"Um... So, what are you doing after school?" He asked, sitting down on the chair next to me. I looked up at him from the floor, where I was sitting cross-legged, drawing trees on slips of notebook paper and wishing I didn't have to end my freshman year of high school with a world geography final after lunch. He smiled, gazing down at me.

"You know you could've sat on the chair, instead of next to it?" He said, teasing me. I was so glad I was still in jazz band.

"I prefer the floor." I replied. "And some friends and I were going to head to Howard Amon Park after school. I think we're riding the bus there."

"Cool," he said. "Which friends?"

"Uh, Maggie, Zoë, I think Kelly and Skylar, possibly Brandon, and maybe Theara, if she has permission. Maybe Joyce, too, I don't know. I hope not." I answered, shuddering at the thought of Joyce coming.

"Can I come?" He asked randomly.

"Sure... I'm not the one who planned this. I think Maggie did. She's usually the initiator." I replied, grinning. "Wait, do you have a bus pass?"

"No... How much is the fare?" He inquired.

"It's a dollar." I explained. "They raised the youth fare by twenty cents for the summer. Stupid gas prices. I can't wait to get that summer bus pass that Mom promised us."

He sat there for a moment, saying nothing. Then he spoke. "Hey, remember how I said I'm not allowed to date anyone under sixteen?"

"Right. Church rule." I sighed.

"Well, I was wondering," he continued. "Are you allowed to date, yet?"

"Uh, my mom said I can go somewhere with a group of friends and a guy I like..."

"And I qualify as 'a guy you like'?"

"Well, duh. You read that poem, right?" I giggled awkwardly. "The one about the swing dance? The one where I said I've got a MAJOR crush on you?"

"Yeah. I liked it." He smiled. Continuing, he said, "Well, I talked to my mom, and she said the same thing. I can go somewhere with a group of friends and a girl I like, or a girlfriend. I just can't be alone with her for a long time, if she's not sixteen."

"And I qualify as 'a girl you like'?" I mocked.

"Yes, you do." He said, matter-of-factly. I grinned.

"Awesome."

The next second, he'd moved from the chair, and was now kneeling in front of me. I gasped quietly, looking up from my tree sketch and into his silver eyes. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't frowning, either. His expression was tense, frozen, shocked. Much like mine.

I couldn't move, couldn't do anything, when he leaned forward and kissed me. The kiss was slow, beautiful, and my first.

He sat back, a cute, boyish smirk plastered to his face. I still wore an expression of shock.

Abandoning all logical thinking, I pressed my lips against his again, wrapping my arms around him. Slowly, we broke apart, and I smiled.

"Was that your first kiss?" He whispered.

"Yes," I whispered back.