Her by Felicia Johnson Page A

could smell her. She smelled like sweet cherries. Her hair swept across my face. She was soft. She was beautiful. She was perfect.
    Lexus pulled away from me slowly. My eyes wouldn’t pull away from her. I could tell that my staring at her was making her nervous.
    “Quit it, Kristen.” She playfully shoved me.
    “What? I’m sorry,” I said to her. I chuckled nervously.
    I still didn’t turn away. I moved in closer to her, not sure why.
    “You have nothing to worry about. You’re amazing,” I said.
    There was a strange feeling growing inside of me.
    “Really?” She pretended as if she didn’t know. “That’s so sweet, Kristen. I guess I-”
    When she went to get up and out of my reach, I felt I had to stop her. So I kissed her. My lips were actually pressed against her warm and perfect lips. The kiss lasted about half of a second before she pushed me so hard that I had to grab my chest.
    “I’m so sorry, Lexus. Lexus, please,” I pleaded with her as she grabbed her sweater and purse. “I don’t know what just happened.  Lexus, please wait!”
    Lexus didn’t say a word. She didn’t even look at me. She quickly left me alone in her bedroom without looking back. I ran after her until I saw who was in the living room. I stopped before I could enter the room. I didn’t want them to see me. I stayed around the corner and peeked out into the living room where her mother, father, and her date waited.
    I watched as everyone complimented her on how beautiful she looked. I watched her date as he stared at her, up and down. He wrapped his arm around her waist. He looked like someone she would have liked back in high school. Her date had big shoulders, he was tall, and he was dark. He had a clean face, and sticky hands. He was dressed nicely, which was a distraction from his mischievous, boyish grin. He was just her type. He wouldn’t have asked me out, like he had asked Lexus out. She was beautiful and perfect. She was just his type.
    When Lexus returned home, I was still there. She seemed shocked to see me. I tried to apologize, but she told me to forget about it. Lexus said that her night was too amazing to be upset by something silly. She wanted us to forget about it, and to pretend that it had never happened. I agreed to it, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to pretend the way she could. I wanted to know what had happened on their date. She said that he had taken her to a nice restaurant downtown and that they were going to go to a movie, but had gotten side-tracked on the way and had parked by a lake. She assumed I knew what had happened at the lake, but I didn’t.
    “Oh, come on,” she said.
    “What did you do? Did you have sex with him or something?” I asked her.
    She looked at me as if I was insane.
    “No! However, we did do some heavy making out. He has an amazing tongue.” She had a huge smile on her face that I couldn’t understand.
    I smiled and said, “That’s cool. I have to call my Mom and ask her to pick me up. It’s getting late.”
    “Okay,” Lexus said. “Call me when you get home, so that I can tell you more about my date.”
    “Sure,” I said. 
    When I arrived home, I didn’t want to call Lexus and hear about her date with the football player. It made me feel sick. I wouldn’t know how any of what she would have told me felt. I did call her, though. I didn’t know why I called her. I listened to her as she boasted about all the compliments that he had given her. I listened as she talked about his tongue and his hands. I listened, as I knew I wouldn’t ever understand what it felt like to be beautiful and liked.
    “Did you miss dinner on purpose?” a voice buzzed into my dream as I was sleeping.
    I opened my eyes, and the light from the lamp next to Janine’s bed made me close them again. I heard more talking. I slowly opened my eyes this time, expecting the light from the lamp to be on. I saw Janine crawling onto her bed. Tai was standing in front of Janine's bed, looking