by Kiara London
“I hate you guys!” I screech, and surge at Lenny. All this time they had me thinking that something was wrong—but no, they had been planning the first Kiss Cam. They had been slinking around all day, sneaking glances at me, sharing matching smiles, and getting me all wound up for a Kiss Cam!
I slap every part of Lenny I can reach that he’s not shielding with the camera. “We got you so good!” he mumbles through a fit of laughter.
Then I turn to Jasper, who is curled up in a ball on the floor, laughing his lungs out, and shove him.
I scoot back and stand up. “That was the worst! I seriously thought you would die on me, Jas! You guys, I feel so sick right now. Oh my God,” I ramble, my hands shaking more furiously than before. I feel like I can barely speak, but I’m laughing, too. Laughing because I’m embarrassed and that was so ridiculous. “Who’s idea was this?”
Jasper coughs and stands. “Now,” he muses, “I believe the username was ChloeAnne.”
I wipe Jasper’s spit off my lips with the back of my hand. “What was the request?”
“Reenact the lifeguard scene from The Sandlot.”
“Worst,” I tell him seriously, inwardly noting that it was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life.
Lenny shakes his head enthusiastically and lowers the camera. “Best.”
Jasper strides across the room and I take a step back. “Hey,” he says in an unnecessary whisper, and I send him a dirty look while he tries to stop laughing. “Hey,” he says again, louder. He sighs and reaches for my face. I pull away.
“You have a little spit right there.” He points to the corner of my lips and I wipe it away quickly, still scowling at him.
“I hate you two,” I repeat. The adrenaline and embarrassment has faded so that my nervous laughter has completely disappeared. “Seriously, that wasn’t funny.”
Lenny glances between the two of us, trying to decide if I’m really mad.
“So, guess what,” I decide in a high voice. “I get to plan the next Kiss Cam. You’ll see exactly how unfair this feels.”
Lenny’s eyebrows rise up his forehead. “Are you kidding?”
I turn to him. “Oh, c’mon. I need you,” I say sensibly.
There’s no way I could pull off what Jasper did without Lenny. I’m mad at Lenny, don’t get me wrong, but I can tell by the goofy grin on Jasper’s face and the panic on Lenny’s that this was Jasper’s idea. And he’s the one who should pay.
I turn to Jasper. “But you, on the other hand. You are in for some serious payback.”
Jasper lifts his chin and narrows his eyes thoughtfully. “Fine, do what you want. But I dare you to top that.”
“Fine,” I say.
“Fine,” he repeats.
We look at each other for a moment, and slow smiles start creeping up our cheeks. The kind of smiles that bring a challenge.
Two can play at that game.
Lenny looks between us excitedly; I can see his head swivel in my peripheral vision.
I have a little something in mind, something a certain viewer in particular would be incredibly excited to see unfold.
ALLISON GIVES ME a disapproving look across the lunch table on Tuesday as Lenny and Jasper chug down milk carton after milk carton while I record them, shaking my head with silent giggles.
“I saw the Kiss Cam,” she whispers to me, and my finger slips on the camera, jogging the footage.
“Yeah?” I say nervously, hoping the ruckus the boys are making drowns our conversation out. She looks at me pointedly and then wiggles her eyebrows.
Allison’s still convinced that the Kiss Cam is a bad idea and makes a point of being as concerned as possible. But she’s also been teasing me about it—and I usually end up a little embarrassed.
“Mm-hmm,” she hums. “So, what? You have to plan some revenge, or how does that work?” She doesn’t sound particularly interested, but her questioning is enough to seem supportive, nonetheless.
“I told Jasper I’d get revenge,” I mutter low enough that the camera can’t catch it. “Lenny and I are trying to finish the planning for Thursday.”
“Nothing too crazy, I hope,” she comments. “Would hate for Jasper to take it the wrong way.”
I send her an annoyed look. “You know it’s not like that,” I remind her.
“Yeah, yeah,” she says.
Jasper glances over to me then, and I catch his eye. He gives me two thumbs-up, and I look over to Lenny, who pushes an empty milk carton away like he’s going to be sick.
“Winner!” he gloats victoriously. I shake my head and turn the camera toward me.
“Now, if you guys don’t mind, it looks like Lenny might throw up on me again, so get out of my way, I’m vlogging anywhere but here!” With that, I shut off the camera and hand it back to Jasper, who is dishing out some pretty vicious smack talk.
Allison lightly kicks me under the table to recapture my attention. “Remember what I said earlier.”
“Lenny and I have got this,” I assure her.
“Okay, then,” she replies.
It seems like an average Thursday. VlogIt is pulled up on Jasper’s laptop, and it sits waiting on his bed between Lenny and me while Jasper is busy messing with the lighting. My stomach is fluttering with nervousness and even a bit of excitement.
Lenny clears his throat next to me, and I turn my head enough to meet his eye with a faint smile. He can’t hide it, though, and his lips spread into a large, easy grin. Tonight is the night I’m getting my revenge.
“Today’s theme,” Jasper tells us as though we’ve forgotten (and how could we?), “is yes-or-no questions. It should go relatively quickly, seeing as there will be no elaboration to our answers unless completely necessary.”
It’s hard to hold down the laugh that is threatening to burst. Yesterday Lenny anonymously sent a yes-or-no question to our own channel that is meant deliberately for elaboration. And if this all works out according to plan, my Kiss Cam will be a surprising success.
“All right,” Jasper says, talking mostly to himself while he gets comfortable between Lenny and me and begins to scroll through the comments under WereVloggingHere. “Let’s get started.”
With that, he hits record and sits back on his mattress. We all smile at the camera and repeat our well-rehearsed opening bit.
“I’m Jas.”
“I’m Lenny.”
“I’m June.”
“And we’re vlogging here!”
“Last week we told you guys to send us yes-or-no questions,” Lenny announces to the camera, using many hand motions while he speaks in order to distract himself from becoming tense with anticipation. “We are going to answer as many of these as possible in the next ten minutes, explaining only when necessary.”
“Our top comment is anonymous today,” Jasper tells the camera, and his finger swipes down on the touchpad to read it out loud. I lick my lips in anticipation and stare straight ahead past the camera, eyes finding the fan art taped to his wall. “It asks: Jas, have you ever seen June naked?”
Lenny can’t contain it any longer and rolls backward onto the orange-covered mattress in a fit of laughter. My knuckles come to rest between my lips to cover my smile. I know the only way that this will be convincing is if I can actually get flustered.
“No,” Jasper says simply, but I jump in before he can read the next comment.
“But he has seen me in my underwear. So, close enough.”
Jasper’s cheeks actually flush and his fingers pause over his keyboard, face lowering to look at me in utter disbelief. Then the look vanishes and is replaced with a cool smile. “That didn’t actually require an explanation.” He winks.
I have a hard time keeping eye contact because of the sheer ridiculousness. “Well, I thought we were going to be completely honest.”
“Yeah, but you weren’t naked, so it doesn’t apply to the question,” he grinds out through a smile, and the blush on his cheeks seems to darken.
�
��Well, the definition of ‘naked’ is different for everyone,” I say, and turn to him with crossed arms and a glare. I try to think about the emotions I was feeling this weekend when I found out he peeked while I changed. Slowly, I can feel new embarrassment and fresh anger surface. I had felt completely exposed. Lenny looks at us through his fingers, laughter subsiding unsurely when he sees my attitude shift.
Jasper looks back at Lenny in alarm and then leans in close to whisper, “What are you doing?”
“What am I doing?” I ask in shock, and shove his shoulder back. “What were you even thinking when you thought it’d be a good idea to peek at me when I changed?”
“I told you that was an accident!”
“Right,” I scoff, and roll my eyes. “You just happened to accidentally look over your shoulder and stare at me.”
“My eyes were roaming! I saw you in the reflection of my mirror.” His voice is wavering and defensive, eyes shining with what looks like guilt.
I shake my head, lips curling inward angrily. “And then suddenly it was a game.”
Jasper stands up and I stand up, too, mimicking his actions in order to get a reaction. I catch a glimpse of Lenny from the corner of my eye, quietly lifting the camera up to follow us. I remember then why we’re fighting. I need to find a place. I need that moment.
“I told you I was sorry! I thought we settled this! I had no idea you were still upset.”
“That’s because you think you know everything,” I snap, eyes meeting his coldly. Adrenaline is releasing into my system, and my stomach is knotting. I can feel myself letting go of any control I have ever had around Jasper. I know we’re not typical friends. I know he doesn’t have boundaries. But for now I’m forgetting all of that. Right now it’s all about getting the reaction I want.
Jasper’s mouth drops open so wide I think he forgot how to speak. Not only has his face turned a blazing red that spreads from the tips of his ears down to his neck, but he appears to be quite petrified by me. It’s as though he’s forgotten how to function.
“You could have saved us a lot of trouble if you’d just done it earlier,” I tell him.
He stutters, trips over his words, stares at me as though I’ve come completely undone, but then, as he always manages to do, he snaps out of it and seems to become another person entirely—and now he’s reached a level of embarrassment that brings about rage.
“Done what?” he seethes with an unusual amount of sarcasm.
I’ve been looking for an opportunity, and I know this is it. So with a mischievous smile dancing on my lips, I breathe, “Kiss me.”
He stops, frown deepening. “What?”
I step forward and grab the back of his head, closing the small gap that is between us. He’s taller, so I have to stand on my toes and press my body to his, but he bends to meet me halfway. When our lips meet, it’s angry and heated and nothing like any of our other kisses felt. He cradles my neck in his hands and kisses me with so much force that for a moment I forget my basic motor skills. My hands fall from his hair to his shirt, where it’s easier for me to cling.
His body presses to mine in a way that makes my body want to sink to the ground. I’ve never been kissed so firmly or held quite as tightly.
For a moment I forget why we’re kissing so hard I can’t breathe and pulling at each other this frantically. But then his hand sweeps down to the hem of my shirt like he’s forgotten about the camera and Lenny, and I remember why.
We’ve gone too far, and I can only imagine the discomfort I’m putting Lenny through. So I hesitantly pull away. Jasper’s body is shaking, but not in a way you can see, rather in a way you can feel only when you’re this close to him. My eyes flutter open faster than his and I pull back completely, unclenching my fingers from his shirt.
His eyes stay closed, and I swear his breathing catches when I say loud enough for Lenny and the camera to hear, “Kiss Cam.”
Then his eyes snap open, and I don’t see anything except my own reflection.
THE BLANK LOOK in his eyes vanishes with a flutter of his eyelashes, and his kiss-swollen lips slowly form a smile. It’s as though the fogginess, the sweet oblivion of the moment, has been lifted, and he turns to Lenny and the camera quickly.
“Wow,” he says hoarsely, and runs his fingers through his chaotic hair. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
It’s an obvious statement made in the early moments of a daze. I can tell he’s being careful by the way his voice holds back its normal amount of dramatic flair. Even his eyes stay far too concentrated on the lens of the camera.
Lenny’s eyebrows are raised high on his forehead, almost disappearing into his hairline, and he looks over the video camera to meet my gaze. I can tell he senses the shift in mood, too, a certain kind of controlled tension.
There’s a moment of silence between us all. Jasper’s hand dropped from my neck to my waist before, and now completely falls away from me. Then he clears his throat and sits down on his bed. For a moment he looks between Lenny and me and then finally says something.
“Aren’t we going to finish the questions?”
His voice sounds normal again and is laced with the kind of humor that suggests Lenny and I are acting odd.
With a final glance at Lenny and a shrug Jasper pretends not to notice, I wipe my mouth and sit down on Jasper’s right side again. Lenny grins at us and mentally shakes off the awkward before marching forward and putting the camera back on the tripod. Then he takes his place on Jasper’s left.
Jasper’s got his laptop back on his thighs and scrolls down to the next question. When he looks back up at the camera he smiles largely. “Next question: Do you sing in the shower?”
After we finish recording the remainder of the questions video, Lenny takes the footage and goes home to edit. He doesn’t leave in a hurry this time, though. He keeps looking at me curiously, scrunching his eyebrows and glancing between Jasper and me. He wants to know what happened during that kiss—which wasn’t supposed to be as long and frantic as it turned out to be. I almost want to tell him to throw the segment out entirely, but for Jasper’s sake and my own, I decide not to say anything. All I can do is shrug.
When he leaves, however, I begin to get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Lenny leaves Jasper and me sitting on the couch in Jasper’s living room, watching the evening news on low volume and twiddling our thumbs.
“So,” I say after a few minutes of inattentive television watching. He turns his head a little toward me.
“Yes?” he asks with curious humor.
I let out a breath, ready to explain and defend everything that happened earlier, because the kiss wasn’t supposed to get that heated. “That Kiss Cam wasn’t my idea. It was a request we got awhile back—”
“I even read that request,” Jasper interrupts with a quiet laugh and a shake of his head. “I didn’t think you had the guts to ever do it.”
I snort and turn my body to his, tucking my leg underneath so that we’re the same height. “What about you?”
He gasps and blinks a few times. “I would’ve gotten slapped!”
My eyes narrow as I think over the possibility. Finally, my lips purse and I slouch back. “Fine,” I agree.
It returns back to silence, a kind of guilty one this time, and Jasper’s fingers tap against his lap as though he’s thinking. He wants to say something, I can feel it. So I sink further into the cushions and wait several more minutes.
“It was a good kiss,” he says suddenly, eyes trained on the television and body rigid like he’s afraid of what I’ll say. “A really good kiss,” he repeats thoughtfully with furrowed eyebrows—this time more toward himself.
My eyes watch him steadily. He scratches his jaw, dragging his nails across his skin slowly, seeming to ponder what he’s said.
“Is that so?” I ask, letting my tone become teasing. He senses me poking fun at him and turns his face to me with a brilliantly devilish smile. One might have thought
he’d gotten away with something.
“Oh, yes,” he declares exaggeratedly. “Say, wanna make out?”
Giggling, I shove him away when he begins to lean in with puckered lips and fluttering eyelashes. “Stop!” I shriek when he ducks under my arm and slides up closer beside me with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
He climbs over and throws one leg onto the other side of my lap so that he straddles me. I cover my face with my hands, blushing so badly I don’t want him to see. Despite me shaking my head and calling him out for being ridiculous, he tries to pull my hands away from my face.
“Are you blushing?” he laughs while wrestling me.
“No!” I deny quickly, and try sinking into the couch. I can feel my face ablaze and my body shakes with laughter and desperation. My mind keeps thinking up ways to get myself out of the situation I’m in. I could let him win and wiggle away. With enough force I could push him off. He’s only kidding with me, but I can’t help but feel anxious at the idea of defeat. What is he even up to? I feel horribly guilty that my mind even considers this match ending in a ferocious, needy kiss.
“Juniper,” he gasps breathlessly with giddy exertion “you’re totally blushing!” He finally manages to pull my hands away from my face and giggles boyishly when he sees the crimson stain across my cheeks.
“You’re embarrassing me,” I say helplessly, and attempt to pull my hands from his.
“Payback,” he says simply, and squeezes my hands.
“For what?”
He thinks for a second and I notice that playful gleam return to his ever-sparkling eyes. He locks his gaze with mine and leans forward ever so slightly, but my breathing stutters and I flinch back anyway. An airy laugh escapes when he lets out a breath, but he doesn’t let my gaze leave his. Slowly, he continues to inch forward, but not toward my face. He lowers his face to my shoulder and turns his head so that his nose brushes against my neck. The goose bumps appear before I can stop them, and he chuckles again. For a moment his breath just blows against my skin, and I can’t stop the shivers or the nervousness that paralyzes my body.