Mouth to Mouth (Beach Kingdom 1)

Olive’s gaze drifted over to the screen of her phone, noticing the date—and not for the first time. This evening was Rory’s mother’s birthday party. She’d told him she would go and now it was only hours away. What was he feeling? Had he backed out? God, she hoped not.

Olive was in the process of pushing back from the table, intending to replace the book on the shelf and make her way to the bus stop, but Leanne plopped down at the table with a smack of her gum, earning them an evil look from the librarian.

“Hey you,” she said, giving Olive a soft punch in the shoulder. “You’re here late.”

“Yeah, I know.” As she’d been doing all week, Olive forced a smile on to her face that honestly, just felt freakishly unnatural. But it was better than her alternative downer face. “Just doing some reading before heading back to Long Beach. Why are you here?”

“Had a meeting with the guidance counselor.”

Olive nodded. “You walking to the bus stop? I’ll tag along.”

“In a minute.” Leanne drummed her fingers on the table, ignoring the exasperated sigh from the librarian. “Tagged you in some pictures on Facebook and you haven’t even commented. Are we even friends if people don’t witness it virtually?”

“Sorry, I…” Olive snatched up her phone and tapped the blue and white icon. “I haven’t been on. I haven’t—”

“Been doing much of anything?” Her friend passed her a half-smile. “You’ve been behaving like a zombie. I was worried our professor was going to use you as a case study. Classic Incurable Heartbreak-itis, wouldn’t you agree, class?”

She massaged her forehead with three fingers. “Ugh, we’ve only been friends for, like, a month, and I’ve swung between hormonally charged and despondent. No judgment for cutting your losses and running. Seriously.”

“Shut up.” Leanne nodded at Olive’s phone. “Well. Comment, dammit. Get back in my good graces.”

“Okay, okay.” Olive went to her notifications and saw that Leanne had tagged her in four photos. When she clicked on the first one, her heart went flying up into her mouth. Rory. There he was. Behind the bar in the Castle Gate. He looked…devastated. Crazed, even. Whatever he was looking at had upset him greatly. To the point that Jamie was restraining him. “When did you take this?”

“The night we went out with those senior douches.” She shrugged. “I snapped it when we walked into the bar and I recognized Rory from the milkshake shop. That’s around the time he saw Zed’s arm around your shoulders.”

“Oh,” Olive said, sounding small. Desperate to see more of the man she’d been missing like an amputated limb, she swiped to the next picture and her stomach took a dive. Taken the day he’d picked her up from school, the photo showed Rory leaning against his bike like the world’s most delicious bad boy, grinning as she approached. Olive’s pulse turned choppy, that familiar loneliness stealing over her. Shit. Oh shit. She missed him so badly. How had she not fully realized the way Rory looked at her? Like she was…walking on water or something.

Urgency trickled into her bloodstream. As if she needed to get out of there. But she remained in the seat, needing to see another picture of Rory more than oxygen.

It was them in the milkshake shop, sitting in the booth. That very first day.

Olive didn’t even have the words to describe the shot. It was…

Love at first sight. No arguments. No denying it.

Rory’s jaw was flexed, his green eyes awed. Olive looked like she was trying to catch a mouthful of bees. And they both looked a little scared.

“Wow.” Moisture ran down her cheeks. “Y-you take incredible pictures.”

“That’s what I was talking to the guidance counselor about. I’m switching my major to photography.” Leanne smirked to let Olive know she was kidding. “Olive, that fucker is crazy about you. I don’t know what happened, but there has to be a solution.”

Olive scrolled to the final picture and the breath clogged in her lungs. “When…”

“That afternoon we studied at that outdoor café. Remember?”

Barely. There were bits and pieces, but if she recalled correctly, the study date was the day after she and Rory broke up on the sidewalk across the street from her building. And yet there he was, in the background of the picture, watching her from a distance. He was getting ready to turn and leave, seeming almost exasperated with himself. But there was no denying the absolute yearning on his tired, unshaven face. It was stark and obvious and breathtaking.

“Why didn’t you tell me he was there?”

“Maybe I should have.” Leanne shrugged. “I’d only seen you guys together once before that day. I wasn’t sure if he was stalking you or just…fucking heartsick. Guess I wanted to be sure it was the latter before I encouraged you to get back in touch with him, but that happened all by itself.” She flung her arms out dramatically. “Now here we are again.”