Page 15 of Friends Like This

I let my hand slide up the back of his neck, my body pulling in closer to his.

Slowly, we untangle, and he rests his forehead against mine as we gaze into each other’s eyes.

He looks amazed. Like he can’t believe that just happened. Or that it was so awesome.

“Jake doesn’t know what he’s missing,” he whispers.

I stare at him for a second longer, smiling softly and feeling like the most special girl in the world.

I’m not sure if that kissmeantanything or not. We’ve always had a connection that’s deeper than friendship, but whether we’d ever truly be more than that? I don’t know.

But I do know, I’d like to kiss him like that again.

He stands, pulls me up, and says, “Come on,beautiful,”and we walk back down to the party together, hand-in-hand.

From the moment Sarah and Mackie bring up a fight club, all the boys are in. Most of the girls are kind of rolling their eyes like it’s the dumbest idea they ever heard. And if it wasn’t to get Jake back, I’d probably think so, too.

Even the people who have never seenFight Clubknow that it’s about pummeling your friends and shouting about what the first rule is.

Sarah, of course, rigs the first round so Jake and Joel will be against each other. Neither of them is huge. Miles is the tallest of our friend group and usually the tallest one in any of our classes. Aaron isn’t far behind him. Joel is a little shorter, thinner. It’d be easy to underestimate him in a fight.

Jake has some decent muscles, but Joel is scrappy and quick.

He hits Jake with a quick jab almost immediately, and with every attempt Jake makes to land a punch, Joel skillfully dodges. He’s a quick thinker and fast on his feet.

Joel lands a couple more punches to both boos and cheers.

All the commotion gets my parents’ attention.

My dad comes out of the house with a referee whistle, blows it, and shouts “Technical foul!”

Next thing we know, we’re all lined up on the driveway as parents are being called. No one ends up getting in big trouble for the fight club idea, though, because even stupid Jake Anderson abides by the first rule ofFight Club.

The six of us are sitting together on the driveway, and we look between each other.

“Totally worth it,” Sarah says.

We all laugh at that.

I look at Aaron. “Did you mean what you said earlier?”

He nods. “Of course I did. I was updating our deal.” I look at him for a minute, confused, then I remember what I said the day he said he was going to marry me.

“You’ll have to tell me I’m pretty every single day.”

“Still a deal.”

I smile at him.

“Well, thanks,Ace. I love ya.”

I started calling Aaron “Ace” last year. It was the second middle school baseball game of the season, and the starting pitcher was hurt, so Aaron got to play. And he pitched a shutout. It was incredible. When he got back to Joel’s that night, I told him, “Nice pitching, Ace,” and it stuck. It’s my special nickname for him, like he calls me pretty girl.

“Back at ya, Beautiful.”

Well, I guess he calls meBeautifulnow.

We smirk at each other.

I hear Joel groan behind us.

“Ugh, this is gonna be a thing now, isn’t it?”

And, yeah, it probably is.

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