Page 99 of A Better Place

“Nah, brother. Not your clothes. I didn’t realize you were easing yourself into makeup.”

“Huh?”

I scratch my head, looking around the room. Tess and Carly are leaning on each other, laughing so hard they’re holding their stomachs. Harper and Maggie are sitting on the floor hooting. Grady and Barrett are being idiots and making kissing faces while they wipe tears from their eyes.

“Would someone like to fill me in here?”

“Oh babe. What type of lip balm did you use?”

How many kinds of lip balm does she have? “The Burt’s Bees stuff! Like you said! Why?”

“Uh, I didn’t mean to use the lip tint, you idiot!”

“You said it was the right stuff!”

“Didn’t you notice it was red?”

“Well, yeah. I thought that was how you got the cherry flavor! Carly. Do I have lipstick on right now?”

“Not exactly.” Well, that doesn’t make me feel better.

“Carly.”

“Lip. Tint. Lip tint, James. It’s different. I promise.”

“Different as in…”

“Well, it won’t last as long… I don’t think.”

“You don’t think.”

“Well, no, it doesn’t last as long for me.”

“Okay, so how do you get the cherry flavor?” I’m not really sure why I’m so stuck on the cherry flavor, but I really am baffled by that.

“I use the black-cherry-flavored lip balm.”

“And that’s not what I used?”

She shakes her head, still giggling.

I walk over to her, lift up her left hand, and look at the back of it. Sure enough, there’s two lip prints from where I kissed her. I figure, why not add more? So I kiss her all over her face. “Is it gone?”

She’s wiping at her face and smiling as she shakes her head no.

I smear my lips back and forth over her cheek. She starts giggling and trying to push me away, but my arms are wrapped tightly around her.

“James!” she says, laughing as I pull away. She instantly continues trying to wipe away the remnants of the lip tint with her hand.

“That’s what you get,” I say, smiling.

“You’re so annoying,” she feigns, the twinkle of happiness still in her eyes.

“You love it,” I tell her to which she rolls her eyes.

I give her one more kiss, this time much deeper.

“Dude!” I hear Grady exclaim and turn my head to see him covering Harper’s eyes with his palm, his other hand in front of his own.

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