“You were my best friend first! Now some random chick comes along and I’m nothing! Do you even care?”

“Why would you even ask that Amy?” His voice was getting to the point of yelling, and frankly I was scared of his temper in that moment. “Of course I care! Would I be here, saving you from your parent’s wrath if I didn’t?” I stared at him in amazement. He never got angry with me! I was always angry at him. His hands were clenched in rage and his face held a look of betrayal. For once in my life, I was afraid of what I had to say next.

“Well would you be here if your little girlfriend was over at your house right now? Or would you be to busy to save me?”

“What do you want me to say? I drove across town, left my parents in the middle of Christmas dinner, to clean up a mess YOU made! By the way, how did you manage to break both the TV and all the ornaments on the tree?”

“Does that really matter right now? Stop changing the subject! We were fighting.” As soon as I finished my sentence, Len looked hard at me, and started to laugh.

“You’ll never be able to drop a subject until you proved that you are right, Am.”

A small smile creped across my face and soon I was laughing a long with him. “Shut up. Now will you please help me clean up? I have an hour and a half to clean this all up, redecorate the tree, and buy a brand new TV.”

“You called the right guy! Now where do you want to star-“Len was unable to finish his sentence due to the fact that my lips were pressed hard against his. I didn’t even remember thinking about it, but before we both knew it, we were kissing. His lips were moving against mine and his hands around my waist. I brought my hands up to his neck and wrapped them tightly around, pulling us closer together.

Len quickly pulled back and took a step away. “Amy.” His voice as soft as a whisper. “You know we can’t do that. I have a girlfriend and we need to clean this all up. Okay? Amy, look at me.”

The thing was I couldn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to look into the eyes of a boy I loved as a friend, and maybe even more than a friend. I mostly couldn’t bring myself to do after what I had just done.

“Amy, it’s going to be all right. Everything is.” I looked up at Len, and for the first time in the whole 12 years I knew him, he was more confident than I was. I shook the shock out of my eyes, and let a small smile show on my face. “Well, let’s go. We have less than two hours, or I wont see tomorrow’s light! Shall we?”

Len smirked back at me, proud and knowing that he said all the right words for once. “We shall.”

***


$3000 of study abroad money poorer, and an hour and a half later, the living room was looking somewhat normal. The tree was bought cheep and the ornaments and the TV were bought on Christmas Eve sales, but it didn’t matter. Len and I had saved Christmas and my life.

“Len, I owe you big time for this entire night!”

“Consider that kiss half of the payment”, grinned Len, acting like his playful self.

We both sat on the couch, the appropriate distance for friends, but I felt as though we were farther than we ever were, and it was all my fault.

“Yeah, um, I’m sorry about that actually. I just wanted to try it, you know. Kinda like that one time thing to see if I was missing out.”

“And are you?”

“Well, I still have you, even if you are with that one chick.”

“Katie.”

“That’s it!” I smiled at him, trying to diffuse the tension that was idling between us. “Well, Len, are you missing anything” I knew I was screwing this up more than I should have, but I had to know. I wasn’t going to let this issue rest where it now stood.

“I’m missing something.” Len spoke so quietly that his voice would be barelt audible in a library.

“Katie?”

“No. Love.”

“Well isn’t that what Katie’s for?”

“She doesn’t love me. And I don’t really love her. Now that I look at it, I don’t know why I’m even with her. Yes, she’s beautiful, but so are you!”

“Beautiful and Me in the same sentence without the word not in there? Impossible!”

“No. For example, Amy is beautiful. Amy has a beautiful head full of confidence. Amy is all together so beautiful, that I want to kiss her again.”

“Amy would like that!”

“Good. Because I was planning on kissing Amy, even if Amy refused.”

“Amy thinks we should stop talking in third person.” The end of my sentence trailed off into nothing but air.

And then Len was kissing me. Soft and passionately. His hand slid to my leg, and the other one helping him keep his balance on the couch. His lips were so soft, that I wondered if my chapped, winter lips were hurting him. But that didn’t matter. He laid me on my back, facing him. I didn’t dare open my eyes, because if I did, this beautiful moment may be gone, for I hoped it wasn’t a dream.