Hello again :') glad to see you all seemed to enjoy the last chapter, so here's the next one. It's a little short though so I'll upload the next one sooner :)

enjoy! xx

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Chapter 14

Summer holds onto my one arm, and Tiffany the other, pulling me down onto Tiffany’s plush queen sized bed. The mattress bounces as the three of us flops down, the masses of cushions bouncing with us. Melissa throws herself down on the end of the bed after us.

                “Tell us everything!” she squeals.

                It’s something like three in the morning. Everyone else left about an hour or two ago. Tiffany didn’t let anyone crash on the couch downstairs, so it really is just the four of us.

                They didn’t let me and Bryce out of the closet for way longer than seven minutes. Not that I was complaining much, though…

                I don’t really know what’s going to happen next. I’d felt too awkward to say anything to him, so I didn’t say much at all about it. I didn’t want to be one of those girls who just kissed random guys at parties only for the sake of it. I may not be the old me anymore, but that didn’t mean I was going to be someone I didn’t want to be.

                “So?” Summer prompts me.

                “Spill the beans, Madison!” Tiffany nudges me with her elbow.

                I laugh. “Um, well, I don’t know what you want me to say. It’s obvious what goes on when you’re dared to do seven minutes in heaven, isn’t it?”

                “You’re totally evading our question,” Melissa pouts, but she laughs. “Yes, it’s obvious, but how far did you go? Did he say anything?”

                “You guys saw his face though, right, when I said what Madison’s dare was?” Tiffany laughs. “He’s definitely interested.”

                I hold back a blush; but it’s a flattered and happy blush, though, rather than the embarrassed or hurt kind I’m so used to holding back. “Uh…”

                “How far did you go?” Melissa repeats. “Second base?”

                “What?”

                “You know, second base.” Once she realizes I’m not exactly sure what she’s talking about, she rolls her eyes. But Summer cuts her off first.

                “Okay, start at the bottom. Was there tongue?”

                I nod. “Yeah…”

                “Any further than that?” she asks. “Hickey? Did he touch your boob?”

                “No,” I say hastily, shaking my head. “No.”

                “Then he definitely likes you,” Tiffany concludes. “I mean, seriously, he’s a sweetheart, but is any guy really going to not try and feel you up when you’re in a dark closet? He can at least pass it off as an accident in that situation.” She squeals, grinning at me. “So cute.”

                “I don’t know…” I mumble uncertainly.

                I only say it because what else can I say? Maybe Bryce does actually like me. Maybe he doesn’t, and maybe that’s why he didn’t do any more than kiss me. Or maybe he’s just not that kind of guy. I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know.

                “He’s got your number already though,” Melissa says thoughtfully. “He might text you tomorrow. He’s got to at least text you, right? Bryce is too sweet to do that and not talk to you if he really does like you.”

                I just nod, because I don’t know what more to say.

                They seem to register then that I’m not going to be particularly talkative on the subject, because then they start giggling and chatting about the evening. I pitch in occasionally, but mostly I simply just sit there and listen and laugh in the right places.

                I’m kind of distracted though, my mind full of jumbled thoughts; I try and calm my mind down enough to think about this rationally.

                So I kissed Bryce.

                I kissed Bryce.

                I got my first kiss.

                I can’t decide which sounds more exciting – that I finally got my first kiss and even though it wasn’t how I imagined it, it was still amazing. Or am I more excited that I kissed one of the most popular (and definitely the cutest) guy in school, who may be interested in me?

                He’d said he’d been ‘waiting to kiss me all night’, and I hope he wasn’t just saying that.

                But did he like me? As in, like me, like me?

                Oh, man, I’m starting to sound like Jenna…

                What was I supposed to do if he did? What was the protocol for this situation?

                I’d always pictured my first kiss with a guy I was actually dating – he’d ask me out somewhere, at the end of the night he’d kiss me.

                But what was I meant to do now, having kissed a guy I wasn’t actually seeing? He was just some guy who I hung out with at school and who I think I kinda sorta flirted with. I mean… he has a nickname for me, he calls me ‘Mainstream’. But I thought that was just him joking around. I didn’t think he really did actually like me.

                Although if that kiss earlier was anything to go by…

                I shake myself mentally.

                I overthink things way too much. I really need to get a hold of myself.

                “Madison?”

                Hearing my name jerks me out of trying to straighten out all my jumbled thoughts. Summer raises her eyebrows at me, prompting me to answer.

                “Hmm? Sorry,” I add, “I spaced out for a minute there.”

                “Shopping, tomorrow?”

                “Huh?”

                Tiffany laughs. “Keep up, Madison. We’re going to the mall tomorrow. Girls’ day out. You in?”

                “Uh, sure. I think. I’d better check with my mom though, in the morning. I don’t want to ask now, she’ll be in bed.”

                “Okay,” Melissa says.

                Tiffany says, “Your mom won’t care though, will she?”

                Saying that my mom would be ecstatic to hear I was going for a girls’ day out to the mall tomorrow with my new friends would be the understatement of the century, I know. Mom will be more than happy for me to go out with the girls to the mall. But I should tell her I’m going, so she doesn’t worry.

                I shrug. “I should just let her know, is all. I mean, I never –”

                Shut up shut up shut up!

                I stop talking midsentence, and then pick a piece of nonexistent lint from the bed in front of me. My stomach twists about uncomfortably, and I want to beat myself up for almost slipping up. Nobody ever needs to know that I was a complete and utter loser in Maine. Nobody.

                I’d been about to say ‘I never went out to the mall with friends before. And I didn’t have friends whose houses I’d sleep over.’

                That’s when I realize that this is really my first slumber party.

                First house party, first slumber party, first kiss. It was certainly a night of firsts for me.

                I made a mental note that slumber parties weren’t like in movies or books. Definitely no pillow fights and no makeovers, no painting our nails or – okay, there was plenty of gossiping, especially about guys, so I’ll hand it to the movies on that.

                “Never what?” Melissa asks me.

                “Huh?”

                “You didn’t finish talking. You never what?”

                “Oh,” I say. My heart pounds against my ribcage, and I think on my feet. “I just, uh, I meant I never go out without letting my mom know where I’m going. She likes to know where I am, is all.”

                Phew. Now that was a close one.

                Man, I am such an idiot.

                “My dad’s like that,” Summer says. “Well, not so much now of course, but like, he always used to make me ring so he knew where I was. It was like, ‘Ring me when you get to the movies,’ ‘Text me to let me know when you leave,’” she says in a deep voice, pulling faces. We laugh at her attempt at impersonating her dad – not that I know if it was a good impersonation or not, but either way, it was funny.

                Then Tiffany yawns hugely then flicks her hair over her shoulder. I catch the yawn and hold a hand over my mouth as Tiffany announces, “I’m going to get changed for bed. I don’t know about you guys but now that boozy buzz is gone, I’m freaking tired.”

                It’s Melissa’s turn to catch the yawn then, and she says in a muffled voice through the yawn, “Yeah, partying sure makes me sleep like a baby the next night.”

                “It’s not the party that gets me,” Summer says, “it’s the hangover I hate.”

                I laugh, and then scramble off the bed, trying to maneuver myself out of the spot between Tiffany and Summer without falling off the bed. I almost manage it, too; I only trip when I catch my foot on the edge of the bed before I stand up. I grab my bag from where it’s sat by the wall, out of the way, and sling it over my shoulder.

                I don’t know if they’re all going to change in here or what, but I know I’m changing in the bathroom. I may not be so chubby now as I used to be, but that doesn’t mean I’m any less self-conscious of my body. I can act more confident as the new Madison, sure, but when it comes down to it, I’m still insecure as heck. Even in gym class, I made sure to turn up late enough that everyone else would be changed already but early enough that I wouldn’t get caught out for being tardy to class.

                “I’m going to grab the bathroom before you guys then,” I laugh, like I’m not feeling insecure and self-conscious at all, and I head out, locking the door behind me, before any of them can say a word.

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I know it's only short but I hope this gave you a bit of an insight into Madison after her kiss with Bryce :) I'll upload the next one on Monday, unless unforseen circumstances lead me to be away from my laptop!