Day 5: First Kiss

“I mean, it was kind of dumb how the monster was also the king’s jewel, wasn’t it?” Taylor laughed, and I snorted and nodded, agreeing whole-heartedly.  “Like…how was the quest ‘find the jewel’ if the jewel turned out to be the monster they were hoping to kill?  Like that doesn’t make any sense!”

“Yeah, I don’t think the writers were paying real attention when they were scripting this,” I acknowledged, rolling my eyes.  “I mean, the princess was shown to be proficient with swords at the very beginning of the movie.  At the end in the final battle, she throws her weapon to the farmboy who came to save her?  The farmboy who admitted he’d never used a sword in his life?  Like…what?!”

“It was so stupid!” the black bear laughed, rubbing the back of his neck as we walked through the parking lot back to my car.  He hadn’t gotten his driver’s license yet so I’d picked him up and drove him here.  The night sky was already darkening as the sun set in the far distance.  “So uh…anything in mind to eat?  I’m kind of starving.”

“Oh umm…El Urso Gordo is a really good place,” I told him, reaching into my jeans pocket and pulling out my keys.  “But I mean if you’re not partial to Mexican food there’re plenty of other places around here we could get.”

“No, I love Mexican food!” Taylor said, smiling broadly at me.  I returned the grin, feeling my stomach flip.  The black bear was, admittedly, very cute.  I wasn’t quite sure what we were but part of me was hoping it wasn’t a night of just two friends hanging out.  “So…are you excited to go to Las Luces University next year?”

“Huh?  O-oh, yeah!” I said, flashing a grin.  “You got in too, right?  Maybe we’ll have some classes together.”

“Maybe we could room together,” he offered.  My stomach knotted itself and I nodded wordlessly.  “Y-you know, if you wanted.  Just a thought.  I know rooming there can be a nightmare so I figured like…you know.  We could room together or something.  Save some money.”

“Y-yeah, sounds good,” I retorted as we pulled up to my car.  I leaned against the door, and Taylor leaned against my car in front of me.  We stood there, looking at one each other.  “I mean, if you want.  If we can.  I’m sure we can ask for specific roommates but we just gotta…just gotta ask for each other.  Let them know…we want each other.”

“Yeah, we’d love to be close,” Taylor responded with a nod.  I licked my lips.  He shuffled his feet.  Ignoring every instinct in my body telling me not to, I leaned forward, reaching out to wrap my arm around the black bear’s waist and pull him in.  I leaned in, and our lips touched.  

It was fireworks in my stomach.  It was floating on cloud 9.  It was every drug imaginable in that moment, in that first kiss.