Part One

It started with a kiss. Two, actually.

After all, that's what inspired the dare in the first place.

And while you some would expect the first kiss to be perfect, let me assure you that it wasn't.
Not at all.

Nowhere near perfect, if I'm being completely honest with you. In fact, the first kiss was probably the worst. Pretty much equivalent to terrible. But with my lack of experience, I really wasn't in any position to judge how good a kiss should be.

I mean, I'd read about kisses before. But everything that was written in those books and somehow managed to stick inside my brain was just some worthless propaganda. It made me wish for the best first kiss a girl could ask for. Which didn't happen.

It seemed like the kiss itself just had this overbearing desire to crush all my dreams.

It wasn't a cliche.

It wasn't a dream that left me on cloud 9.

Did it leave me thinking about him all day?

Absolutely not.

And was my heart pounding in my chest furiously as I lusted for him and longed for his presence? That's how each chapter described it.

Not. Even. Close.

The first kiss -my first kiss- was sloppy and abrupt.
And it wasn't even on purpose.
So trust me when I tell you, dear reader, that I was absolutely, positively (no strings attached) not happy about it.

At all.

Not your typical, ideal love story, am I right?

This wasn't the first kiss I'd had with him. This was my first kiss ever. And the things I'd read about kisses... where do I even start? They say that your first kiss will be your best. First kisses were supposed to be something that made you feel all dizzy in the best way possible. Something you cherished. Something that was special. And most importantly, you had to have it with somebody that you shared romantic feelings with.

Not... him. Of all people, definitely not him.

They say: "Your first kiss will forever be memorable?" Pssh, oh yeah. It was memorable, all right. It's practically burned into my brain. I'll never forget that monstrosity.

And it was all his fault.

~o~

Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance...
The five stages of waking up in the morning.

That's funny. Maybe I woke up before my alarm went off.

"NOELIA!" Rio bellowed from downstairs. "HURRY UP! WE'LL BE LATE!"

Nope. Never mind. There she was. And I gotta say, a loud cousin as an alarm was the best idea I ever came up with. Everyday at 6:15. She hasn't failed me yet.

I wanted to crow right back at her, but my mouth was as dry as a desert and I couldn't stand the taste of my own breath. Don't wanna risk me being the cause of air pollution. I might as well keep my trap shut.

I checked my messages. Which was kind of pointless because I only had one. I don't even know why I bothered. It was kind of pathetic.

One Message From: DeVante <3 <3
12:45 am
    look babe I'm thinkin we take some time off from this relationship.... after what went down I don't think I can't trust u anymore. I'm sorry lia baby it's over

Cue mood being ruined.

An overreacting boyfriend (scratch that– I'm sorry– ex boyfriend) isn't exactly how I wanted to start off my morning. I tsked and tossed my phone back on my bed. This again. He always did this. Though normally it was over a phone call. What kind of insensitive jerk breaks up with somebody over text?

One Message Sent By: Noeliaaa
6:17 am
...yeah okay sure I guess I'll see you in school

DeVante is always jumping to conclusions. I already told him my side of the story. What went down wasn't my fault. Whatever. I can't say I'm not surprised. He'll be over it in a week. And we'll be back together in two. At most.

You're probably thinking: cocky much? Maybe. But we were that couple. The one that fought over the stupidest crap and then broke up only to get back together in a few days. On and off. Back and forth. That was us. Dauntless and the dork.

In the morning, if I had to compare myself to anything, I'd be a zombie. The groaning. The slow shuffling. The fact that when I wake up I look like a gremlin. You name it.

I sighed and trotted down the stairs to the kitchen, still wiping the crust from my eyelids. Rio gazed over me briefly with a look full of criticism. "You look awful," she finally said. I wasn't in the mood to argue.

She tossed me an Eggo, but due to my clumsy reflexes and inability to catch literally  anything, it bounced off my palm and landed on the floor. She dove after it and handed it back to me. I recoiled in disgust.

"What?" She asked. "5 second rule."

"It still touched the floor."

She shrugged and took a huge bite. I shuddered. Gross.

"My appointment is tomorrow," she mused with a mouthful of waffle. Rio's been talking about getting dreads for years. "Natural hair is so irritating. It's like raising a bratty, out of control child! You nurture it, feed it, love it and it still disrespects you!" She yelled. "Like I grew you. I am your owner. How dare you betray me? Go to your bun. You can come out when you're ready to look fabulous."

I laughed and popped myself another Eggo.

I like to think that everybody has a thing. Like, the thing about Mom is that she tries her hardest to brighten everybody's day. Or the thing about Angel is that she's sarcastic and rude on the outside but she cares more than anybody you'll ever meet. Stuff like that. Everybody has a thing. The thing about Rio?

Rio was down right hilarious. She always tried to make everybody feel good.

"I don't think I'm going to make it through the day," she yawned, stretching her limbs at the table. She didn't look tired but with Rio, you never know. Her makeup skills are able to hide anything. "I stayed up all night trying to study this piano piece. Jazz is so hard."

"Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't fainted already." I sighed. "How bad would it be if we ditched?"

"Bad. Real bad."

"You think Aunt Maria would find out?"

"Mama? Oh, she'd definitely find out."

I sighed and slammed my head on the table, which hurt but I was too stressed out to think about pain. "Then how are we gonna get through this day?"

Rio glanced over at the fridge and then at the coffee brewer, which was still hot and half full since Aunt Maria left for work before us. "I gotta crazy idea."

"I'm may not be smart enough to know everything. But I'm dumb enough to try anything. I'll take crazy. I like crazy."

Before I knew it, she'd grabbed the coffee pot, a big can of Monster and two mugs and slammed them down on the table in front of me.

"Monster and coffee. The ultimate caffeinated beverage to help sleep deprived idiot teenagers get through a day of prison." She narrated, pouring each of us a cup of coffee and downing it off with Monster.

"It's school. Not prison."

"Cuál es la diferencia? Same thing."

We stared at our mugs.

"This is going to taste terrible." I complained, grabbing the handle. "All this caffeine..."

She nodded and kissed her crucifix necklace, doing the same. "We are going to die."

"Word."

And with that, we clinked glasses. And drained both cups.

~o~

Never drink coffee and pour a cup of monster into it. Just don't.

How we survived, I don't know. How I even remembered half of what went down on this day in general, I have no idea. Whatever we went through is probably what being on drugs feels like.

Don't do drugs, kids.

Remember in Allegiant when a certain somebody was injected with the peace serum? Yeah, well, that's exactly how Rio and I felt. We were happy. Too happy. Like 16 year old kindergarteners.

She found a new interest in making fart sounds and laughing at them. Eliza Cruz watched her and rolled her eyes. I looked up there too, but I didn't see anything but the ceiling. She's probably still mad Rio called her Cruddy Cruz behind her back in 2nd grade.

Looking back at it now, I'm pretty sure the reason we were sent to the nurse was because the teacher was terrified of the way we were acting. But Nurse Ortega didn't do anything all that complicated. When he heard our story and how stupid we were, he took us outside, made us sprint laps around the track without stopping until we crashed. Then he let us nap for 30 minutes before it was time to go back to class.

And this is why he was everybody's favorite.

On the bright side, we still had enough energy in our system to deal with school and so we could act normal.

One the not so bright side, today was the day where my life began falling apart.

Because the day DeVante Pierre broke up with me for the 5th time in our on and off relationship through a lousy text message was the same day my older sister finally came out the closet, my parents broke down to us their thoughts of divorce, and the beginning of the fateful encounter when I met Jun Solace.

That day was the beginning of everything.

Noelia's not so happy about that kiss ;)

I think I'll reveal how it happened later on in the story. This was probably one of the lamer chapters because I figured that if I kept going, it'd get too long and start to become tedious and a little boring. I really do appreciate the views though. And DeVante? The whole reason that Noelia's being kind of a jerk about him is basically because something happened that he overreacted about that wasn't her fault in the first place and now he wants to end things. I guess we'll learn more about him a little later.

With these two, I think that when it comes to writing, Noelia's really care free and explains things like she's talking to you but Jun is the one who thinks long and hard about what he wants to say and then jots it down. He's really adorable though. I think whoever is reading this will love him. Everybody needs a Jun.

Hope you enjoyed it though!

Goldenetti