“See, you’re getting better!” I exclaim, admiring how hot Elena looks holding and playing my electric guitar.

“Stop, you’re just saying that to make me blush,” Elena buries her face in her hands.

“Quit hiding!” I attempt to pull Elena’s hands from her face, but it’s of no use; I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that she is, simply put, physically stronger than me.

Finally, after a few moments of us play-fighting, Elena drops her hands, giggling. “Fine! You win, Adelia.”

I don’t know what it is, but whenever my name escapes her lips, I get butterflies in my stomach. Her lips. I look down at her lips, which look awfully soft, plump, and I just get this sudden vision of the two of us kissing, not necessarily making out, but just kissing. We still haven’t kissed yet.

“Ugh,” I groan, and I look up at the ceiling.

“What?” Elena asks, pulling the guitar off from her neck and resting it on the bed right beside her.

“If I say, I don’t want to make things awkward.”

“Awkward!” Elena huffs. She leans in closer to me. “Nothing you say could make things awkward.”

“I don’t believe you,” I mutter, dropping my gaze to the floor, picking at my carpet with my foot.

“Well, now you have to tell me what you wanted to say.” Elena looks at me, a smirk playing on her lips.

I find myself looking at her lips again.

Ugh. I just want to kiss her. But it’s probably too soon. I groan internally.

“Come on,” Elena complains. “I won’t judge you. Please tell me!”

“Nuh uh,” I mutter. I can feel the heat rush through me and into my cheeks. I want to go see how red I am.

I get off the bed and head to my closed door, where I have a mirror hanging. I pretend to fix my hair so it’s not too obvious that I’m just checking the color of my complexion.

Fortunately–or unfortunately–Elena follows me and hugs me from behind while I make sense of how red I’ve become. She rests her chin on my shoulder, staring at me through the mirror.

“Would you tell me what’s on your mind if I asked you what I’ve been wanting to ask first?”

I look at Elena in the mirror. She meets my eyes, and a shy smile appears on her face. Her cheeks, I notice, are now a fresh pink color, almost matching the color of her lips.

“You…wanted to ask me something?” What is it? Is she finally going to ask to be my girlfriend? Is she going to ask to kiss me?

“Well, you know how homecoming is coming up,” Elena starts. “Would you…like to go to homecoming with me?” Elena nuzzles my neck. Or maybe she’s burying her face in my neck out of shyness.

It takes a moment for the question to settle in, but once it does, I can’t stop smiling. “R–really?” I stammer.

Elena unburies her head from my neck and looks at me in the mirror once more. “Yes. I mean, if you don’t want to go with me, or if you’re not ready to, that’s okay–”

I turn my head and close the small distance between us, drowning out the rest of Elena’s sentence with my lips pressed against hers.

She flinches, for a flicker of a moment, but then sinks into the kiss, her lips dancing against mine.

My reaction time is slow, so by the time my brain registers that Elena flinched, the moment has passed. Yet, I still pull away.

I inhale shakily, locking eyes with Elena. “Sorry, I, um, I don’t know what I was thinking. I shouldn’t have—”

Just like I did to Elena, she cuts me off by pressing her lips against mine.

This time, I kiss her slowly, sparingly, as if asking is this what you want? And, based on Elena’s kisses back, her answer is yes.

Elena’s hand drops from around my torso and instead cups my cheek. She goes from kissing me on the lips to kissing my cheeks, my eyes, my forehead; I feel the butterflies fluttering around in my stomach. No, it’s not just butterflies that I feel in my stomach; my core is burning, burning like a star. Not in a bad way, of course, but out of love, passion, desire…nothing can beat this feeling.

Elena is the first to pull away. I open my eyes, and my vision is level with hers. I notice a small smile forming on her face.

“So does that mean you’re going with me to homecoming?”

“Yes,” I breathe. I giggle. “Yes. I’d love to.”

Elena leans in and kisses me briefly; it’s basically a “thank you” kiss.

When Elena pulls away and stares deep into my eyes, she whispers, “Now, what did you want to say to me that you were too afraid to say earlier?”

“Oh,” I laugh. “I just wanted to kiss you. That’s all.”

“Ah, I see,” Elena replies. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Well, we should kiss more often then, shouldn’t we?”

“I, uh, yeah. If you don’t mind.”

“What do you mean? Do you think I don’t want to kiss you? I thought I established that I wanted to when I kissed you back!”

“Oh, well,” I laugh, running my hand through my hair. “I mean, I thought you flinched or something when I first leaned in to kiss you, so…”

Elena’s face crumples a bit. Her pretty brown brows furrow, and she frowns. “No, I, uh, I just wasn’t expecting you to kiss me. It was so sudden…I’m sorry if it came off the wrong way…”

“No! No, don’t be sorry! You have nothing to be sorry for,” I affirm, running my hands up and down Elena’s arms. Her skin, I notice, is extremely soft; it feels like heaven. It must be softer than baby skin.

I turn my gaze from Elena’s soft arms to her face. I notice that she’s turned bright red, so I ask her about it. “Why are you so red all of a sudden?”

Elena snaps out of her trance–I guess she was staring at me?–and she looks anywhere but at me. “Oh. Um. I-I don’t know, haha.”

“You sure?” I question flirtatiously.

Elena gulps. “No, I mean, I just really like physical touch, and when you touch my arms…I don’t know. I like it.” 

“Oh, you like it?” I question, and then I begin to push her towards my bed playfully.

I push her onto the mattress and, as soon as I jump on the bed, I tickle Elena, skimming my fingers over the skin of her arms.

“Hey–stop it! You’re making me embarrassed!” Elena covers her face with her hands and squeals.

“Nuh uh. I won’t ever stop,” I joke, but after a few moments, I stop tickling her.

Elena sits up, fixing her hair and catching her breath.

Then it hits me.

Wait.

There’s still one thing I need to know.

“You look like you’ve got something on your mind,” Elena remarks, examining her cuticles.

I snap out of my thoughts. How can she always tell?

“Are you, like, a mind reader or something?” I tease scooting so that I’m sitting next to her. 

“Maybe,” she teases back, grinning. “Seriously though, what’s on your mind?”

I grab her hand and squeeze it. Here goes nothing.

“Well, I don’t know if it’s too soon, and if it is I’m so sorry, but…”

“Just say it!” Elena interrupts.

“Fine,” I huff. “Um, now that we’ve, you know, kissed, does that mean we’re…girlfriends?”

Elena looks at me dumbfoundedly. Oh fuck. I screwed this up. Moron.

“Sorry! I’m so sorry, I–”

Elena covers my mouth with her hand. “Stop apologizing.”

I clamp my mouth shut.

“To answer your question, I mean, if you’re okay with it…yeah…being girlfriends would be nice…” Elena's voice trails off.

I perk up as soon as the words escape her mouth. “Really?”

Elena meets my eyes. “Yes! But only if you’re comfortable with that. If not–”

The rest of her sentence gets cut off as soon as I press my lips firmly against hers.

“I assume that’s a yes, then?” Elena murmurs between kisses.

“Mhm,” I manage to mumble.