Puck

The first pass of her lips against mine is short and sweet, nothing more than a simple peck. It's almost a tease after the heavy makeout session she greeted me with at the party.

We grin at each other with our faces still close.

"Hmm," I ponder aloud, "I think we can do better than that."

She giggles while I brush my thumb under her chin to draw her closer again.

Our lips brush together softly but rather than allow her to move away, I curl my hand under her chin to keep her in place and deepen the kiss.

She tenses slightly, and I immediately draw back to give her some space.

Whatever it was that gave her that reaction quickly disappears, and this time she's the one moving towards me to bring her lips to mine.

In no time, our tongues are dancing together, and Marlowe is pressed against my body like she can't get close enough.

My hands itch to run against the smooth skin on her bare legs. My brain shouts at me to pull her into my lap so that she can wrap those fine legs around my waist.

My heart begrudgingly reminds me that this experiment of ours was supposed to be practice for how to not get carried away.

I ease back from the kiss and chuckle softly when she tries to start it up again.

"Easy, cheer girl," I tease, knowing I'm as much to blame as she is, "Maybe too much enthusiasm?"

Her face falls. She puts some space between us and looks away while twisting a piece of grass between her fingers. "Right. Sorry. I... I have no idea what I'm doing."

Crap. I didn't mean to embarrass her. I thought she'd know that I was only teasing.

"It's okay, MJ. I don't know what I'm doing either. This is new to both of us. Don't feel bad." I reach for her hand and gently tug on it to urge her back towards me. "Fake dating is harder than it sounds but I'm sure we'll figure it out."

She moves closer to me again and allows me to wrap an arm around her shoulders but then she lets out a tired-sounding sigh. "I didn't mean the fake dating thing... I meant kissing."

I don't think I heard her right.

I frown while leaning forward to get a look at her face. "Did you say kissing?"

She looks away from me as she nods. "Yeah... Especially French kissing. I've done it a grand total of like, three times."

I quirk an eyebrow at her exaggeration as a grin spreads across my face. "Three times, huh?" I chuckle while I reach a hand up to lightly rest against her cheek. I turn her face back towards mine. "MJ, we've french kissed three times."

"Yeah," she speaks the word softly before dropping her eyes from mine.

Huh? Is she saying I'm the only one she's...

My train of thought stops when I remember the night we came to agree on this arrangement. She's totally messing with me!

I begin to laugh, and her eyes flash back to mine with an angry scowl. She reaches up to pull my hand away from her cheek and then crosses her arms over her chest with a huff. Her attitude would be kind of cute if she wasn't being so ridiculous.

"C'mon, Marlowe," I begin to reason, "No offence, but you're the girl I was told about before I even moved here. The legends of how you give amazing head. But hey, you almost had me. For a minute there, I believed you."

The anger in her eyes quickly deteriorates into a hurt expression. She looks like she's about to cry, and the realization creates a hollow feeling inside of me.

And that's when it hits me what an absolute dickhead I'm being.

Of course, she isn't lying!

"Shit," I curse under my breath and try to take her hand again. I'm both relieved and surprised when she lets me. "I'm so sorry, Marlowe. I thought you were messing with me but I realize now that you'd have no reason to do that. I'm such an asshole."

She shrugs her shoulders. "It's okay, Puck. I can't really blame you. Not after knowing you've heard the stories about Damian..."

It's not okay. I hate that I upset her, especially when she was trying to be real with me. I lift her hand to my face and kiss her knuckles.

But the last thing she said is nagging at my brain. "Wait..." I mumble the word while I try to make sense of it all. "But... what? How does that... what? I mean, it's not that I don't believe you but..." I let my sentence hang, figuring she can finish it herself.

You gave a guy head, how have you not French kissed before?

She shrugs again before trying to explain. "That was just one guy that I did that with... and he wasn't really into kissing me."

Out of all the crazy things she's said tonight, this one sounds the craziest. "How could he not be into kissing you?"

She lets out an awkward laugh and turns away. The fingers of her free hand once again start to play with the grass.

All I want to do is kiss her to drive away any of her insecurities. It's so odd seeing Marlowe Jacobs looking shy and unsure when she usually radiates with confidence.

"So, wait." Another moment from this night is poking at my brain. "So, when you invited me in earlier... ?"

She turns back to me with a confused expression.

"You weren't suggesting that we... ?"

She still looks confused for a moment, and I'm worried that I'm going to have to spell it out for her, but then it must click in her mind.

"I wasn't suggesting anything!" she explains with wide eyes. "I just know meeting parents can be awkward, so I didn't want you worried about my mom being around. I wasn't trying to say... Geez, Puck. You really think I'm like that, don't you?"

"No!" I answer quickly before slowly admitting, "I mean... maybe, I sort of did before, but I've been confused about that this whole time 'cause you don't seem... y'know."

"Like a slut?" She glares at me, but I'll honestly take a glare from her over the sad look she had earlier, any day. "'Cause I think you just admitted that you did think that."

"No, MJ," I insist, "I didn't think you were a slut. Did I think you were more experienced than you maybe are? Yes. But can you really blame me for that?"

I grimace at the way my words come out and quickly shake my head. "Wait, no. That's not cool. I shouldn't have believed everything I heard and jumped to conclusions. I'm sorry, Marlowe. Truly."

She sighs and drops her head against my shoulder. "That's okay. I could have corrected you at that first party, but I let you believe that I was the BJ Queen."

Her choice of words has me laughing, and I turn my face into her hair to kiss the top of her head. "Well, I'm glad we've gotten to the bottom of this now. But believe me, whether you're inexperienced with kissing or not, you definitely know how to do it."

She laughs too, and the sound has my heart swelling, filling up that hollow spot that appeared in my chest earlier when she had looked like she was about to cry.

"Should we maybe get to learn some more things about each other?" I suggest with a smile. "For a couple, we don't know much about each other... Clearly."

"Yeah, okay," she agrees. She sits up from my shoulder and turns her body to face me straight on. "Umm, what's your favourite colour?"