Page 68 of If We Were Young

Maybe the only kiss ever worth having.

We stopped outside the path to the front door. “Goodnight, Ronnie.”

He seemed to be moving on from our kiss rather easily. Maybe he got his theory answered, and it wasn’t everything.

Leaning in close, brushing his cheek against mine, he turned slightly and pressed his warm lips against my skin. “I’ll see you Monday.”

“Sure.” My answer wavered in the cold night air. “Sure.”

His fingers rose and brushed across my cheek, the scrutiny in his gaze intense. “Aye, sure.”

My stomach flipped at the deepening of his brogue.

He turned, and I watched him walk away, every single step he took, wanting to call him back.

Girl Talk

“What… shit!” I shrieked when Hannah moved at the kitchen table as I snuck through the door, my stealth mode hampered by wobbly leg syndrome. She should have been asleep, that kiss lasted six hours at least. My lungs had gone without air for so long I might have slipped into a timeless coma.

“How was your date?”

A tang of burned bread hung in the air and my tummy grumbled.

I flung my bag onto a kitchen chair and pulled off my damp jacket, reaching for a toast crust on her plate. “It wasn’t a date.”

She smirked then raised her eyebrows, yeah, right. All teenagers smirked. None of them realising that every adult within their vicinity could read their face as clearly as they could read a billboard.

“It wasn’t like you think.” I swallowed the dry crust and turned to flick the kettle on, but then changed my mind and switched it back off again. I should get to sleep. Maybe think of this rebrand now that it only had a week to become something.

“Where did you go?”

I huffed and turned, leaning my hip against the counter. “Why aren’t you in bed?”

“Because I’m worried about you. If you are out late at night, I should know where you are.”

“Very funny.”

She rocked back on the kitchen chair, but I didn’t have the energy to tell her off for swinging on Ma’s chairs. I used all my energy on the kiss to blot out all other kisses.

“We went to Ying’s on the High Street.”

Hannah pulled a face. “Isn’t that the place Dad always wanted to go to, but you always said no?”

“Yes, that’s the one.”

“Was it nice?”

I shrugged. “We gave most of it to a homeless man.”

“A homeless man! What about your starving daughter?”

I shot her the ‘mum’ look. “Where is Nonna, anyway?”

“She went to bed. She made me go too, but I snuck back down afterwards because I was still hungry, and I knew she’d tell me off for snacking on toast.”

I glanced at the time on the clock. Despite the kissing, the clock said it was only ten thirty. “That’s early for her.” I frowned. “No crime drama to keep her entertained?”

“I think she was cross. She said the man was a friend of Ange’s and could only be bad news.”