Crushes

Chapter 19

I was still steaming mad as Kate and I walked to the park, "are you okay," she asks me after about five minutes of walking silently.

I sigh, "my dad is just strict," I take a breath, "he didn't believe me no matter how many times I told him that we're just hanging out and apparently he saw that picture that Sky posted and I got in trouble for that."

"I don't want you to get in trouble because of my," she says, her head down.

"I'll be fine," I say to her, "he'll just have to learn that I'm getting older and am going to start to hang out with girls."

"Hang out with girls," I hear Kate say quietly to herself.

"Yeah," I say.

We walk in a silence until we find a bench to sit on, "so," Kate says awkwardly.

"So," I say.

"Someone," she says, I start to say something, but she cuts me off, "you're the someone."

I pause and let her words process in my mind, "I'm the someone?"

She turns and looks me in the eyes, pushing her giant glasses up on her face, "yeah, I've had a crush on you since seventh grade," she tells me, her face turning bright red.

I smile and lean close to her, "you're my someone," I say to her, she slowly closes the rest of the space between us.

"What now," she asks, without thinking, I lean close to her face and press my lips against hers, completely forgetting that we were in a public park where everybody could see us. I wrap my arms around her waist and she pulls me close to her, rubbing her fingers along my neck, "is that what your dad was afraid of," she asks me as she pulls away, her face bright red.

I shrug, "who knows," I get off the bench and pull Kate to her feet.

She smiles as we walk hand in hand, "you know. I don't know how any of this works, like, does this mean we're a thing now, or?"

"I honestly don't know," I answer truthfully, cutting her off.

"Well... We'll figure it out together."

"Together," we pause and look into each other's eyes. We're finally together and nothing can come between us.