Page 31 of Quarantine Crush
“No you can’t,” Fox scoffs.
“Can too.” Jemmy’s tone is smug. Sure.
“Prove it.” Fox’s eyes narrow. “What am I thinking right now?”
Jemmy rolls her eyes. “You’re thinking about Alyssa Rourke again and how she said she might kiss you at the back-to-school dance next week.”
Fox shakes his head. “Okay, it’s official. You’re psychic.”
His smile falls, and Jemmy recognizes the worry in his scrunched expression. “What are you so worried about anyway? You’ve had a crush on her for forever.”
For the first time since she met him, Jemmy wouldn’t be leaving when Fox went back to school. She and her father had finally made the move to the lake house permanent at the beginning of summer. But with Jemmy two years younger than Fox, they wouldn’t be attending the same school. She was secretly worried that he would be embarrassed to have a best friend in junior high, now that he was entering high school, but she’d spent her summer wishing on every falling star she could find that they’d stay friends.
“Yeah, but…” He trails off, unwilling to meet her eyes.
“But what?”
He lowers his voice, not that anyone will hear them down here in his parent’s basement. It’s been their hang-out spot since Jemmy first moved in next door and one they’ve spent so much time in that the rest of Fox’s family barely ventures down here anymore. “I’ve neverkissed-kissed a girl before. What if I suck at it?”
Jemmy snorts. “Then Alyssa will tell everyone, and you’ll have to run away and join the circus,” she jokes then composes herself when she realizes he’s serious. She bites her lip, an idea forming. “What if we practice?”
Fox looks at her sharply, his eyes gleaming with interest. “What do you mean?”
“Well, we’re not little kids anymore. We’re both starting new schools next week, and it’s only a matter of time before kissing happens. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be bad at it. So what if we try it out on each other? We’ll kiss, and then we can tell each other how it feels. You know, so we can get better.”
“Like a test run,” he says, warming to the idea.
She nods. “Yeah. So we can be good at it for when someone kisses us for real.”
Fox looks thoughtful. “Okay, let’s do it.”
“You have to close your eyes. That’s how they do it in the movies,” Jemmy instructs.
Fox rolls his eyes but complies.
Jemmy leans forward and very carefully presses her puckered lips to his.
She counts to three and then pulls away.
Fox’s eyes spring open.
“How was it?” she asks.
“Pretty good,” he admits. “But that’s the easy stuff. I think we need to practice with tongues.”
“Okay,” Jemmy agrees. “You go first this time.”
Jemmy sits still, eyes closed, waiting. When Fox’s lips meet hers, it’s nothing like the first kiss. Fox leans in close, his nose bumping hers then brushing her cheek as he moves his head side to side. Before long, his lips begin to part, coaxing hers to do the same. When she does, his hot breath washes over her, and then–
She sits back suddenly.
“How was it?” Fox asks.
“Weird.”
“Weird how?”
She scrunches her face, thinking about how to describe it. “Maybe don’t push so hard next time,” she says. “Your nose almost poked me in the eye.”
