Eighth grade

"No bystanders!" Snapped Missy as Lucas entered the room.

It was Missy's birthday party, to which Lucas had received a Facebook invite to, which came complete with sparkly text and lots of emojis. So far, the party was not fun enough to warrant ten smiley faces.

Downstairs, people were playing Just Dance and decorating cupcakes with way too much enthusiasm. Here, upstairs, the mood was more muted. In Chelsea's bedroom, about a dozen of Lucas's classmates were gathered in a circle playing what looked like Spin the Bottle with an app on Missy's phone. Lucas reluctantly joined them, when he caught Maya staring at him from across the room.

What is she doing here? Lucas thought to himself, glancing around the room for Riley, who wasn't there. Last time he checked, Maya hated Missy. Unless they made up. But Maya was not the forgiving type. He knew from personal experience.

He had broken up with Riley four months ago and Maya still refused to talk to him.

"It's Maya's turn!" Missy yelled bossily.

Maya, who looked less than thrilled to be there, leaned forward and pressed the picture of the bottle on the phone and it began to spin.

Lucas held his breath as he watched the bottle spin around and around and around. As he watched, he felt the inevitability of it all. It would land on him. He knew it. He felt it.

Finally, the bottle stopped spinning. It landed on a dead space between two girls from his math class. Maya rolled her eyes, clearly tired of this game already, and spun again. Again, it landed on a dead space. This time between Lucas and a girl named Gretchen.

"It's the person closest!" Said someone.

"Just let her go again!" Another person called.

"No, it;s the person closest! That's the rules!"

"It's me." Lucas said blandly.

Lucas was tired of this whole game too. They'd kiss and it would be over with. It wasn't a big deal. Maybe it would even make things better, maybe relieve some tension. Maybe if they kissed, Maya would speak to him again.

Lucas closed his eyes, leaning towards the middle of the circle, expecting to meet Maya's lips at any second. Maya, however, was climbing to her feet.

"It's Seven Minutes in Heaven, Lucas." Missy said in a 'duh' tone.

Lucas shook it off and followed Maya towards the closet. His feet felt numb all of the sudden. He felt like he was going to trip as he crossed the room. Everyone was staring at him. When he finally reached the closet, someone slammed the door shut behind them and he was alone. Alone with Maya.

It was a tiny linen closet, filled with towels and sheets. It was barely enough space for two people to stand up without touching. Lucas knew this because he and Maya were not touching. There was a tiny gap between them as they stood, pressed against opposite walls of shelves.

The room smelled of laundry detergent and some other peculiar smell he couldn't place. Then he realized, it was Maya. Maya's smell.

Lucas flipped on the light switch and saw that Maya had her arms folded against her chest, as per usual. Her blonde waves fell in her face and he noticed how much she'd grown since seventh grade. She was still much shorter than him, but she'd gotten a bit taller. She had also lost her baby face. She looked more mature, more womanly. He couldn't help but notice it.

"So..." He started awkwardly. "I guess we should kiss."

"Why?"

"Because that's the game. It's, like, the rules or something."

"The rules don't mean anything. A lot of rules don't mean anything."

Oh god. He thought. The only thing worse than spending seven minutes kissing Maya was spending seven minutes talking to her. To have to look her in the eye. To have to come up with responses to her snide remarks. To have to think about why they weren't friends anymore. To have to pretend like he wasn't extremely attracted to her...

"I don't think I want my first kiss to be in a game." She said after a long silence. "I think I want it to mean something. I want it to be something I smile at when I think about it. When people ask me about my first kiss, I don't want to tell them it was with a stranger in a cramped closet at a stupid birthday party."

Did she just refer to him as a stranger?

"Why can't we just be friends again?" Lucas blurted out.

He could hear how pathetically desperate he sounded but he didn't care. He wanted to be friends with Maya. He wanted to be more than friends with Maya. But he knew, even if they started talking again, they could never be more than friends again. Not with his past with Riley.

"Because I can't trust you." She said plainly.

Lucas was expecting her to say more. He expected her to pick a fight with him, to make him feel worse about what he put Riley through. But no. Maya was done.

That was the thing about Maya. She was so passionate, so stubborn, so fiery... But when she was done, she was done. No getting around it.

Lucas was growing irritated.

"It's Seven Minutes in Heaven. We're supposed to kiss." He persisted.

"I told you I don't want to." She said, sounding irritated herself.

"I think you're scared."

Maya unfolded her arms, her face flushing.

"I don't get scared. You're smart enough to know that, Friar."

"You're scared because you've never been kissed."

He was aware that he was manipulating her and he didn't even know why. He was manipulating her and it was working. Maya looked mad. She was caving.

Maya reached up and flipped off the light switch, smothering them in darkness. For a second, Lucas thought she was going to open the door and leave.

Then he felt Maya's soft hands grip his shoulders. In the dark, Lucas couldn't see her clearly. He could feel her, though. Warm. So warm. She pressed her hand to his cheek, tilting his head downward to accept the press of her lips against his.

As they kiss, Lucas initially felt accomplished. Triumphant, even. He had successfully manipulated her. He was now lodged in her memories forever. For the rest of her life, she would be forced to think of him when she thought of her first kiss. Maybe she would even smile.

The triumph was quickly replaced with intense want. He wanted to keep kissing Maya.

It felt like the closet walls were closing in on them. The tininess of the place intensified. All he could feel was Maya's warmth pressed up against his.

She pulled away after a few moments and he quickly drew her into another one, open mouthed, instinctive. This was not the awkward kissing of a dare. This was kissing of pure want, no, pure need. Hot and thrilling and everything Lucas wished his first kiss was like.

Light flooded the closet suddenly, as the door opened.

The seven minutes were up. the spell was broken.

After that day, Lucas had convinced himself that things had changed. He had kissed Maya, and now things were back to normal. He was wrong, of course.

After class, Lucas would wait outside the classroom for Maya, hoping she would stop and talk to him. (She never did.) He always smiled at her when the teachers said they needed partners for an assignment, hoping she would smile back and be his partner. (She never did.) He even sometimes sat alone at lunch, away from Tristan and his other jock friends, hoping she would feel bad for him and sit with him. (She never did.)

Eventually, he realized he had to stop being so hopeful. It only ended up hurting him, anyway. He stopped trying to catch Maya's eye. He stopped smiling at her. He started partnering up with other cute girls.

But Maya was always in the back of his mind.