Not made for each other - 6. First Kiss

Chapter 6: First Kiss

I promptly scrambled off my bed, thinking about Kev, our date and the much awaited kiss. When I came downstairs, mom was in kitchen. We talked for some time. I also informed…lied to her that I had to teach a bunch of students while our school was closed and I wouldn’t be at home for four or five hours. Thankfully, she bought my lame lie. I went back to my bedroom and took a generous amount of time getting ready. For the first time in my life, I thought I was looking good, if not great. I wore a red v-neck t-shirt and black jeans. When I came downstairs, Kev was already there, chatting with my mom in the living room. He was in a peach three-quarter sleeved shirt and dark brown jeans. He was looking extraordinarily charming and hot.

“I’m ready,” I announced in a whisper. Their heads turned in my direction and when they saw me, they began to stare with wide eyes. I guess I was actually looking good.

“Suddenly the temperature in this room has climbed severely,” my mom gibed, coming towards me, “and I guess I’m not the only one who feels this way,” she added looking back at Kev, who was still glued to the sofa, dumbfounded. My mom’s teasing brought him back to his senses. He stood up and walked towards me.

“Zune, you…you are looking damn…” Kev couldn’t complete his sentence due to the scarcity of an appropriate word.

“…sexy,” my mom suggested curling her lips.

“Yeah, sexy. You are actually looking damn sexy, Zune,” he praised me with a slight smile.

“Oooo…I think someone is going to need a bunch of condoms today,” my mom teased Kev with a playful smile.

“Mom!” I scolded her, restraining my smile. Kev and I were totally embarrassed. Poor Kev was looking down to conceal his discomfort.

“Oh, come on. Don’t ‘mom’ me now. I’m not going to stop you from doing ‘ding-dong’, I was just talking about the precautions,” my great mom elaborated unnecessarily.

“Kev, I think it’s getting late,” I gave him my cue to leave NOW because I knew as long as we stood there, my mom would take every opportunity to verbally torture us.

“Yeah. Yeah. We should leave now,” he agreed immediately, seemed too eager to get out of this excruciating situation, “bye, Jenny,” he held my right hand and led me towards the front door. I heard my mom chuckling.

“Bye, mom,” I said looking back.

“Don’t forget to get condoms boys, and Zune, I’ll not let you enter the home if I found out you are still a virgin at the end of the day,” she blurted somewhat loudly as we were about to leave, and then I heard her laughing uproariously. OMG! She’s impossible.

Kev had brought his mom’s car specifically for our date. He opened the passenger door like a gentleman, waited for me to get in, and then walked around to the other side, sliding into the driver’s seat. We laughed out loud talking about my mother and her ‘amazing’ sense of humor. Then he began talking about the day ahead; about our date. I asked him where we were going and he replied in just one word, ‘surprise’.

After driving for merely five minutes, he parked in front of a beautiful house. When we got out of the car, he informed me that it was his house. During this whole month, I never had been at his home or met his mom. When we walked inside, his mom welcomed me warmly. His mom, I observed, was a noble lady. She didn’t speak much but I could tell she was happy to see me, and happy to see us together. She asked me about my mom, but never raised a question about my father. Perhaps Kev had already told her about him.

She also showed me around her home. When we reached Kev’s bedroom, I discovered two photo frames on his night table. One of the frames displayed his parents’ picture and the other one had my picture. It was a picture of me eating chocolate that was taken by Kev in my kitchen. An unintentional smile played over my lips.

Stella, Kev’s mom, baked a delicious chocolate cake for the three of us. After spending nearly three hours with her, Kev and I decided to leave. She commanded me to not to be a stranger and hugged us both. She was caring, loving and definitely a great cook; just like my mother, minus that crazy sense of humor that my mom has.

After leaving Kev’s home, we talked about his parents. He shared many of his memorable childhood moments with me and the one person who stood out in each of them was his father. I really appreciated the way he told me so many things which Carol was even unaware of. In our conversation, he also denoted me as his family member more than once. I felt proud and blessed.

Later on, he drove us to a church; St. Thomas’ Church. All of a sudden my train of thought diverted towards Mr. Arrogant. Tomorrow I have to meet him at this same place, oh God.

“What are we doing here?” I was puzzled, because when you talk about going on a date, the last place you would think of going is to a church.

“Are you an atheist?” he asked dubiously.

“No I’m not, but you know when you talk about a date…”

“…church is the last place you would think of,” Kev completed the sentence for me, reading my thoughts just perfectly.

“Yeah. Is it a spiritual kind of date?” I asked squinting.

“NO,” he denied instantly, “I just wanted to show you this place,” he admitted with his cute smile. He took my hand and led me inside.

It was the first time that I was ever here. There wasn’t anyone else there except us. I was astounded to see the interior of that old but stupendous church. The church consisted of a long, rectangular central hall divided by four longitudinal rows of columns, creating a central nave and four side aisles. A wide, high doorway opened into the nave; the doorways to the aisles were smaller. At one end of the nave, was the chancel. It was largely contained in an apse in the eastern wall covered with a half-dome which was decorated with mosaics featuring the figure of Jesus. The roof of the church was gabled and surfaced on the outside with tiles. The shadowy interior of the building which was lined with burning candles made the atmosphere spiritual. I was in love with this place.

“You like it?” Kev asked anxiously.

“I love it,” I concluded still roaming my eyes around this masterpiece.

After moving around each and every part of the church many times, I lit a few candles. I clasped my hands together intertwined my fingers, and closed my eyes to pray. Somewhere in between the prayer, I felt Kev’s hands over my clasped hands from behind and his chin resting on my shoulder. This time the sudden proximity of Kev didn’t bother me, on the contrary, I found myself more relaxed. I didn’t open my eyes; we stood there and prayed together.

We left the church after our prayer. I loved the way our date was going. I was having great fun.

“I hope our visit to my home and the church didn’t bore you,” Kev said while driving, looking straight ahead at the road.

“You know Kev, if you had told me earlier that we were going to these places on our date, I would have called this whole idea entirely dull and would have rejected it altogether. But today when I actually went to these places, I’m glad you kept it a surprise. Honestly Kev, when I was with your mom, when I was in the church, I enjoyed every moment of it. I never ever thought that a date could be planned this way. I’m really impressed,” I asserted with a wide and true smile. He responded with a smile of relief and satisfaction.

“So where are we going now?” I inquired curiously.

“Wait and watch.” That was the only answer I got.

Finally, Kev parked the car. When we got out of the car I looked around the parking lot. I noticed we were standing outside a movie theater which was showing my favorite movie, “Titanic”, in 3D.

“OMIGOD…OMIGOD…Kev, you…you just made my day! I can’t believe this…I really can’t!” I jumped on him and gave him a big hug in excitement. You could say I was overexcited.

“I thought you would like it,” he admitted with a blush.

“Like it? LIKE IT? I LOVE IT, KEV!” I squealed and hugged him again. We went in the movie theater like blissful young lovers. I really enjoyed the movie and cried like a baby when Rose tried to wake Jack up in the end. Kev handed me some tissues and even asked if I was feeling okay. I couldn’t resist my smile on the genuine concern in his voice. I nodded and a similar smile crept over his face. When we came out of theater I was delighted. For me, this day was one big perfect date and now I was waiting for Kev’s next surprise.

“It’s time for the last surprise,” Kev mentioned while driving.

“And what is it?” I asked impatiently.

“Have patience, Mr. Zune Williams,” he advised in a teasing way.

On our way we discussed every scene of “Titanic”. Ultimately, when Kev parked the car and we got out, I noticed that we were standing in front of Hoardle’s; the first place where we went together. I was touched, really touched. I looked at him with moist eyes. He held my hand with authority and we went inside. We got a table for three as every two-seated table was already taken. We ordered the same things; two small hamburgers and two small pepperoni pizzas with extra cheese. Before our order was brought to our table, I told him the same lie that I spoke about earlier this morning; about teaching some kids. He asked who the kids were. I covered that lie with another lie. I told him that some of Ariel’s friends’ parents wanted someone to teach their kids till our school re-opens. Then he asked how they contacted me. I lied again and told him that Ariel’s mom suggested my name to them and gave them my contact details. He was definitely not happy to learn that we would not be able to spend as much time together as we were spending before. I tried to console him and said that we could still hang out in the evenings. I also told him to inform Carol, Jake and Ron about all this. He agreed and became silent.

A few minutes later the waitress brought our food to the table. Kev was still disappointed and not saying anything.

“Why are we so silent like we’re in detention or something?” I asked him the same question that he had asked me when we were here for the first time. The knowing smile that I was waiting for immediately spread over his handsome face.

“Because we don’t know how to start a conversation when we have a crush on the person sitting right in front of us,” he replied and both of us couldn’t hold back our laugh. We were still laughing when I saw someone else’s shadow over our table.

“Hi, sexy!”A guy of around my age and height greeted Kev in the sultriest voice possible, leaning on him unnecessarily. Kev’s smile was wiped off his face in a flash. He looked nervous and uncomfortable.

“H…Hi, Joey,” Kev hesitantly greeted him back. That guy, Joey, grabbed an empty chair, scooted it towards Kev’s chair and sat down. Their knees were brushing, (though I was sure Joey was doing it deliberately). Who the hell was he?

“Joey, this is…this is Zune. My boyfriend,” Kev introduced me. As soon as Joey heard the word, ‘boyfriend’, he looked at me like I was a contagious disease, but still I gave him a modest smile.

“And Zune, this is Joey. My…my…”

“…ex-boyfriend,” Joey completed for him, looking at me, raising his eyebrows as if showing me that at some point in time they were with each other. What the hell? I gave Kev a questioning look in frustration and he mouthed ‘sorry’. I took a deep breath and decided to behave like a gentleman and to ignore the absurd behavior of our unwelcomed guest.

“Hi, Joey,” I acknowledged him with a faux smile. He didn’t even bother to respond. He diverted his gaze to Kev, who was looking down at the table awkwardly.

“So tell me Kev, how have you been…without me?” Joey asked leaning towards Kev. Kev shot him an annoying look.

“Great,” he answered crisply, looking directly into his eyes and then shifted his gaze over to me, “Zune, let’s go somewhere else,” he added with authority. I was glad to have an opportunity to skip this agonizing situation, but before we could leave our seats, Joey put his right hand on Kev’s left thigh and squeezed.

“Come on Kev, don’t be like that. We have just bumped into each other after such a long time and you want to leave now? I don’t think your boyfriend would mind if you talk to your ex-boyfriend for awhile,” he smirked suggestively.

“No, he won’t, but I would,” Kev snapped.

“Oh, come on, Kev, stop acting like a stubborn kid. There was a time when you were looking for as many ways to spend some ‘quality time’ alone with me,” Joey reminded him. I was losing my temper. “How could you forget the days we spent together, the ‘nights’ we had fun, and the endless rounds of incredible sex?,” Oh gosh, he was such a whore “I’m sure your so-called boyfriend isn’t as good in bed as I was. If you would give me another chance, I will prove…”

“Shut your trash bin right now!” I commanded irksomely.

“This is the same trash bin in which your boyfriend used to cram his mouth and his…,” Joey retorted, gritting his teeth but didn’t complete his sentence and left the rest to my imagination.

I didn’t have any answer to that.

“Look Joey, whatever we had between us was in the past. Yes, we were boyfriends, but we were never in love, but now I am in love…” then Kev looked at me, “…with Zune,” he asserted with a confident smile and I smiled back.

“I’m not saying you should leave him. I’m just saying you shouldn’t act like a stranger and we should be friends again.”

Honestly, I was surprised to hear such sensible words from Joey’s mouth and I was sure Kev had the same reaction.

“Friends with benefits,” he added, putting emphasis on each of the three words.

I was cursing myself for even thinking ‘sensible’ and ‘Joey’ in the same sentence. This guy was undoubtedly shameless.

“Joey, get-lost-right-now!” Kev vocalized each word clearly. He definitely was not in one of his best moods at the moment.

Joey bolted from his seat, “One day you’ll regret your unreasonable decision,” he hissed, giving me a disgusted look before he finally left.

“I am really sorry, Zune. I really don’t know what he was doing here,” Kev apologized after his ex’s departure.

“Kev, please, I just don’t want to be here anymore,” I insisted in a tone that suggested ‘I-am-upset’.

“But, you haven’t eaten anything yet.”

“Kev, please.”

He nodded, “Okay. I’ll just run to the bathroom, and then we’ll leave.” I didn’t respond.

Kev was in the bathroom for at least ten minutes when I decided to see if he was okay. I stood up and walked towards the bathroom looking for him. I was feeling guilty for my behavior. Kev planned a perfect date for me and in return I acted like a jealous prick. If that asshole Joey appeared out of the blue without any prior warning, then it wasn’t Kev’s fault at all. I decided to apologize to him.

As I reached the corridor leading to bathroom, I found Kev and Joey in a very compromising position. Kev was pinned against the wall on the right-hand side of the corridor and Joey was kissing him hungrily. They were so close that there wasn’t enough space for a needle to go through them. I stood there motionless for few seconds in complete shock. Soon my presence got their attention and Kev jerked away like a shot. Joey tottered but didn’t fall. There was a roguish grin on his face. Kev, on the other hand, ran his right hand through his hair and was trying to say something; to apologize, but no words came out of his mouth; he was speechless. He tried to move towards me but that whore yanked him back in his direction. I had already seen enough, I didn’t want to witness them fucking each other. I turned around and ran to the exit without a word.

I was walking restlessly. I wasn’t able to think straight. The show my, ‘official boyfriend’, and his ex had put on at Hoardle’s was replaying in my mind again and again. I was angry, frustrated, confused and hurt. My eyes were brimming with tears and I couldn’t hold them back.

‘How could he do this to me? On one hand he claims that he loves me, and on the other hand he makes out with his ex on our date, unbelievable! Was he playing with me and my emotions this whole time? Did this past month we spent together mean nothing to him?’ All these questions were driving me nuts. The sharp thunder from above brought me back to reality.

I wiped my tears with the back of my hand and looked around at my surroundings. I had never been to this place before. I was on a dreary, dark and quiet road. There were a large number of various types of trees on either side of the road, but I was only able to recognize the empress trees. The wind was howling through the trees. There was only one streetlight providing a decent, steady light. There weren’t any signs of civilization. This place was deprived of any shops or vehicles. At that moment, I was the only human being present on that scary street. The clouds bellowed again.

First, that sleazy bitch called Joey ruined my mood, then along with Kev, he destroyed my date and now I am on a desolated street, all alone and waiting for the rain to soak me from head to toe. Great. Amazing. I searched for my phone in my pocket to call mom, but it wasn’t there.

‘Oh shit, I left it on the table at Hoardle’s. This day can’t get any worse.’ I thought in my mind.

“Hey hottie, need some help?” A lustful voice snapped me out of my thoughts and proved me wrong; this day was certainly going to be much worse. It was the voice of a guy around twenty, who was in a black BMW with his other three mates. He had slowed down his vehicle’s speed to catch up with my walking pace.

“No,” I replied curtly and kept walking. Suddenly, he sped up his car, turned left and stopped right in front of me, blocking my way. I came to an abrupt stop.

Four of the guys came out of the vehicle. They were the same age and approximately the same build. They were taller and seemed substantially stronger than me. They were moving towards me. The one who was driving and offered me his ‘help’ was leading them. The way they were staring me, I could say that their intentions were not honorable. I was scared, very scared. I opted for the best option in these situations; I turned around and began running but those gutter-worms were quicker than me. Before I could run far, two of them were in front of me, obstructing my way. I looked back. One of the two remaining guys was on my right side, the other was on my left side, and the BMW was right behind me, few feet away. I was totally trapped.

‘Zune, be strong. Be strong.’ I comforted myself.

“Let me go,” my command sounded like pleading.

“Don’t worry babes, we are not gonna hurt you.” One of the guys in front of me tried to assure me but his evil smile gave it away. He was the same guy who seemed to be their leader. “We just wanna help,” he added. All of them began ambling towards me.

“I don’t need your help. Let me go!” I denied his so-called help, holding my breath and stepping back.

“Oh come on, what kind of people we would be if we left you here, all alone. Anything can happen to you.” This time the guy on his left spoke, looking me over from head to toe as if his eyes were equipped with a x-ray vision and he could see beyond my clothes. Bloody pervert.

“You…you don’t have to worry about me. Just…just let me go, please,” I insisted timidly in a tremulous voice. They were still stalking towards me and I was still lurching back.

“If you weren’t alone then we would definitely let you go, but as we can see that nobody is here with you, we can’t put such a fine piece of meat in danger. Just tell us your address, honey. We’ll drop you off there and on the way you could entertain us.” Their leader suggested lasciviously. The way he uttered, ‘a fine piece of meat’, and, ‘you could entertain, us’, I wanted to puke.

I couldn’t move backwards anymore as my back was now pressed against the car’s door and four of them were about to reach me with their dirty desires.

“I’m not alone,” I blurted.

“What?” One of them asked, obviously not believing me.

“I’m not alone. I…I’m with my boyfriend,” I lied.

“Oh really, then where is he?” another guy inquired and all of them started laughing as if I had told them a very funny joke. I was surrounded by them. They were inches away from me. Their leader put his hand on my right side, pressing against the car’s window glass.

“He…he…” I had no answer. I was horrified to even think what was going to happen to me.

“I think you are really missing your boyfriend. Don’t worry babes, we can happily play that role one by one for you,” their leader joked wickedly. He began leaning in…no, no it’s not happening to me.

“Please…no…” I literally begged but he was still leaning in. My eyes were already wet. I was about to start crying at any moment.

“LEAVE HIM!” I heard a familiar dominating voice, followed by another raucous roar of thunder. I couldn’t see his face because four of them were towering over me. I prayed that my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me.

All four heads turned in the direction of the voice, and I caught a glimpse of him. I had never felt so relieved and happy to see him.

“Don’t you dare to touch him,” he warned them, “I have already called the cops. You guys are so gone,” he informed them clenching his jaw. His face was red with rage but I could see concern in his eyes. I hastily ran towards him, shoving my tormentors out of my way. I hugged him tightly and wailed like a child. I tried to curb my emotions but I failed miserably. I was sobbing inconsolably. A few moments later, he ambivalently hugged me back.

“Th…Those guys…they…they were…” I babbled between my sobs, trembling convulsively with dread.

“Shush, shush, Zune, they’re gone,” he consoled me. I looked in the direction of where I was being tortured minutes ago. There wasn’t any sign of them or their vehicle; they probably disappeared, hearing the news about the arrival of the cops, but I was still scared that they were going to come up from somewhere at any moment.

“They’re going to come again; they’re going to try to…try to…” I couldn’t complete the sentence as I was weeping hard thinking about what could have happened to me today if he hadn’t showed up. I could have…could have been raped.

“They didn’t hurt you, Zune; they couldn’t have. I wouldn’t let them,” he assured me, tightening his hold around me as if trying to secure me from the entire world.

“They would have…raped me, I could have been raped, they could…” I was still blabbing absurdly, lost in my awful thoughts.

“Zune. Zune, look at me, please look at me,” he pleaded, cupping my face between his hands. I obliged and looked at him with my teary eyes.

“I wouldn’t ever let anything bad happen to you. Trust me,” he tried to convince me, peering into my eyes. A few strings of my hair were oscillating before my eyes, because of the invigorating wind, but even they couldn’t stop me from staring in his dark brown eyes unblinkingly. It’s so strange; Edward was the last guy on this earth I would have trusted and now at this moment, he’s the one I trust the most.

We remained that way for many minutes, looking in each other’s eyes with my face still cupped between his hands. I didn’t have any idea what I was feeling at that moment and I was sure it would always remain an unsolved mystery for me. He wiped away my flowing tears using his thumbs, and then leaned in hesitantly and slowly, as if giving me enough moments to back away. I was not a five year old who didn’t know what was about to happen. I had the proper time and opportunity to stop him or step back, but I didn’t do either.

Soon, a heavy thunderstorm brought torrential rain and water began pouring down in buckets from the starless, dark sky. I closed my eyes and he pressed his lips against mine so gently that I melted. As our lips touched, foreign but feel-good warmth radiated through his soft lips to mine and a wave of unknown feelings ran through my body. I opened my mouth just slightly and felt his tongue on mine. Soon, I was responding to his kiss. He pressed close against me as the kiss deepened, curling his arms around my neck and tumbling into pure sensation. I felt the mesmerizing softness of his hair as I ran my fingers through it. We were kissing each other passionately. His soothing touch was giving me this feeling of being so achingly alive that every nerve in my body was ending on fire, despite the heavy rain. It was the most earth-shattering kiss in the long and glorious history of kisses.

And then memories of Kev crossed my mind like a shot; and pictures of his cute and charming face swam before my eyes. How could I forget the way he looks at me, the way he smiles, the way he mouths ‘sorry’, the way he says ‘I love you’, the way he planned our first date, the way he was excited about OUR ‘first kiss’...and…and what was I doing? Omigod…OMIGOD…no. No, it’s not happening. My first kiss with…no…no,no,no. I was supposed to share my first kiss with Kev…oh God, please, no. Thoughts of Kev jolted me and pulled me back to my reality. I pushed Edward away, applying all my strength and opened my eyes. He stumbled but managed not to fall down. It was still raining hard and both of us were panting heavily but the prime cause of it was not the rain; it was that long and unexpectedly pleasant kiss which we shared moments ago.

I was staring at him incredulously, clutching the neck of my t-shirt with my right hand and shaking my head in disbelief. He was looking at me as if he had just committed the biggest blunder of his life. He was running his hands through his hair which I was doing minutes before. I was shuddering with the cold and trying to convince myself that this was all just a lousy and weird dream, but unfortunately, that was not the case. We both were trying to say something but nothing came out of our mouths.

We were still standing there in the rain, mute, trying to figure out what to do and what to say, when a sharp light made me cover my eyes with the back of my right hand. When I was able to see the origin of the light, I gasped in fear. It was the same BMW, parked at the same spot where I was harassed awhile ago, and the same bunch of assholes climbed out of it, but this time they were not alone. Another black Volvo was parked on the right side and five more guys emerged from it.

“Where are the cops? Wh…why aren’t they here yet?” I asked Edward in a panic, still looking at those assholes in horror. But when he didn’t answer, I shifted my gaze to him and the way he was looking at me I was sure that no cops were coming; he never called them. He lied to frighten them. GREAT!! And now I…WE were in a BIG trouble.

“Is he that fine piece of meat you dickheads were talking about?” asked the tallest of the guys who had just climbed out of the Volvo. He was looking at me with hunger in his eyes, ready to pounce. He had a vicious smile and I started to panic all over again.

“Yes, he’s that hottie, boss,” the guy who earlier I thought was their leader, nodded in agreement, “I guess the cops are too busy tonight to save you, babes,” he jeered maliciously, looking at me while they all started laughing wildly.

Nine of them were prowling towards us in a menacing manner.

TBC.