Page 2 of The Pucking Kiss

“Want to swap places?” I laughed.

Kathy had developed a huge crush on Bryan these last few months. Ever since we had gotten to senior year, Kathy had become obsessed with the idea of getting more popular. She was competitive by nature and knew that if she dated the most popular guy in the school, she would automatically elevate her own status.

But of course, she wouldn’t admit that to me. In front of me, she made it sound like she genuinely liked him.

“Anyway, forget about all of this,” Kathy said, growing impatient all of a sudden. “I’m late for Algebra. But I’m going to swing by your house this evening.”

“This evening?”

“Yep. We’re having a girl’s movie night. Just me and you.”

With that, she strutted off, leaving me to stare at her retreating figure.

“Right,” I said, even though she hadn’t even waited to hear if I agreed with her plans or not. With Kathy, that’s how things always were. Whatever she said, goes.

“My child,” Grandma Lynn greeted me warmly as I walked into the house after school. “I made some of your favorite cookies.”

A smile spread across the corners of the lips. “Did you?”

“Of course. I know how much you like them, and well…” Grandma Lynn hesitated for a moment, her eyes darting towards the framed photograph of my parents on the wall and then back at me. “I thought they’d make your day a little brighter.”

She pointed to a tray of cookies that she had left out to cool for me. As I began to munch through them, I couldn’t help but feel a rush of warmth spread over me at my grandmother’s gestures.

“Thank you,” I said, with my face still stuffed with the cookies. “These are so good. Almost like how mom used to make them.”

A sad smile tugged at the corner of my grandmother’s lips as she came over and draped one of her arms around me. “Yes, darling. You know she got the recipe from me.”

“It would be their twentieth wedding anniversary today,” I said after a long pause. Behind me, the portrait of my parents on the wall overlooked us as we stood in the kitchen.

Any mention of my parents was generally the elephant in the room. It was just too painful to discuss them. I had lost them to a car accident when I was only eight years old, and ever since then, I have lived with my grandparents, who treated me as if I were their own child.

“I know, darling,” my grandmother squeezed my hand gently. “Your grandfather and I have been thinking of them today. I knew that you’d be as well.”

I cracked a small smile back. “Did they like celebrating their anniversary?”

“Oh, yes. Your mother loved baking, so she would always bake your father a cake. While he would bring her fresh roses, which were her favorite flower.”

I began to feel transfixed by my grandmother’s story. Every time she told me a story about my parents that I hadn’t heard before, I would listen intently and try to absorb as much information as I could. Having lost them so young, the only thing I had to remember them by were these stories.

“You know, Romai,” my grandmother’s delicate fingers gently lifted up my chin, making me look directly into her eyes. “The older you are getting, the more I see your mother in you.”

My cheeks turned red. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” she affirmed, “You’re growing up to be quite the beauty, just like her.”

My mother had quite the reputation of being the Queen of Hearts at her college before she met my dad. From the stories my grandparents told me, my dad had to court her for weeks before she even agreed to go out with him.

As for me? I hardly had the same luck with boys.

“No, grandma,” I laughed back, shaking my head. “You’re seeing things. I don’t look like her.”

“You do,” she replied, refusing to back down from her statement. “If you don’t see it now, you’ll see it soon enough.”

“If I did, I would be getting courted in school. Instead, I just get bullied…” I muttered under my breath.

“What was that, my dear?”

“Oh, nothing,” I shook my head and shoved one last cookie into my mouth. “By the way, I should tell you that my friend Kathy will be coming over later. She’s probably going to stay over.”

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