Earlier in the school year, Trip had dragged a whole bunch of us to this horror movie festival. It was crowded and we all had to split up, so Trip made me sit with him in the front row. There were only two seats left, so it was just him and me. But as much as I wanted to sit alone with him at the movies, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. I am not a fan of blood and guts and all, and I told him I couldn’t even watch horror movies from the back row, blindfolded and wearing a potato sack. He laughed and said I just had to trust him.
So there we were, looking way up at that big screen, just waiting for this werewolf zombie to jump out of nowhere and rip the heck out of someone the way things do in the movies.
I had both hands over my eyes.
“Okay, listen,” Trip said. “Hear that music? Classic Something Really Bad Is About to Happen Music. So, G—stop. It’ll be okay. When I say, just turn around and look behind us—now!”
And without even really understanding what he was saying, I whipped my head around and saw the entire audience behind us, screaming and reeling back in horror. It was probably the funniest thing I’d ever seen in my life. This one guy, who was all big and brawny in a muscle shirt, made this high-pitched shriek and threw his soda all over his date. She started yelling at him and stormed out. He followed, bumping into people and apologizing and swearing that it hadn’t been him squealing like a little girl—that it’d been someone else.
But Trip and I had seen the whole thing. That big muscle-y boy had practically cried like a baby. I grinned at Trip and he grinned back. And even though there were blood and guts flying everywhere, we were together and we had popcorn and candy, and the movie wasn’t scary anymore, and, just then, that moment was perfect. A pure and perfect moment in the middle of the nightmare.
Kissing Trip was exactly like that.
Just not the perfect part. Our lips touched for about one millionth of one second, and, suddenly, there was nothing but air. I opened my eyes.
And the way he was reeling away from me with that look of horror on his face, you’d think he was watching the highlight film of every werewolf zombie movie ever made.