I Kissed Her First: A BOUND TOGETHER NOVEL Page 2

  “I’ll make sure she doesn’t miss curfew,” I offer. Teddy’s gaze moves from her to me, full of apprehension.

  “Good luck and have fun,” he finally says, looking tense as he grabs his board and takes off toward his house.

  “What do you want to do now?” I ask, turning back to Harper. She lifts a shoulder, sucking more of her milkshake from her straw. “Anywhere else I should see or things I should know before we start school tomorrow?”

  Pressing a finger to her lips, her eyes look to the sky as she thinks about my question. “Hmm… Nope. Besides,” she starts as she hops down from the top of the table she was sitting on instead of the bench seat like a normal person. “You’ll have Teddy and me. You’ll be fine.”

  “Come on then.” I pull her hand. “Let’s ride around, and you tell me more about you without Teddy censoring,” I tease.

  She reaches for her board, and for a second, I wish she didn’t have it so that she’d ride on mine with me. I have this want to touch her that I don’t understand. Stuffing down the weird feeling I’m having, I step on my board and take off with her behind me. “Come on, slow poke!”

  It takes only seconds before she’s next to me. She shoves my shoulder, making me lose my balance and fall off my board, and somersault on the ground with her cackle coming next to me.

  “Not. Nice,” I growl from my back on the ground. Then, in one swift move, I kick her board, making her fall.

  She lands with an oomph on top of me, knocking the wind out of both of us for a minute before we both start to laugh. She rolls off me and onto her back, trying to catch her breath from falling and laughing so hard.

  I stand up first and brush the sand and dirt from me. Reaching out a hand to her, she accepts and I pull her up. “Thanks,” she says, looking almost shy as she tucks a piece of hair behind her ear.

  “Come on, trouble. Let’s go swim to clean all this dirt off.” I pull her behind me for a change. When we reach a good place on the beach that’s not too crowded, we drop our skateboards to the sand.

  I quickly remove my shirt and kick my Vans off next to my board. When I start to unbutton my shorts, I look to Harper to see she hasn’t moved since we stopped here.

  “You okay?” I ask her, concerned that she’s hurt from falling. “Are you hurt?”

  Shaking her head, she says, “I’m fine. I’m not hurt, but I can’t go in the water.” I see her cheeks pink, and I’m confused for a second before I start to laugh.

  I lift a brow at her. “Shark week, huh?”

  She covers her face with her hands and mumbles, “Oh, my gosh. This is so embarrassing.”

  Stepping closer to her, I pull her hands from her face. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s natural, right?” I shrug. “I mean, it’s gross as hell, but part of nature.”

  She groans and leans forward until her face is shoved into my chest. Something I wasn’t expecting, so my hands are awkwardly hanging mid-air at her sides until my head can catch up with what’s happening.

  Wrapping my arms around her, I pull her into me more. Her face turns, but she keeps it on my bare chest as her arms come around my waist. We stand like that for a second, pressed together holding each other. I kiss the top of her head. She smells like coconut and sunscreen and sunshine.

  She gasps then and jumps back. “What? You okay?” I ask.

  Her eyes are wide and aimed at my crotch. My eyes close slowly as I realize that I just got a boner from smelling her. Guess it’s my turn to be embarrassed.

  “Well, that’s natural too. Sorry,” I chuckle, apologizing to her when I open my eyes to meet hers.

  She smiles slowly and then starts to laugh uncontrollably. “I’ve known you like a week, and we just entered a place together that Teddy and I haven’t yet.”

  “I don’t think I’m sorry for that,” I tell her honestly, sucking my lip into my mouth and keeping my eyes on her. I can’t help it; I like this girl.

  I put my shoes back on and grab my shirt and board, tucking them under my arm, slinging my other arm around her shoulders. “Come on, you can come to my house for a little bit. We can eat ice cream and watch a movie or something.”

  She reaches for her board and tucks it under her arm, mimicking me and wrapping her other one around my waist. “You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a sister,” she muses.

  I bark a laugh. “Nah, just know a little bit about girls and… that. One of my best friends from Cali got hers like two years ago. She always made us eat ice cream and chocolate and watch movies when it was that time.”

  “Oh.”

  “She and I weren’t as close as you and Teddy, but we were close enough. It was always Nikki, Noah, Ari and me running around and getting into trouble.”

  “Was it hard to leave them?”

  “Yeah, kinda. But I’m glad I’ve met you and Teddy.” And that’s the truth.

  Turning her head, she looks up at me. “I’m glad we met you too.”

  Once we get to my house, I show her to my room, then head to the kitchen for supplies, stopping to let my mom know that we’re here. She gives a look, making me roll my eyes. “It’s not like that, Mom.”

  I gather a tub of ice cream and two spoons, heading back to my room. I stop in the doorway watching Harper walk around my room looking at my things. I still have boxes stacked in a corner that I’ve yet to unpack.

  “I hope you like cookies n’ cream,” I say, making her jump. “You can snoop later. Let’s eat this before it melts.”

  We put on a movie but hardly watch it. Instead, we spend the next couple of hours talking and laughing and getting to know each other more. And the more I learn about her, the more I like her.

  “Thank you,” she says to me when she stands to put on her shoes to leave.

  Tilting my head to the side, I ask, “For what?”

  “Today. The ice cream. Everything. It was…unexpected.”

  “So were you,” I say without thinking, letting my thoughts slip free. She studies me for a few seconds before turning to go. “Wait! Let me walk you home.”

  “You don’t have to do that. It’s only a few houses down.”

  “Yeah, but the size of these houses makes it like a mile down the road.” I smile. “Let me walk you. Please?”

  She grins back. “Okay.”

  I pull my shoes on and take her hand in mine as we walk out. I call to my mom that I’m walking Harper home, and seconds later, we’re heading down the street hand in hand. Even with the smell of the ocean all around us, I still catch the scent of her coconut shampoo as it wraps around me. Neither of us says much as we walk, but the silence is comfortable between us.

  When we stop outside her house, she turns toward me but keeps her head down with her eyes on the ground. “Thanks for walking me home.”

  “Yeah. Anytime,” I answer.

  She looks up at me then and takes a deep breath before rising to her toes and pressing a quick kiss to my lips. “Okay, bye!” she yells, turning and running away, leaving me stunned and staring after her. She pauses and looks back at me one last time with a big smile before she closes the door.

  I laugh and shake my head, turning around to head home, rubbing my lips, thinking about the chaotic beauty that smells like coconuts and sunshine.

  Chapter Three

  Harper

  “You survived the first week of school. What do you think? Different from your school in California?” Teddy asks Jett, rubbing his shoulders like they’re tired from the week.

  It’s early Saturday morning, the perfect time to catch some waves and my favorite time of the week.

  Chuckling, he says, “It was fine.”

  “Fine? Just fine? I saw all the girls drooling over the shiny new guy in the halls,” Teddy goes on.

  Jett glances my way for a second. “I don’t really like the attention,” he says, trying to sound like he doesn’t care. But I saw the way he walked tall through the crowded hallways. The way he smiled and la
ughed with other girls as they batted their eyes and talked excitedly.

  Scoffing, I grab my board from the sand and take off for the water. I’m done listening to their conversation about girls.

  Jett and I haven’t had a chance, just us, to talk since last weekend when we held hands and I kissed him before running away. But it felt like we had connected or something. I didn’t expect him to propose or anything, but I thought he’d at least do more than casually wave hi to me each morning.

  I know I have curly hair that frizzes, which I usually cover with a backward cap, and I dress in clothes that aren’t that different from what he and Teddy wear, but I thought maybe… I don’t know. I guess I was wrong.

  I’ve almost paddled out far enough to catch a good wave when I hear him behind me.

  “Harper, wait up! Man, you paddle fast,” Jett says through labored breaths, coming up next to me.

  Sitting up on my board and turning around to face the beach, I look and see Teddy lying on the sand with his hat covering his face, probably asleep.

  He kicks his foot out to hit mine in the water. “I’m sorry.”

  I turn to look at him then. “For what?”

  “For not talking to you much this week.” He won’t look at me but looks down at his board instead, where he traces designs on it. “This week was…weird.”

  “Are you okay?” I ask because it never occurred to me until now that maybe he feels like a fish out of water here.

  Lifting his head, he looks at me then. “Yeah.” He grins. “I’m okay.”

  “I’m sorry I kissed you,” I say quietly, my eyes falling away from his.

  “I’m not,” he says, his voice sounding low and raspy.

  I realize then that he has a deeper voice than most boys our age. He’s definitely taller and more filled out than them too. Looking down, I see my growing boobs, which have begun to fill out my bikini top for the first time this summer. I guess we’re both early bloomers, as my mom calls it.

  “I like you, Harper,” he adds after a few minutes of silence between us.

  I swallow and look up at him again. “You do?”

  “Yeah.” He smiles lopsidedly. “I had a really fun time with you last weekend. Heck, I do every time I’m with you.”

  “Are you sure you’re twelve?” I blurt.

  “I’m thirteen. Been for a while,” he laughs. “Fall birthday, I’m usually one of, if not the oldest in my class.”

  “Oh. Yeah. I can see that,” I say, my eyes scanning over his chest.

  “Like what you see over there?” He chuckles, pulling me from my trance.

  Feeling my face heat—and not from the sun—I reach down and splash him. “Shut up.” Grabbing my foot in his hand, he tips me off my board. As I come up for air, I lean on his board and scowl. “Rude. You don’t tell a girl you like her and then drown her in the ocean.”

  “Please, you hardly drowned.”

  I climb up on my board again and stick my tongue out at him, making him laugh.

  “Are you coming to my house for dinner tonight?” I ask.

  “No idea. Is that a weekly thing with yours and Teddy’s families?”

  I nod. “Yep, for as long as I can remember.”

  “Interesting,” he says before he takes off paddling. “Race you to the beach!” he yells over his shoulder.

  I follow him, paddling to catch the wave coming at us. We both manage to stand up and ride in all the way. But he beats me there by a few seconds.

  “You know you only won because of your cheater's head start, right?” He just laughs, lying down next to Teddy in the sand.

  I decide it’s time to wake Teddy up. Standing over him, I shake my wet hair out over his sun-heated skin. He wakes with a start, yelling and jumping up to his feet, making Jett and I cackle next to him.

  “I hate you so much sometimes Harper,” Teddy grumbles.

  “Oh, shush, you love me,” I tell him, puckering my lips and giving him air kisses.

  “Hardly,” he says, walking toward the water and diving under a small wave coming up to shore.

  * * *

  After a morning of surfing, we grab lunch at our favorite taco food truck.

  Now, I’m up in my room getting ready for dinner. I decided to braid my hair in a fishtail braid. I pull on a pair of shorts and a form-fitting boatneck shirt that my mom bought me for school. It’s not at all what I usually wear, but it’s better than a dress.

  I’m almost done putting earrings in when there’s a knock on my door. “You dressed?” Teddy asks from the other side.

  “Come in,” I call.

  “Your mom said…” he trails off. “Wow. You look…wow.”

  I blush. “I hope those are good wows.”

  “Definitely good,” he says with his eyes still wide, looking me up and down and making me feel self-conscious.

  “Thanks. Now stop looking at me like that.”

  “Sorry, it’s just…you look really pretty, Harper,” he says sincerely. He takes my hand and spins me in a circle, making me giggle.

  “Hey, do you know if Jett and his parents are coming?” I ask when we make our way downstairs.

  He lifts a shoulder. “I don’t think so.”

  “Oh, too bad.”

  We get our drinks, Shirley Temples because we’re at my house this week, and go out back where our sisters are. I notice Teddy giving me a weird look. “What?”

  “You like him, don’t you?”

  “Who?” I try to act dumb.

  “Jett.” He rolls his eyes. “It’s okay; you can like him. He seems decent.”

  “Oh, thanks for your permission,” I deadpan.

  “If he hurts you, we’ll feed him to the sharks.”

  I smile at my best friend. “Deal.”

  Chapter Four

  Teddy

  I still can’t get over how un-Harper-like she looked at dinner the other night. The Leos family didn’t show up at her house. I guess they aren’t part of our families’ inner circle quite yet. It didn’t stop Harper from talking about Jett more than I’d like though.

  I knew he had a thing for her from the first time he saw her. It’s hard not to. She’s a magnetic force that’s hard to stay away from. She pulls in everyone around her. That’s just who she is.

  When she admitted to liking him too, I wasn’t that surprised. She was different with him than she was with me or anyone else. Harper isn’t a flirt—and still isn’t—but she is a girl who blushes when she’s embarrassed. And that doesn’t happen to her very often around me, but it does when Jett’s around.

  He just better not be using her for anything. He’s become a quick friend to us and seems fine. But he’s still new around here.

  I worry about Harper. I always have and always will. She’s my counterpart and my best friend. Besides, if I don’t, she’s sure to get hurt one way or another. And I promised myself after she broke her arm in the second grade that I’d protect her better and never let her get hurt again.

  “Teddy bear!” I hear her yell behind me as I stand at my locker, gathering my stuff at the end of the day.

  I turn around just in time to catch her as she flings her body into mine, laughing lightly with her head tipped up jovially. Jett stands behind her with his brows pinched together, watching her in my arms. I give him a joking smirk that he returns with a finger, making me chuckle.

  “What’s up, Harp?” I ask her when I help right her on her feet.

  “We want to skate to the pier. You in?” she asks, bouncing on the balls of her yellow checked Vans.

  Looking back at Jett again, I see he’s off today, and I’m not sure if it’s because of their unspoken liking of each other or if he’s all of a sudden jealous of mine and Harper’s friendship.

  Giving her a look, I ask, “Am I going to be the third wheel between you two?”

  Her cheeks pink and Jett’s mouth hangs open for a second before shifting on his feet and looking at me with a shrug and lopsided grin. I shake my head a
t the pair of them. “Fine. Let’s go.” I close my locker, and then it hits me that my mom drove me today. I didn’t skate here. “Crap. I don’t have my board.”

  “You can use mine,” Harper says. Then, twisting to look at Jett, she asks him, “Can I jump on with you?”

  He gets a big goofy grin on his face, looking down at her. Slinging an arm around her neck, he pulls her into his side. “Of course.”

  Yep.

  Third wheel.

  Awesome.

  * * *

  That day was the start of everything changing. Including my voice.

  By the time summer crept in, I had grown two inches and my voice was starting to crack and squeak. I still wasn’t as tall as Jett, but I was gaining on him and was finally feeling more like a man than a boy.

  School’s been out for a couple of weeks. Harper, Jett and I have made it a point to be inside as little as possible, surfing every day and setting up camp on the beach where we stay until late at night some days.

  Harper, the freak that she is, likes to get out here early, sometimes before the sun is even up. Today was one of those days, and now that I’ve already surfed for a few hours, I’m exhausted.

  It’s naptime while she and Jett keep crashing the waves. I lie under the umbrella we set up, with my head on a rolled-up towel and my hat over my face to try to catch some sleep for a little bit.

  I’m startled awake by a volleyball hitting me in the stomach. “Ugh!” I yell, sitting up and thinking it’s another one of Harper’s mean ways to wake me up. I open my mouth to yell at her when I see a girl I’ve never seen before.

  She has a hand over her mouth, covering a smile as she says, “I’m so sorry.”

  “Yeah,” I draw as I sit up to wipe the wet sand from my skin. “You look real sorry,” I add with a smirk.

  “The wind caught it, and I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t mean to hit you,” she says, then pauses and wets her lips as her eyes look me over, making me feel uncomfortable. “But can’t really say I am that sorry now.” I lift a brow in question, and she lets out a throaty laugh. “I’m Gabby.”