FIRST KISS

AN: "Waterfall" is a drinking game. A group of people sit in a circle, each with a drink. The first person starts to drink and immediately the person to his or her's left or right starts to drink, and then the person next to them starts to drink. Once the last person drinks, the first person stops (either when they want or when their cup is empty). Then the second person can stop drinking, etc. It's like a drinking version of The Wave.

Also, just as a reminder, this is just a collection of jumbled one-shots in non-sequential order. Things are pretty random and may not make sense, but they eventually will be explained.

Thank you to everyone who was read and reviewed/commented thus far! I really appreciate it.

FRESHMAN, UNIVERSITY

My feet are on the desk, knowing that they shouldn't be. It's not that I do it because I forget. How can I when I get yelled at every time? I guess I just like getting under her skin.

"The pizza's getting cold!" I yell out the open door of the dorm room, picking at an unsharpened pencil. What was it about girls that could never be somewhere on time? Including their own room.

Muffled voices come down the hallway and a door closes. As the trio walks in, I mumble and toss the pencil in the mug holding various pens. "It's about time."

"Off, Football Head!" She smacks my feet hard enough that they fall to the ground. I grin innocently and swivel in the chair, watching as she opens the pizza box and grabs a slice.

"Helga, was that really necessary?" Kristin kisses my cheek and I blink at her with wide, mock-wounded eyes. She just laughs and pecks my lips, knowing I'm not serious, and follows Helga into the pizza box. We have been dating for about a month and she's a really cool chick. Maybe a little too loud sometimes, but she likes a lot of the same things I do and we have the same major. So, obviously, cool chick.

"Whatever." Helga flops, quite literally flops, down onto her bed.

"Where's Tom?" I ask, stretching out my legs and folding my hands behind my head.

Helga's roommate Maggie answers. "He should be here any minute. I'm not sure what's holding him up."

"He had to grab the drinks, doi." Her mouth is full but she answers anyway. The dorms have strict policies about alcohol in the rooms but we're Freshman. We always find a way. I roll my eyes and take a sip of my Yahoo.

"Ettie, you really have zero manners." Helga opens her mouth and shows me her chomped up food. I make a face. Gross. "Sexy."

Maggie giggles as Tom walks in with his bookbag, no doubt holding the beer. He closes the door to the girls' room and sits on the floor in front of Helga who is still sitting on her bed. "Man, that was a close one! The security guard almost stopped me, but I lost him." He proceeds to take out the beer, setting it in the middle of the room. Kristin is sitting across from him, busy stacking the Jenga blocks we're about to play.

I grab my own can and sit next to Kristin on the floor after tossing a coke to Helga. She got heckled at first about not drinking at parties, but she put them in their place fast. For as far back as I could remember, she had always said that she had no interest in drinking. When we first got to UK, I wondered if that would change. Not a chance. I had never seen her take a sip of anything alcoholic and she never drank from any community-shared beverages if for no other reason than the fear of it being spiked. Even though some of our friends couldn't understand the reason for it, I got it.

And I never tried to get her to drink anything either. If she ever became ready to to prove that she was not like her mom, I'd be there to support her; just like how I was doing now by respecting her discomfort in partaking in this particular college pastime. And just the same, she trusts me that I know to stop after two, tops. I would never disrespect her in getting drunk on purpose. At least, I like to think so.

Drunk Jenga is a classic drinking game. It's like regular Jenga except there are things written on each block. Some are mild like 'have you ever had a sex dream' or 'take two sips of a drink of your choice.' Others are a bit more intense, like 'pull the sock off the person to your right with your teeth' or 'chug the person's drink two from your left for three seconds.' We typically don't wear socks during these games and always make sure that our red plastic cups are full.

Kristin, being the youngest, by a day, she always points out, goes first. We have played this game maybe twice before. She pulls one out slowly and reads it, grinning. "Waterfall!" she yells, waving the block in the air. I sigh and grab my drink, as do the others. Here we go, starting early!

We each have gone twice now. There have been three truths, six dares, and only two more drinking blocks. At this point, we're all hoping for the drinking ones. What good is a drinking game when there's no drinking? I pick out my third block. A truth. No such luck.

"Describe your first kiss." I smirk and look over to Helga sitting across from me with veiled eyes. She is giving me a blank look. "Well that's easy. I was in Romeo and Juliet in the fourth grade and we had to kiss on stage."

"Oh, that doesn't count!" Tom throws something at me and I think it's a crust.

I frown, looking for it. "It doesn't?"

"It's true, Arnold." Maggie is pipping in now and I stare at her, slightly confused. Why doesn't that count? "Everyone knows that if you kiss in plays or acting or whatever, it's not really a kiss." Kristin is giggling and I look down at her.

"Yep, they're right."

I scratch the back of my neck, still not quite sure why it doesn't count. A kiss is a kiss, isn't it? "Well, then I guess it was when I was ten and it was on top-"

"No, that doesn't count either!" It's Tom again. I frown.

"It's true, Arnold," Maggie says. Again. "Everyone knows that any kiss before you're a teenager doesn't count."

I roll my eyes. "Oh for Pete's sake. That's not true."

"I think it is." Kristin is giggling. Again. "Otherwise they're just innocent little things and they don't mean anything. It's kind of like kissing your parents. I mean, if you say your first kiss is five and you kiss your parents, wouldn't that be your first kiss?"

I look at her like she's lost her mind. No, that's completely different. But I don't contradict her. I sigh and lean back against my hands. "You guys are picky." I pause for a moment, but I don't really have to think about it. "So then it would have to be when I was fifteen. It was Thanksgiving break and I was at my friend Rhonda's place for a party. Her parents weren't home so she had thrown a Thanksgiving get-together."

"Did she get in trouble?" interrupts my girlfriend. She has a bad habit of doing that, but otherwise she's cool.

"No. Rhonda could have a party whenever she wanted but she threw the biggest ones when they weren't home because she didn't like being alone. Especially on holidays."

"Is she hot? I wouldn't let her be lonely." I roll my eyes at Tom and Helga smacks him in the arm.

"Shove it, geek bait. She's way out of your league." I smirk at her and remember my story.

"Anyway," I continue, "so I'm at her party and this girl that I was crushing on was also there. I kind of follow her around a little bit 'cause Rhonda's house is huge and she disappears. When I asked around, I was told she was in the gardens. So, of course, I go out there. It's November, right? So it's kind of cold and drizzly, and I'm thinking she just needed some air or something."

"I see where this is going." Maggie's grin is wide, but I don't respond. It's doubtful.

"So I'm out there, looking for her, and I hear her walking back up to the house. 'Cause, you know, it's about to rain."

My heart is beating hard against my chest as I listen to her footsteps getting closer. It's dark outside

and I can't really see anything except for a couple of bushes. Why doesn't Rhonda have the lights on back here?

There's a flash of silver from her top and I step around the corner, trying to figure out what I'm going to say to her. Hey Karen, so I noticed you went missing and the guys said you were out here, so I thought I'd follow you and – wow, if that doesn't sound stalkerish, I don't know what does.

She's close now. My heart beats faster and I struggle to come up with something. Hey Karen, fancy meeting you out here. No, that's not right either. C'mon, Arnold! You can come up with something!

She's here. She's walking right up to you. Say something! Do something! Be bold!

I reach out for her arm and pull her to me. I hear a gasp and then my lips are hard on hers. What are you doing! She's tense and I can feel her want to pull back so I relax my grip on her arm. My lips are softer now and I can feel the tension slowly ebb. I smile and pull her slightly closer, resting my hand on her waist. I never realized how small she is. She sighs, shooting bolts of electricity throughout my body. Her arms are around my neck and I am grinning. The sky opens up suddenly and the rain rushes down, drenching us. But we don't mind and continue to kiss.

Warmth follows the bolts down me and my other hand is on the back of her bare neck. Wasn't her hair down earlier? I don't really care, I bet she looks beautiful anyway. And this just feels so...right. Perfect.

Kristin giggles and grabs my hand, forcing me to sit up straight. "Ah, baby, that's just so romantic!"

I grin at her. "Well, it would have been...if it had been who I thought it was." They are silent for a moment before Tom bursts out laughing.

"You kissed the wrong girl!"

Maggie is frowning at me. Told you it wasn't what you thought. "That's really creepy, Arnold. Did she freak out?"

"Oh, yeah." I laugh. "She didn't talk to me for maybe a week. She thought I was her boyfriend, kissing her for the first time."

"That really is kind of creepy. Intense, but total creep-alert." Kristin is still holding onto my hand.

"And you're just now realizing this?" It's Helga, and she's eating another slice of pizza. "Arnold is like...the craziest, creepiest guy ever. You better get used to it and watch him, because he may go off kissing other girls in the rain."

I give her a look as Kristin tightens her hold on my hand. "Stop that, Helga.

"Aw, Meo, she knows I'm just yankin' strings. Don't worry, Kristin. If he does go kissing other girls in the rain, it's going to be because he thinks it's you, so you don't have to think anything of it."

I roll my eyes and wrap my arm around Kristin's shoulders and kiss the top of her head. "No, I think I'm done with any sort of kissing without knowing exactly whose lips they belong to. And yours is the only one I'll take." I grin down at my girlfriend and she is grinning back up at me. I kiss her softly and smile at the noises of disgust from my three friends.

"Ok," I say, grinning widely, looking back at them. "Who's next?"

Maggie squeaks a response and starts figuring out which block she wants to take. I watch her only for a second before looking over at Helga, giving her that hooded-eye look I know irritates her. We connect and she rolls her eyes, giving me that look that is kind of half bored, half irritated. I grin wider, knowing she's thinking the same thing I am.

She pulls back then and I open my eyes. "Johnny, that was- ...Arnold!"

I pull back from Karen, who's not really Karen, in horror. "Helga? But...you're not Karen...!"

"Doi, you stupid Football Head! What do you think you're doing?" She's shrieking and I am stunned. She's smacking me on my chest and I start laughing, unable to contain it. Of course it's Helga.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" I laugh again when she smacks me over the head. It rains harder.

"What's so funny? Criminy, I'm getting soaked!"

"Well, you know, growing up I was always running into you. You were just always there. And then you left for three years and now, not even a couple of months later, we're running into each other again."

She gives me that look that is all annoyed Helga. "You're a freak, Football Head. You're reading too much into this. You're lucky I don't hate you or Ol' Betsey would be kissing you next." She's glaring and holds up her fist for emphasis before pushing past me with a shove.

I grin, taking off after her. "Whatever you say Helga."

Huh, go figure that Helga would be my first kiss three times. Since the first two didn't count.

"Waterfall!"