Present Perfect(16)

The sound of a car horn saved Noah from the awkwardness of letting me down and me from any embarrassment. Raising his free hand and pointing his index finger in the air, he said, “I believe our dinner has arrived.”

We had pizza for dinner and breath mints for dessert. Noah thought of everything. Now it was time to practice.

We were both nervous. Noah hit the table a few times like he was playing the drums. He looked like he was trying to decide on something. He stopped drumming and looked at me.

“I guess standing would be the best way to do this,” he said. I nodded my agreement.

We stood, he walked over to me, landing a couple of feet away, directly in front of me. He rolled his shoulders, forwards and backwards a couple of times, stretched his neck from side to side, and then shook his arms out. It looked like he was gearing up to run a track meet. He bent down, rubbing his palms over his shorts a couple of times while exhaling a few deep breaths. Standing back up, he announced, “Ok, here it comes.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to slap a warning label on it.”

“I’m not going to say that tomorrow.” I gave him double thumbs up.

“Sorry. I thought that might have been one of your moves.”

Noah moved in closer to me, leaving very little space between us. Looking into his eyes I could see that the nervousness had somehow already disappeared and had been replaced by a look of excitement. We stared at each other. My heart was beating so loud I was sure he could hear it. Tingles shot through my body. They started at my core and exploded in every direction until I was completely consumed by them.

I felt Noah’s hands cup my face just before his thumb lightly stroked my right cheek, causing a shiver. He smiled down at me when he felt how my body responded to his touch. My breathing had become shallow and I was burning up. If it were not for the beautiful boy standing in front of me, I would have thought I was coming down with the flu.

Light blue eyes gazed at me with intensity; I was completely mesmerized by them. It was as if he were trying to memorize every part of my face. Noah’s gaze lingered on my lips for a while then moved back up to my eyes. His thumb made its way towards my mouth and gently, he ran it over my lips a couple of times before returning it to my cheek.

We both started breathing faster. I swear I could hear the blood pumping through my veins. Parts of my body that I didn’t know existed were vibrating.

Slowly his lips moved closer to mine. Our song, ‘Everything’, filled the air. When our lips met it was like a fireworks stand had exploded in me.

At first, his lips were gentle and lightly touched mine. I felt the tug of my bottom lip as he sucked on it slightly. I nearly fainted. My hands reached out grabbing his arms to steady myself. Then I felt the tip of his tongue between my lips waiting for me to make the decision. I willingly parted them. Our tongues met, lightly stroking each other at first.

I had heard about French kissing and thought it sounded disgusting. It wasn’t disgusting at all.

Noah tasted so good. He didn’t taste like cherries. He tasted like peppermint. Our tongues started to move faster with more eagerness. I had never felt anything this amazing in my life before.

A slight moan escaped from me as our movements began to slow. Noah pulled away a little bit, our lips still touching. I thought I heard him whisper, “You’re perfect.” I was so discombobulated, that he may not have said a thing.

We stood there, eyes closed, foreheads resting against each other while trying to catch our breath. Noah ran his hands down the length of my arms, clasping our hands together. All sense of time, space, and others disappeared.

After our breathing finally calmed down we opened our eyes, but our foreheads stayed together. Noah glanced at me and whispered, “Wow.”

“Man,” I said, breathlessly. Are you sure you haven’t done this before because you have some pretty awesome moves. Where’d you get moves like that?” I asked.

“Wal-Mart.” A sly grin crept across his face.

The corners of my mouth slowly started moving up to form a smile. “How long did it take you to think that one up?”

“It just came to me actually. I thought it was pretty good.”





After cleaning up, Noah walked me home in a comfortable silence. When we reached my front door we hesitated. It felt strange, like neither one of us knew how to end the night. We were still friends even though that kiss was definitely more than friendly. My feelings were rapidly becoming stronger. I needed to force myself to get past this. He was my best friend and I wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardize that. I had to keep telling myself that nothing could ever happen between us. Besides, he didn’t think of me that way even though that kiss was amazing. Teenage boys would kiss almost any girl, they were so horny.

Finally, I broke the silence. “Well, goodnight. It sure was fun practicing with you. Brittani is a lucky girl.” My face immediately contorted and I regretted the words that came out of my mouth.

“Don’t bring her up, not now.” He looked back and forth from my lips to my eyes. “Thanks for tonight.”

He glanced away for a second, and then looked back at me as a sweet smile spread across his face. “Goodnight, Tweet.”

“Goodnight Noah.”

As I watched him back away and walk down the front steps, tears started to collect in my eyes. I suddenly had this empty feeling. I didn’t want him to leave. I didn’t want these feelings. They were going to ruin everything.