Four Kisses Read Online Free PDF

she’d ridden her bike halfway to the lake before turning around and heading home. After that day, the place had felt forbidden to her. Or maybe she’d been afraid of running into Drake again and what might happen. She hadn’t seen him again until they were both back in school and then they’d passed each other in the hall as if they were strangers. Which they were.
    By the time a couple of years had passed and Jen had learned to drive, she’d stopped thinking of ever hiking back to the swan place, although she and her friends did go to the lake sometimes. Her feeling that something special had happened between her and Drake that day had dimmed. Growing up had given her perspective. She understood that since it had been her first kiss, of course she’d been moved by it.

    But then she’d fallen into a crush on Bryan Hicks and become obsessed with Scott Parker and dated John Mann and most recently Asshole Tom. She’d experienced all sorts of kisses. She’d made out with John and gone a little farther with Tom. “Heavy petting” they used to call it in her mother’s day. She’d touched him and been touched until her body exploded. The memory of her first kiss had been buried beneath other experiences.
    Until tonight. Suddenly it shone in her mind like a beacon, like those lights shining on the river.
    She looked at Drake again, thinking their gazes would meet and she’d see that he was remembering too. But he was staring at the water, not at her. He’d ground out the stub of the last joint beneath his heel and now he reached into his pocket and pulled out another. He lit it, took a drag and handed it to her.
    I’ve probably had enough . Jen accepted it and inhaled the smoke with ease this time, only coughing once as she exhaled. “There’s nothing laced in this is there?” He grinned. “Nothing nature didn’t grow. Don’t worry.” Jen closed her eyes and felt the cosmos spinning around her. She opened them again and it was happening—not the nauseated tipsiness of being drunk but a slow and stately turning of the stars. She’d heard that pot could leave you anxious and paranoid but she felt euphoric wellbeing. She experienced a sense of her own small part in the universe. Every thought that flitted through her mind seemed weighty and important and at the same time she wanted to giggle at the silliness of life. If this was being high, she should do it more often. It certainly put Tom Bradford and his cheating ways into perspective.
    Drake stood and held out his hand. “Come on. I want to show you something.”

    “Swans?”
    “No. Something else.” Drake grasped her hand and pulled her to her feet. He continued to hold her hand as they walked along the boardwalk.
    With her free hand, Jen rubbed her opposite arm, bumpy with gooseflesh in the night breeze. Drake let go of her hand and took off his over shirt.
    “Thanks.” She accepted the flannel from him and slipped her arms in the too-long sleeves. Warm cotton settled on her cold shoulders like a blanket. The shirt smelled pungently of weed and its owner—not stinky just a natural boy smell. Pheromones, she supposed.
    Drake was left wearing only his gray T-shirt with the band name on the front.
    “Who’s Dark Vapor?”
    He glanced down at his chest. “Supposed to be a play on Dark Vader. Stupid name. Good band though. Kind of a cross between punk and jazz fusion. They’re hard to explain. You just have to hear them.”
    Suddenly Jen was picturing going to a dark, cave-like club with Drake, wading into a mosh pit and jumping around while the lead singer screamed in an unintelligible howl. She glanced at the ropy muscles of Drake’s arms. “Sure you won’t be cold?”
    “Naw. I’m good. I don’t need it. You got that strapless dress on. You must be freezing.”
    “I left my wrap at the dance and I’m not about to go back for it.”
    “Why not? You don’t have anything to be embarrassed about. Your date was the asshole, not you.”
    “I