Page 37 of A Good Book

I was grateful for that because my brain was ready to explode from the lack of mental capacity to deal with kissing my best friend like that. Before I unlocked the door, I rested my forehead against it and fought back the tears.

I kissed my best friend for real, not for practice, and I liked it so much I could hardly breathe. Ben was my anchor, my protector, and my common sense when I went out of my mind. We couldn’t cross that line and put our friendship in jeopardy.

What did we do?

My heart ached.

That kissripped open something inside of me, and it felt like I was bleeding feelings for Ben that I buried years earlier after he rejected me and went on to sleep with random girls.

That kissknocked the wind out of me and left me gasping like waking from a dream so real, it felt like reality.

Was Matt nothing more than a dream?

“Hey! How was your date? Oh, my gosh. What happened to you?” Olivia sat up on her bed and set her book aside when I opened the door.

I touched my fingertips to my lips. Were they swollen? They felt like it. That was the kiss of all kisses.

“Did Matt come on your face?”

“What?” I wrinkled my nose.

“What are those dark spots?”

I looked in the mirror. There were tiny pieces of chocolate on my face. As I picked them off, I opened my mouth to tell her that Ben smeared his ice cream on my face, but that would have only been a half truth. The whole truth was, I didn’t want to say his name in front of her or tell anyone what happened.

Except Ben.

I wanted to tell my best friend that a guy kissed me, and it was everything and a million times more than what I ever imagined a kiss could be. That kiss reached far beyond my lips. I felt it everywhere.

“We got into an ice cream fight,” I murmured.

“Oh my god! That sounds sexy.”

“Yeah,” I whispered to myself. “It was.”

CHAPTERELEVEN

TOM PETTY, “FREE FALLING”

Gabby

The elephant wasn’tin the corner of the room; the elephant was the entire room. In fact, there wasn’t even a room. Just a big, fat elephant.

As soon as Olivia left for breakfast Sunday morning, I hopped down from my bunk bed and called my sister, Sarah. We weren’t Catholic, so confession wasn’t our thing. Baptism and daily prayer sufficed for our religion. But after the events of the previous two days, I needed to clear my conscience.

“Hello?” Isaac answered.

“I need to talk to Sarah,” I said, while nibbling on my thumbnail and pacing the room as far as the telephone cord would allow.

He chuckled. “Good morning to you, too, Gabby. Just a sec. She’s a little indisposed.”

“Indispo—” I cringed.

They were having sex.

Sarah giggled. “Hey, Gabbs. What’s up?”

“Sorry to interrupt.”

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