I didn't realize it had been almost a year since I started this! I've had this chapter in my head for months and couldn't decide how to finish it. Thanks so much to jaceb1 for inspiring me to finish the next chapter. This one starts 7 years before the first, where it all begins. Hope you enjoy!

Moment 2: Love's first kiss

All he could think as she closed the door behind her with the summer sun flowing around her was that she looked like an angel. Her white dress looked pure curved around her milky skin. Her blonde hair looked soft, golden, touchable. She was beautiful.

But she was more than that. She had become one of his best friends that summer. He had thought it was going to be harder to see Brenda off to Paris but the truth was that it was a relief. As much as they loved each other, they had needed the break. Everything had gotten too intense and now he could breathe. It would be better once she got back than before she had left.

What he never planned to tell Bren was that this had been the best summer he had spent in a long time, maybe ever. As he looked at Kelly, her smile bright and her eyes warm, he knew she was the major reason for it.

"Hey, stranger," she said in her typical high-pitched friendly tone. "What are you up to?"

He gave her a lopsided smile and rubbed the tips of his fingers against the palm of his other hand. "I wondered if Jackie and Mel needed another babysitter tonight." He picked up a VHS tape from the couch. "I rented another old movie just in case."

Her face brightened. "Another Bogie flick?"

His eyes shifted to the ground and he chuckled softly. "I'm starting to think you have a thing for bad boys."

"Well," she said, smiling coyly, "my reputation has always preceded me."

His face grew serious and a cloud shifted over his featured. "Kel, I wasn't saying anything about your reputation."

Her smile faded and she walked farther into the room. "I know. But no matter what I do, someone is always going to remember me as the blonde bimbo, so I might as well laugh at it, right?"

"Kelly, I've known you since we were five years old," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"You've done a lot of things that I know you're not proud of. So have I. But you have never been a bimbo."

She searched his eyes deeply until she knew he was telling the truth and her bright smiled slowly returned. She tried not to notice how much she liked the feel of his hand against her skin. "Mel and Jackie are taking Erin to my grandparents' for the night. But we could still play the movie here in the cabana."

His eyes brightened with relief and excitement. "Maybe pop some popcorn?"

"Sure," she giggled. "We've got Scrabble too. Maybe it'll help us prepare for English next year."

With both hands around her waist, he plopped her down on the couch. "I don't want to think about school yet!" He popped the movie in the VCR and took a Jiffy pop bag out of the cabinet and put it on the small range, turning it on with a flick of his wrist.

She reached for the Scrabble game underneath the end table next to the couch. Looking behind her, she watched him move around her cabana kitchen with a laugh. "You've mooched off us way too long this summer if you already know where everything is!"

Feigning offense, he put his hands over his heart and furrowed his brow. "I can always take my Bogie tape and go home if you want me to."

Her perfectly arched brow raised and she puckered her lips. "No, I don't want you to go."

As he walked past her towards the couch, he quickly pecked her cheek. "Good." Neither noticed the gesture. It felt so normal, so casual, so right. It felt as though they had been close like this forever. It didn't feel wrong or out of place.

The movie played in the background, but they paid little attention to it except for when Kelly would giggle at Dylan's Bogart impersonation or jump when someone in the movie got shot.

Finally, as she placed the word "nonsense" on the Scrabble board, she said, "You know, I don't have a clue what's going on in this movie."

He looked back at the TV screen as "The Big Sleep" played on. "Nobody does," he said with a shrug. "That's part of the beauty of the movie. None of it makes sense and yet you can't stop watching it."

"Why?" she said, wrinkling her forehead.

He looked away thoughtfully. "Probably because of Bogie and Bacall."

She shook her head. "Who?"

"Bacall," he repeated. "Lauren Bacall. She's the pretty blonde playing the old man's daughter."

"What about her?" she said as she added up his points on the pad of paper in front of her.

"This was her first movie," he said quietly, watching her hand movie across the tablet. "And they fell in love."

Her head jerked up and her jaw dropped. "But he's like 30 years older than her!"

"He was married too." He shrugged again.

"Ew," she said, turning up her nose. "And this is why people watch this movie?"

He looked deeply into her eyes and said, "What they did wasn't right, but they loved each other.

And through everything, they ended up together. They loved each other til the day he died."

She stared back at him until the stillness consumed them both and she finally looked away. "I guess it is sort of romantic," she said, watching the screen as Bogie kisses her in the car. But couldn't she pick someone who wasn't married?"

He shook his head. "You can't decide who you fall in love with, Kel. That's what makes love so magical."

Deciding to steer the conversation to a more playful level, she smiled brightly and said, "Who would have thought the bad boy of West Bev would be such a romantic?"

His face was still serious as he said, "You did."

It was dark in the room now that the sun had faded past the shore. Only one single lamp shone in the room, highlighting the spark of his eyes and the shine of her hair. Just above a whisper, she said, "Yeah, I guess I did. Ever since my birthday in kindergarten when you gave me that "best buddies" bracelet and planted that big, mushy kiss on my lips."

He crooked his head and looked at her in a sideways slant. "It was not mushy."

"Oh, yes, it was," she laughed heartily. "It was also my first kiss."

He looked down at the Scrabble board with a small grin. He barely noticed that most of the words were love, kiss, tremble, secret. Looking back up at her glowing eyes, he said, "I'd like to think I've much improved my kissing skills since kindergarten."

She looked at him wryly, mimicking his cocked head. "I don't know. I think you'd still be mushy."

"I have to defend my honor now!" he said, throwing up his arms. He made a swift moment towards her and she slid off the chair giving a small, girly shriek. He chased her around the front room, trying to catch her to tickle her.

"No!" she yipped. "Don't you dare!" She swatted at his hands as his fingers tickled her stomach.

"Oh, it's too late," he warned. "You're in trouble now!" He pulled her close to him until their hips touched. She accidentally rubbed against him and they stopped laughing.

"Dylan," she said on a soft whisper.

He looked into her cloudy eyes. He saw fear, passion, desire, and confusion. He saw what he was feeling too. Ever so slightly he felt her fall even so closer to his body and that's all it took. He bent down and kissed her softly until her lips responded. His arms wrapped around her back and her hands came up into his hair until they clung to each other, grasping for every inch of each other. His lips sipped at hers as his hand slid from the small of her back up to the base of her neck. He played with the strings of her blouse and his tongue dipped into her mouth, searching for hers.

She pulled away with a fierce yelp, panting as she reached behind her to make sure he hadn't loosened the strings of her outfit.

"Kelly, I didn't—" he started, coming closer.

"No." She put her hand up, walking backwards. "We can't do this, Dylan." Her eyes shut hard.

"We don't want to do this."

Pleadingly, his voice shook as he said, "Maybe we do."

Picking up her chin, she stared him straight in the eye. "I don't." She picked up her back. He reached for her wrist and she jerked it away. "I've got to go, Dylan."

"No, you don't." He was so confused. He wanted to sit down at talk about it. He wanted to know what he should do. He wanted to know what she wanted him to do. "Kelly, don't go."

Taking a deep breath, she tried to smile, wanting to look as nonchalant and normal as possible. "Look, it was no big deal. We just got a little carried away. Why don't you call me tomorrow and we can talk about it then?"

He nodded and said quietly, "Okay. Night, Kel."

She blinked and said, "Night, Dylan." She had no intention of answering the phone tomorrow. She wouldn't. She couldn't.

But damn it if she wanted to.

TBC