Words & Whiskey

EDITED VERSION: Chapter Twenty-Four

"HE DID WHAT?" Samara screamed as soon as the words slipped out of my mouth.

I grabbed my pillow and smacked her with it playfully. My friend laughed as she almost fell off my bed. "Shut up, I don't want Darian to know!"

It was a couple of days after my and Nathan's kiss and things have been extremely awkward. While Nathan was at work, I called Samara and begged for her to come over to talk about it. I had no idea what to do and needed some guidance.

She straightened herself out and her facial expression turned serious. "Alright, so what happened? Did you kiss him back?"

"Well, yeah, I kissed him back," I stated. I pursed my lips together and replayed the event of the kiss in my head again. "We were walking home and all of a sudden he turns to me and says he needs to do something and asks me not to hate him for it." I run my hand through my hair, feeling giddy at the memory. "The next thing I know he's calling me beautiful and then his lips were on mine."

Samara squealed and clapped her hands together excitedly. She flipped her locks of black hair over her shoulder and leaned forward. "Well, did you like it?"

"If we're being honest..." I sighed dreamily and it felt like Nathan kissed me all over again as the moment replayed in my head over and over. "It was amazing and I know this sounds bad, but I never felt that way before. It was like... fireworks or like the world was spinning."

I remembered as our lips touched, his taste had consumed me and it felt like we were in our own little world...

Nathan suddenly stopped walking and he looked at me with a completely serious face. "Audrey, I need to do something and please don't hate me for it."

"W-what do you mean?" I stuttered out, my heart started to pound as Nathan gently grasped my hands and pulled me closer to him.

He lowered his forehead on mine and stared at me for a moment. Bringing his hands up, he placed them on either side of my face and sighed. "You're so beautiful."

As his lips met mine in a hungry kiss, I let out a little gasp and I felt his soft smile against my lips. Not wasting another moment, I found myself instantly kissing back just as urgently. As a result, he pulled me even closer and tangled his hands in my hair, causing me to sigh in delight.

Nathan pulled back to catch his breath and his forehead rested on mine as he did so. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that."

Shaking my head and grinning like an idiot, I placed my hands on the back of his neck and pulled him closer. "Just kiss me."

We continued our very public make-out in the street, not caring it was unbearably cold. At that moment, it was just Nathan and me.

Snapping back to reality, I shook my head slightly and bit my lip as I looked at Samara. "Sorry, I just can't stop thinking about it."

"Okay," my friend said slowly, she paused for a moment and played with the strings dangling off my pillow. "But why would you act so weird after the kiss?"

I sighed in defeat and thought about how I responded the next day. Long story short, I avoided Nathan with every fibre of my being and we haven't talked since. Darian is completely oblivious because he's been with Justin so much but he'll probably catch on sooner rather than later.

"Ugh, Sam. I don't know," I whined. "It was so great and it felt so right but it scared me for all of those reasons."

She gave me a look of confusion and I flung myself backwards on my bed to stare at my ceiling. "It was too great and too right. I never felt like that when I kissed Kieran. I thought that feeling of fireworks was only in movies and novels, but I was wrong.