Ian fidgeted nervously in his chair as his best friend stared back at him, seemingly amused. "You want me to what?" Anthony asked him.

His face turned an even deeper shade of red as he rephrased his question. "I need your advice on kissing."

Anthony immediately started giggling, much to Ian's annoyance. "Why me?"

"Because you've already had your first kiss and I've been going out with Rachel for a few weeks now and I don't know what to do," Ian frowned as Anthony's giggles turned into full blown laughter. "Come on dude. Try to be serious for once!"

"Okay okay," Anthony's laughter subsided and he sat up properly in his bed. "So what exactly do you want to know?"

Keeping a steady gaze on his lap, Ian shrugged. "I don't know. I guess…I wanna know how I'll be able to tell when she wants me to kiss her. Like, what are the signals?"

Anthony patted a space next to him on the bed. "Come here." Ian obliged and sat down next to him.

"Well, she'll probably say something like 'Ian, you're really cute. Can you kiss me now?'" Anthony pouted his lips and made kissing noises in Ian's direction, to which he responded by hitting him repeatedly until he finally stopped.

"Anthony!" he protested.

"Fine, I'm sorry," Anthony raised his hands apologetically. "Okay, lesson number one. You can never tell what a girl is really thinking so don't even try. Girls never say what they mean."

"That sounds complicated," Ian groaned.

"Girls are complicated," Anthony nodded in agreement. "What exactly do you like about Rachel?"

"I don't know," Ian shrugged. "What does the have to do with anything?"

"Well obviously if you don't even like her that much then you shouldn't even waste your time worrying about kissing her," Anthony stated.

"Did you like Hayley when you kissed her?" Ian questioned him.

Anthony paused for a moment as he thought about it. "I guess so. She was alright."

"But did you like her a lot?" Ian pressed.

"Not really," Anthony replied.

Now Ian was really confused. Anthony seemed to be contradicting himself. "Then why did you kiss her?"

"To get it over with. Isn't that why everyone does it?" Anthony rolled his eyes.

"But wouldn't you want your first kiss to be with someone special that you really care about?"
"Dude, we're only fourteen," Anthony chuckled. "None of that stuff matters yet."

"Whatever," Ian dismissed him. "Anyway, you haven't finished telling me what to do."

"Alright, well the location is kind of important. Don't have your first kiss at school, especially in front of other people. If you mess up then you don't want loads of witnesses who will make fun of you about it forever."

"Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence," Ian said drily.

"Don't kiss her at the movies, it's so clichéd and you might miss a good part of the movie," Anthony told him.

"Priorities," Ian smirked.

"You know it," Anthony laughed. "The best place would be at your house or something. It doesn't really matter that much, as long as you're alone."

"How am I supposed to get her on her own? We're nearly always hanging out with a bunch of people and I don't want to bring her home. My mom will just embarrass me," Ian complained.

"I don't have all the answers," Anthony sighed. "So anyway, when you've got her on her won and you're talking or whatever, she might start making subtle hints at you but you can never be one hundred percent certain."

"Okay," Ian nodded slowly.

"She might bite and lick her lips a lot or keep leaning into you."
"That sounds kind of disturbing," Ian pulled a face.

"That's your girlfriend you're talking about," Anthony smirked at him. "She's probably expecting you to make the first move so you'll have to do most of the work."

"Put your arm around her or something and then watch her expression to check if she's okay with it," Anthony said and demonstrated what he was talking about by draping an arm over Ian's shoulder.

Ian started at Anthony's arm, confused by the gesture. "What are you doing?"
"You wanted my help, right?"

"I guess…" Ian muttered.

"Trust me then. So if she likes it then she'll probably smile and relax against you," Anthony continued.

"You mean like this?" Ian shifted so that his arm was around Anthony's back and was now gently pressed against his side.

Anthony was silent for a moment as he contemplated the situation. "Anthony?"

"Y-yeah that's fine," Anthony stuttered as Ian regained his attention.

"Then what?"

Anthony couldn't help staring at his friend who was so close to him, their faces merely inches apart. He searched Ian's face to try and detect what he was thinking at that point in time but those blue eyes of his gave nothing away. Before he could think about what he was doing, he brushed a stray hair from Ian's face with his spare hand. "I guess you just do what feels right," he murmured.

Almost subconsciously, they leaned in closer and closer. Anthony's eyelids fluttered shut as he felt Ian's lips tentatively brush against his own and he immediately kissed back, pulling him in closer.

Eventually they pulled away and Ian was quick to apologise. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry Anthony! I-I don't know why I did that…"he trailed off as he realised that Anthony didn't look like he cared. If anything, he looked pretty pleased with himself.

"Not bad for your first time," Anthony smirked at him, folding his arms and leaning back against his pillow.

"W-what…aren't we gonna talk about what just happened?" Ian couldn't believe how casual Anthony was being.

Anthony faked a yawn. "We kissed. Skin on skin contact. Not really a big deal," he said.

Ian raised a brow. "Not a big deal?"

Anthony shook his head in response. As an idea formed in his head, a smile slowly spread across Ian's face. "So you wouldn't mind if we did that again?"

"Nope," Anthony smiled back at him. Ian didn't hesitate to soot over to where Anthony was lying and kiss him once again. Anthony thread his fingers through Ian's hair and gently tugged as they deepened the kiss, opening his mouth to allow Ian's tongue in.

When they pulled away they were both grinning. "You're a pretty fast learner," Anthony commented.

"I have a good teacher," Ian laughed.

"If you kiss her like that then you should have no problems," Anthony told him.

"Who?"

Anthony rolled his eyes. "Rachel. Your girlfriend," he reminded him.

A look of realisation passed over Ian's face. "Oh yeah, I forgot."
"Dumbass," Anthony muttered affectionately.

Ian decided to test something out seeing as Anthony was pretty confident about the whole ordeal. "Do you think maybe we could practice again sometime?"

"Of course," Anthony smiled. "What are friends for?"