Page 77 of Tongue-Tied

“I guess. Or maybe it was for the best. Imagine being with someone since you were kids. All your experience boils down to them.”

I pop another piece in my mouth. “I think it’s romantic.”

He smirks. “Of course you do.”

It’s the perfect opening to bring up what I’ve been thinking about since last night. But a lively group of kids has seats in our row, so we have to stand and shuffle around to let them by us.

After we’re seated again, Dex opens the Milk Duds and dumps them into our tub of popcorn. It’s how we always roll during movies. I just avoid taking too many so he can have most of them. Besides, I’ve already torn into my pack of Twizzlers.

I return to the topic. “I mean, if I had a boyfriend all through high school, I wouldn’t still be a virgin,” I point out, and Dex nearly chokes on his popcorn.

“Bruh, are you okay?” I hand him his soda, and he takes a long sip.

“Wrong pipe,” he replies when he can finally talk again.

By the final preview, our popcorn is nearly gone. I make my way back to the lobby for refills on our sodas, and then we get lost in the movie. Our forearms are side by side on the armrest, and I have the urge to reach for his hand. But I resist. It’s enough that I came up with this additional date idea to begin with, let alone thinking way too much about what Dex looks like naked.

I’m more than certain I have a huge-ass crush on my best friend, and I’m probably in for a world of hurt when all this ends. But I can’t seem to stop myself from wanting to hang out with him and pretend we’re on our fourth date.

Once the movie ends, we stand and stretch. “That was better than I thought it would be.”

“Yeah?” he asks, and I nod. “Guess this means we’re having a Godzilla movie marathon.”

“I changed my mind. It was awful.”

He laughs as we walk out together.

“What do you have planned for us now?”

He tugs on my hand, and we start down the street. Two blocks later, we’re in front of our destination. “Miniature golf?”

“Alice in Wonderland themed.” He smiles like the Cheshire Cat.

“This is lit,” I remark as he leads me inside the Putt-Putt place. Thoughtful too. Dex obviously remembers me telling him I read this book so many times as a kid that it fell apart at the seams. It was my mom’s copy from childhood, and I was immediately enchanted. To the point that I asked for Mad Hatter bedsheets that were surprisingly hard to find and settled for stickers and a poster with one of my favorite quotes: “The secret, Alice, is to surround yourself with people who make your heart smile. It’s then, only then, that you’ll find Wonderland.”

We stand in front of the first hole, marveling at the gigantic White Rabbit hovering above us in all its glory. “Is it true that Lewis Carroll was consuming copious amounts of absinthe when he wrote Through the Looking Glass?”

“Who knows.” I take my shot, which ends up stuck behind a bumper. “Would you be at all surprised?”

“Nope.” When Dex’s ball ends up in the small pond, I laugh, glad he’s as inept as me. “Damn it.”

As he fishes the ball out with his club, I say, “Maybe we should aim for highest score instead of lowest.”

“Deal.” He clinks his club against mine.

I line up to take a shot. “Whose idea was it anyway to make up a game where you aim to shoot a ball into a hole?”

Dex stares at me. “You do realize what you just said, right?”

“Wh—oh God.” Dex laughs when I lob the ball way too hard.

We move from the White Rabbit to the Mad Hatter and then to the tea party, which follows along with the book. I’m having more fun checking out the colorful displays in this place than worrying about our scores.

Plus, there’s still that thing I’ve wanted to talk to Dex about since the movie theater. Maybe it’s time to just spit it out. “So I’ve been thinking…that I don’t want to be a virgin anymore.”

Mid-swing, Dex misses the ball completely.

“Okay, sure, that’s obvious.” He scrutinizes me. “What exactly are you saying?”

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