THEN- 8th Grade Year

It was stifling hot in New York City. 104 degrees. Although her building was luxury, but not quite that luxury, it didn't have a swimming pool. Luckily Fiona's best friend, Kim's building did.

She called her other best friend Racetrack Higgins to come and swim with them and he was over right away. Fiona shimmered into her new two piece (a tankini, her mother made sure she had some modesty) and did a cannon ball in the pool, splashing Racetrack in the mouth.

"Hey!" he laughed and spit the water at her.

"Eeeeewww!" she squealed swimming away from him and giggling.

She ducked under water and pulled her nose up first to make sure her hair was smooth. She was tired of being the only girl going into 8th grade who had never had a boyfriend and wanted to make sure she wasn't caught dead looking less than her best.

As she pierced the surface, she noticed Race staring intently at her. She bit her lip and turned pink.

"What?"

"Nothing," he answered fanning his wet t-shirt around his body. He hadn't quite hit puberty and going shirtless around the other kids embarrassed him, so he preferred to be lagged down by a sopping wet t-shirt.

But it was something. He hadn't see Fiona in a bathing suit since last summer. And something happened since then: she had breasts now. When he watched her snake out of the water to jump back in again, he couldn't help but notice how her small frame was turning shapely.

An hour later, the three of them found themselves on the patio chairs on the roof deck "tanning". Fiona knew she didn't tan, she was 100 Irish, but she pretended she might anyway. She strapped on her sunglasses and lay back, the way she had seen the cool high school girls do.

"I'm going to go into my apartment real quick. Do you guys want drinks?" Kim asked, standing up and knotting her newly dry hair into a bun.

"Water," Fi nodded.

"Me too," Race echoed.

After a moment of silence, Race took a deep breath. He didn't know why he was about to say this, or if Fiona would never talk to him again after he did it. But he had to do it. He was a man living on the edge. Or so he liked to think.

"Fi?"

"Hmm?" she answered lazily wiping the sweat from her brow and moving her blonde hair out of her face.

"I…um…I like you."

"I like you too Race." She shrugged and applied some lip clear lip-gloss she had kept in her tote bag.

"No Fi, I mean I like you."

She was silent for a moment. Had he always had this thought or had he been struck with the revelation after seeing her in a bathing suit? Her mother had warned her about that this morning and had even wanted her to wear a t-shirt over her suit to ward off dirty old men. She hated the way men were looking at her ever since she started wearing a bra last April.

"Like girlfriend like?" She asked, turning her gaze to him, her skin feeling too small for her body the way it always did after a dip in chlorine.

He nodded.

She didn't know if she liked Race like that, but she was sick of being the only one who'd never had a boyfriend. At this rate, she was going to end up the crazy cat lady. Well, it wasn't like they were going to get married. Besides, he was kind of cute when he smiled. His crooked teeth were kind of endearing. And he had a smattering of freckles over the bridge of his nose she had always liked. True, he wasn't Jack Kelley, but he was cute.

"Then I guess I like you too." She answered shyly.

"You do?" he asked, his voice cracking doing that more and more these days and mortifying him at the worst possible times.

She nodded.

He scooted over next to her and put his arm around her.

"I guess this is the part where I kiss you." He grinned. "Can I?"

She nodded slowly. Thankfully she had just put on her lip-gloss. She didn't want every at school knowing she had chapped lips or something like that.

He inched closer to her and she could feel his heart beating against his chest. She was sure hers was mirroring his. To be this close to a boy, even if it was her best friend, was exhilarating. It was like she was flying, or on a roller coaster: getting really nervous before you flew down into ecstasy.

When their lips finally met (and only lasted for a few seconds), she was surprised at how salty they were against hers.

"Wow," he said when he pulled away, as if that was he was supposed to say. In retrospect, he'd have much more amazing kisses in his life, but that's what people said in movies after kisses.

"Yeah, wow." She answered, feeling his arm snake around her hips, his skin hot against the small patch of skin between her bathing suit top and bottom.

After a minute like this, Race got up so much nerve he'd wish for the next two lifetimes he had never been this stupid.

"Fi?" he asked slowly.

"Yeah?" she answered, pushing her sunglasses up on her nose.

"Can I um, you know, touch them? Just for like a second….I've just never felt one before…." he stammered out pointing towards her chest, his words coming out all wrong, his face red and feeling like an idiot.

Fiona shook her head. To his surprise she didn't say yes and she didn't say no. She didn't take his hand and put it there like they did in movies, but she didn't spit on him and say she hated him either. Nor did she slap him. It took him several beats to realize that he had made her cry.

"Fi? Are you crying?" he asked pulling her sunglasses off. Her eyes were pink and puffy beneath them and tears were coming out fast now.

"Sorry," she gulped.

He stroked his finger over her tears and thumbed them away.

"You're sorry? I'm the jerk who asked if he could touch your boobs."

She laughed a little and sniffled.

"Look, I don't like you because of them if that's what you think. I like you because you're Fiona. You're cute and smart and funny. I was just curious."

"I know." She answered, tears still streaming down her face.

"Remember when we were little and I told you I'd always protect you?" he asked, envisioning taking her undersized hand the first day of school. Her hair had been meticulously braided into pigtails and she was wearing her favorite pink shirt.

"Yeah," she answered.

"I ain't lying. And I include myself."

She smiled and kissed him on the lips again. Maybe she did like like Racetrack Higgins.