“No! I don’t. I don’t want nothin’ to do with you, Maggie May Riley! I don’t want to be your neighbor anymore. I don’t want to be your friend. I don’t want to marry you, and I most certainly don’t want to kiss—” I was cut off again, but this time by myself. Somehow, during my rant, I had stepped closer and closer to her, and my lips stole her next breath. I placed my hands against her cheeks and smooshed them together, kissing her hard for a whole ten seconds. I counted each second, too. When we pulled away, we both stood still.
“You kissed me,” she whispered.
“It was a mistake,” I replied.
“A good mistake?”
“A bad mistake.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Brooks?”
“Maggie?”
“Can we have one more bad mistake kiss?”
I kicked my shoe around in the grass and rubbed the back of my neck. “It won’t mean I’m going to marry you.”
“Okay.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “I mean it. It will just be ten seconds and that’s it. We’ll never kiss again. Ever.”
“Okay,” she replied, nodding.
I stepped in closer, and we both smooshed each other’s faces. When we kissed, I closed my eyes, and I counted to ten.
I counted slowly, as slow as the worms moved.
1…
1.3…
1.5…
2…
“Brooks?” was muttered into my mouth, and my eyes opened to find Maggie staring my way.
“Yes?” I asked, our hands still smashed against each other’s cheeks.
“We can stop kissing now. I’d already counted to ten five times.”
I stepped back, embarrassed. “Whatever. We need to get back to the boat, anyway.” I hurried to try to recollect the worms, failing terribly, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Maggie swaying in her dress, humming away.
“Hey, Brooks. I know I said you could wear the mud-colored tie for the wedding, but I think you’d look better in a green one. Bring the tie for our rehearsal tomorrow. Meet me right here at seven.” Her lips curved up, and I couldn’t help but wonder what had changed about her in that moment.
Her smile didn’t look completely ugly anymore.
As she started off, I stood quickly, knocking over the worms again. “Hey, Maggie?”
She swung away on her heels. “Yes?”
“Can we maybe try the kissing thing one more time?”
She blushed and smiled, and it was beautiful. “For how long?”