Page 116 of As the Rain Falls
I think I could grow to really like him if we get to know each other more. If we had more time and more privacy. If this felt less like a game and more like…
Maria still isn’t over him.
I can tell.She’s always trying to get his attention, trying to talk to him after class, but he ignores her completely. Girls can hurt each other in ways no one else does. If she saw us together right now, she’d have every right to be angry. Caleb moved on so quickly, but that’s what guys do. They never seem to feel heartbreak the same way we do.
“You’re such a tease, Cassandra.”
I gasp, “I’m not!”
“Remember what you told me last night? That thing you showed me in the pictures?” His hand finds the curve of my waist, which he grabs too firmly to be playful. Goosebumps scatter across my skin, but it’s far from exciting. “And you promised me a kiss.”
“I did not!”
I promised him a kiss eventually.
Eventually is the key word in that sentence.
“You basically owe me after teasing me so hard.”
“And here I thought you liked talking to me,” I hum under my breath, pretending to be nonchalant. “I owe you absolutely nothing, Monteiro.”
“Not even a kiss?”
He pauses, taking a look back and glancing at the other end of the aisle. I can smell the paint that’s coating his fingers. Caleb likes to draw—he even sketched me a few rough portraits from memory. I keep the drawings hidden underneath my pillow, next to Lucia’s headband. And when it’s late at night and nobody is watching, I cross my face until the paper starts to rip in the middle.
“Can’t this wait till after class?” I offer, making sure I sound sweet enough. “I could meet you at Silvio’s.”
He bites his lower lip and shakes his head.
“I’m not working tonight.”
“I know that. We could go out on a date instead.” I touch his chest lightly, bringing him closer.
“I don’t know.” He kisses the sides of my face. “I kind of want my kiss right now.”
Caleb often gets this far away kind of look, like he’s thinking about someone else when we’re together, unless I’m always keeping him at one hundred. I don’t know if it’s just the awkwardness between us that makes it happen, or if I genuinely annoy him sometimes.
I push him away from me. “You say that. But what if Maria finds out about us? What if she gets hurt?”
Will you care?
Tell me you won’t.
The answer he gives me makes my tongue feel heavy.
His voice drops an octave, low but steady, “Cassandra, nobody will know if you don’t kiss and tell.”
A single rumor could bring us a huge headache.
“A kiss.” His mouth hovers over mine. I breathe in deeply. “It’s just one kiss, Cassandra. Please.”
This feels like a test. A lump starts to form in my throat, my mind racing to form a coherent thought. Caleb presses me against the bookshelf, his mouth now hovering over mine. Itmakes me freeze up against him, how his hands slowly rise from the curve of my waist to the swell of my breasts.One second, and his breath tastes like mint on my tongue. The world starts to get a little blurry.
“You kissed me.” He leans in to kiss me again, but I push against his chest, laughing nervously. “God, you really kissed me.”
Wasn’t this what I wanted?
“I kissed you.”
