college—when you're a junior—you'll totally be worth dating.”
    “Again, not sure if I should say thanks or not.” His mouth pursed into a smile, not so easy to see at this close proximity—more something I could feel. “And until then, Parker, you'll, what, put up with me?”
    I pulled back and looked dead into his face. I knew this was all in fun, but if I'd given him any indication that we had a future, well, I'd screwed up. “Yeah, Sparky, but not for long. The sports fair is a week from tomorrow, and I can't have people feeling sorry for you, thinking I'm cheating on you, when I'm doing a major make- out with Luke.”
    Something flickered and died in his eyes, like the last embers of a campfire. “So we'd better schedule a big breakup for this weekend, huh? Like at the Dairy Queen, where I storm off, leaving you sobbing in your Oreo Blizzard?”
    “Sobbing,” I grumbled. I reached out to playfully smack his formidable chest, but he caught my hand inside his two. And held it.
    For a crazy moment, I thought he was going to pull all of me toward him and kiss me. And while I figured I'd like it (maybe even a lot), it just wouldn't be cool. Our kisses were either educational or to be used for show at school. And imagine if my dad peeked out the window and saw?
    Speaking of Dad …
    “Look, I really better go,” I said, tugging my hand free.
    “Yeah, me too.” He took a step back. “So listen, now that we're a so- called couple, if I see you in the halls or whatever, I can come up to you and everything?”
    “And everything,” I said, and lifted my brow.
    “Kiss you like the guy in Titanic?”
    “Or like the guy in Gone with the Wind.”
    His eyes went dull.
    “An old movie. Never mind. You have to be like, my age to have seen it.”
    He shook his head. Then he reached for his basketball. But instead of tucking it under an arm and heading home, he raised the ball over his head, lined up a shot and launched it. Into a perfect arc and swish.
    Glad some people's lives are charmed.

Longevity : Remember, you're
not out to set any records. Short kisses
can be just as passionate as their longer
counterparts.
    A pproaching my locker the next morning, I didn't know what to expect. But whether the girls had upped the ante in exploiting my “romance” or had already lost interest in it (and in me), the situation was total lose- lose.
    I squinted as I rounded the corner, then opened my eyes fast. Discount coupons for