The kiss only lasted a couple of seconds, but even after he pulled away, I could still feel the pressure of his lips on mine. Cole smiled as he took the key and opened the door while I just stood there like an idiot, gawping after him.
I shook my head in a daze and walked inside. Dad was the only one up, probably waiting for me.
“Hi, sweetheart, did you have a good night?” he asked as he looked up from the screen. I nodded and chewed on my lip.
“Good. Well, I’m going to bed now. You should too, okay? Goodnight, Cole.”
“Night, Max,” Cole replied, and turned to me. “You really had a good time?” he asked, looking unsure of himself. I nodded my head and smiled, my jaw ached from trying not to smile too much.
“Good. I did too… Well, Miss, I should get going. Goodnight,” he said in a fake posh accent, making me grin. He gently kissed my forehead and walked backwards, closing my front door.
I skipped up to my room and stripped out of my clothes, throwing on the first set of pyjamas I saw. Nothing could ruin my mood tonight. I had had my first kiss, and it was with someone I was crazy about.
As I wrapped my cover around myself, my phone beeped, and I knew it was from Cole: ‘Night. X’.
I smiled and typed a reply, ‘Night Cole. X’. As usual though, I didn’t press send.
In the morning, I woke up to Jasper shaking my arm. Could he not just call my name?
“Get up. We’re being forced to go to Aunt Ali’s.” He scowled..
Visiting Ali was something we both dreaded. Ali was great; it was my cousin, Lizzie, who was the problem. Lizzie was one year older than I was and convinced she was going to be the next supermodel. I doubted if anyone had seen her face in years – it was trapped under layers of inch-thick make-up. Her hair was bleached a white blonde and sat just below her shoulder blades.
In Lizzie’s eyes, if you weren’t perfect, you weren’t even worth bothering about. In front of everyone, she was sweet and innocent, but once we were, alone she was bitchy and judgemental. I wasn’t her idea of perfection, and she made me know that. I don’t know why she was like that because as children we got along but when I stopped talking she stopped liking me. I wasn’t sure if she was hurt that I wouldn’t come to her or if she really only cared about image.
I dressed slowly to put off leaving the house for as long as I could. Eventually, though, Mum shouted for me to hurry me up.
It took just under twenty minutes to get to their house. We hadn’t even gotten out of the car, and I already wanted to go home. As we made our way towards the house, the front door swung open, and Ali rushed out.
Ali and Mum both jumped into each other’s arms and laughed. They were close in age and were like best friends as well as sisters. She gave me, Dad and Jasper a kiss on the cheek and ushered us inside.
Ali’s house was really modern. After she divorced Lizzie’s dad, five years ago, she had received a lot of money from the settlement, and used it to renovate. The place was decorated with the most expensive everything. The kitchen was stainless steel and looked like it belonged in a swanky restaurant. Every one of the four rooms had en-suite bathrooms and a walk-in closet. If it weren’t for Lizzie, I would look forward to going there.
Ali led us into the lounge, where she had laid on sandwiches and cakes. Lizzie was sitting on the sofa, tapping away on her phone with one hand and running her fingers through her hair with the other.
As soon as Lizzie saw us, after a momentary greeting, she launched into chatting about how she was entering a modelling contest that was being held at our local mall, and how she was hoping that would be her big break. Unlikely, but if it got Lizzie away, far away, then I hoped it would be her big break.
After what felt like half an hour of listening to her drone on about her outfit that cost her over a hundred pounds, Ali told Lizzie to take me upstairs and show it to me. Jasper was grinning as I reluctantly got up. Just because I was a girl didn’t mean I was going to go all crazy over a dress.
“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” she gushed, running her acrylic nails over the fabric of the dress hanging on the outside of her wardrobe. I nodded in agreement and tried to hide my horror. The neon pink dress must barely cover her butt.
“You should totally enter the contest too. You’re not exactly ugly, and you can just, like, nod or something if someone asks you a question. Although you’d need to wear something nice.”
I smiled and sat down on my hands, as the urge to slap her grew stronger. I wasn’t a violent person at all, but Lizzie really pushed me sometimes.
“Ooh, how’s your gorgeous friend? You totally should have brought him with you.” Lizzie fluffed up her hair up and smirked at me.