Charlie rolled us over suddenly, giving me a second to adjust when my entire world spun. On top of me, he looked down at me and captured my chin in his hand. “You were not ugly. You were never ugly. You made being friends with Russ so hard at times because all I wanted to do was take a chance at kissing you.”
I swallowed my need to insist that I was ugly and held his gaze. My body buzzed all over, but I wasn’t sure it was just Lisa’s brownie anymore. “I would’ve blown up your friendship with Russ in a second back then for that chance.”
“And now?”
I flicked my gaze to his lips and back to his eyes quickly. My heart hammered in my chest, fighting to expose itself and all of its childhood crush goo. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to be a teenager and careless again. Drunk, I could put aside my conscience. Apparently, high, I couldn’t. “And now, I know that your friendship is important and I should respect it.”
He closed his eyes and buried his face against my neck. “What if I don’t want you to worry about respecting it?”
My hands were gripping his sides desperately and I had to force myself to let go. Letting out a short sigh, I laughed awkwardly. “For the record, I was obsessed with you that summer, too. You stopped wearing shirts and started working out. I raced inside almost every day so I could go up to my room and watch you throwing the football from my window.”
Charlie lifted his head and grinned down at me. “What would you have done if I’d snuck into your room?”
No amount of special brownie could’ve dulled the heat in my veins as I grabbed his face in my hands and captured his mouth in a hard kiss. Gripping his hair, I tugged his mouth away from mine and pushed him off me. “Lost my virginity a lot faster than I did. Now, go away. I’m going to be a good sister tonight, Charlie.”
He immediately stood up but he leaned down and pressed his lips next to my ear. “For tonight. I want you sober for the next time, anyway.”
I sat up with a spinning head and watched as he left through the back door; the only tell that he’d been in the basement was my pounding chest and the fading scent of him on the bed next to me.