Instead of You(4)

It scared me how easily the lie slipped from my mouth. “The music was so loud, I was starting to get a headache.”

“Do you want me to bring you some water? I could ask my mom if she has any Tylenol.”

“No, I think I’ll be okay.” I stared at him, silently hoping he’d go back into his party where all our friends would be glad to dance with him, to hang out with him, to occupy him while I used what little brainpower I had left to dissect what had happened between Hayes and me. Instead, he stepped closer.

“I was hoping you would dance with me.”

“You know I don’t dance.”

He stopped inches from me, just as his brother had not five minutes before. His hands were in the pockets of his suit pants, and he bent at the knee slightly to look me in the eye. “Come on, Kenzie. It’s my birthday,” he pleaded, batting his too-long eyelashes at me. “Dance with me.” His last words were spoken softly, as if he were embarrassed to be asking me at all. But it was his birthday, and I had technically come to his party with him—I owed him at least a dance.

“Okay,” I replied, my voice matching his in softness.

He took another tentative step toward me, his eyes never leaving mine, then pulled his hands from his pockets. One reached out and landed on the curve of my waist, the other he held up, waiting for me to place my palm in his.

Touching wasn’t new for us, and dancing wasn’t either. But dancing in the dark, alone, with only the distant sound of music in the background was uncharted territory. This was something that, had you asked anyone, was destined to happen. We were both finally sixteen years old: let the relationship commence. I knew it was coming, yet the only feeling I had about it was trepidation.

Could Cory tell I’d just kissed his brother? Could he somehow smell Hayes on me? Were my lips as swollen and sensitive as they felt? Was my waist hot where his hands had been?

I could only hope all the answers were no, pray that Cory had no idea his brother had totally and completely obliterated me with just one kiss.

“Can you believe we finally made it?” Cory asked as we swayed in tiny circles.

“Made it?”

“To sixteen. We finally made it.”

“Oh, yeah. Suddenly I feel like the years flew by.”

“Really?” he asked, his smile lighting up his boyish face. “The last two years have been torture for me, dragging on and on.” His hands slid farther around my waist, effectively pulling me a little closer as his hand came to rest in the small of my back. “But now we’re here, and we’re both sixteen. All I want, Kenzie, is for us to finally be together.”

I saw him duck, watched as his face drew nearer to mine, and tried to hide the horror from my face when I realized Cory was going to kiss me.

His mouth met mine with a little too much force, causing my teeth to painfully press into my lips, but once his mouth was there, it stalled for a moment, leaving me blinking, afraid to move, kissing my best friend. When Cory finally moved, it was to spread his lips, his tongue darting out and forcing my lips apart in the process. Our teeth knocked together as his tongue continued to explore. I pulled away, horrified at how terrible we were at kissing each other, but his mouth followed mine and his hands pulled me closer.

When the kiss was finally over, no less than one million thoughts filtered through my mind. How in the world had I gone sixteen years without one kiss, but managed to get two in less than ten minutes? I tried to focus on the thoughts that told me the quality of the kisses were both based on experience, which would explain why Cory’s was the less successful of the two; Hayes obviously had more experience. And while I was busy convincing myself the kiss with Cory was just a matter of practice, I also tried to tamp down the voice in my head that was telling me it was more than that. The small, yet loud, voice that screamed at me that the kiss was about chemistry, and that I had none with Cory. I tried very hard not to listen to my body which, after both kisses, could declare a clear winner.

My poor heart. No one had informed it there’d be a competition. No one had warned me about Hayes.

“Wow,” Cory breathed as he pulled away from me, his eyes still sparkling, mouth tipped up into a smile. I tried to match his smile, tried to, in some way, force myself to be just as enamored with that kiss as Cory was. “I know you’re nervous, Kenz I do,” he said as his forehead came to rest against mine, both his hands now wrapped firmly around my waist. I let myself lean into him, hoping he could calm the panic rising within me. “But I know we are meant to be together, and I’ll spend as long as it takes convincing you of that.”

His mouth moved slowly toward mine again, and thankfully, the second kiss was much better than the first. It was soft and sweet, less insistent and less involved. It was the first kiss I imagined us sharing, except it wasn’t my first.

“Let me prove it to you.” He whispered this against my lips, and I knew I had no other choice except to answer with my own whispered response.

“Okay.”





Chapter Two


1:00 a.m., Cory’s Seventeenth Birthday

McKenzie

I was startled awake by the unmistakable sound of my window being opened. The sound of wood sliding against wood pulled me from a deep sleep and it took me a moment to realize where I was and what was happening. Once it fully occurred to me that someone was climbing in my window, I shot out of my bed like lightning. I had made it to my feet just in time to see a dark, shadow of a person moving toward me. Before I could scream to save my life, warm and familiar hands rested on my shoulders, and a soothing voice spoke to me.