Page 73 of Rules for Rule Breaking
Bobby Bae
34. WE WILL NOT HAVE ANY PHYSICAL CONTACT
Bobby felt electrified. He’d gone out on a limb, and that wasn’t something he did. He was more of a trunk guy or, better yet, a ground guy. What was he doing? He didn’t kiss girls at parties, especially if those girls were Winter. This had to have been some elaborate joke. Though everything on Winter’s face told him it wasn’t.
He pulled her closer, and she gasped into his mouth. He pressed his lips to hers ever so softly and was surprised she kissed him back.She told you to do it, he reminded himself. He was all but supporting her entire weight. Every time the lights flashed, he could see another face screaming at him to just go for it. Really go for it. None of this timid, soulless kissing like it was a kiss between strangers. He saw them telling him he’d wanted to kiss her from the moment he met her. That every time he tried to beat her at something, he was really punishing her for not liking him back. He saw Kai telling him he was stupid for keeping up his feud with her. He saw his parents urging him to go on this trip because they knew it wasn’t working with Jacqueline. He saw Jacqueline... He saw Jacqueline.
He pulled away suddenly and touched his fingers to his lips.
“Oh my God,” Winter said, turning around and putting her hands to her burning cheeks. “Were we wrong?”
“No, I’m sorry. Turn around.”
“No, this is so not right. I didn’t imagine it like this. Not that I’veimagined this. I just mean we’re in a basement and I’m wet and... oh God. Not like that. I mean from the slide.”
Bobby laughed. “Relax. I’m sorry. I just want to look at you.”
“Well, I’m all red now. I don’t want you to look at me like this.”
“You’ve never cared about what you looked like in front of me before.”
“What do you want me to say, Robert? I do now.”
Bobby brushed Winter’s damp hair aside to expose one of her shoulders. He leaned down and placed a kiss on her collarbone, and her breath caught. He placed another on her neck. Her skin was hot and tasted vaguely of soap, but he could smell her warm familiar scent beneath it. He placed another kiss along her jaw and then another rough one on her cheek. Winter turned her head toward him, and his next kiss caught the side of her mouth. They let the kiss linger for a moment, and Winter leaned her back against Bobby’s chest, their wet clothes clinging together. Bobby couldn’t take it anymore. He flipped Winter around, and in an instant, her hands were tangled in his hair and their lips collided. All coherent thoughts fell out of Bobby’s head. He couldn’t believe what he was doing and how right it felt. Every time he inhaled, he peeked at her to make sure he wasn’t imagining it.
Bobby put his hands on Winter’s waist, and she folded, a laugh bubbling out of her into his lips. He pulled away and leaned his forehead against hers.
“What’s wrong?” he rasped.
“I’m sorry. I’m ticklish,” she whispered, her breath ragged.
“It’s okay. Things were getting... kind of intense.”
“Maybe we should get some air.”
Bobby agreed.
Winter led him back into the stairwell, then shut the door behindthem and pulled him into another kiss. This one was short and sweet. She leaned against the wall and looked up at him, her lips swollen and cheeks flushed.
“Can I call one last moratorium?” Winter asked, her hands wringing anxiously.
Bobby nodded.
“I really like you.”
Bobby craned his neck to kiss her again, but a hand on his shoulder interrupted the moment. It was Omari.
“Didn’t you tell me you weren’t dating?” he asked, flashing a broad, judging smile.
“We’re not. I don’t even know him. I met him today,” Winter joked.
Omari smirked. “I won’t tell Kai. But I did want to tell y’all that you broke the only rule I have in this house.”
Bobby’s spine turned to ice. “What rule?”
Omari shoved two beers in glass bottles into Bobby’s hand. “You’re not allowed to be empty-handed. Enjoy, you two,” he said with a wink, and disappeared into the crowded basement.
Bobby handed Winter her bottle, then chased her up the stairs, making her laugh wildly until she snorted. She beat him to the top and wrenched open the door before stopping dead in her tracks. Bobby slammed into her and nearly fell backward down the stairs, but he caught himself on the railing. He looked around her to see what had happened, and his eyes fell on two burly public safety officers checking IDs of the partygoers upstairs.
