Chapter Twelve

Did I ever imagine myself hanging out with Sabrina Jenkins on a Friday night? No. Never. Friday nights were reserved for hanging out in Anna's bedroom binge-watching documentaries about wildlife and sometimes Jimmy Neutron. Yes, that may have been in Sabrina's house, but we were in separate rooms. It never counted. Did I also ever imagine myself not only hanging out with Sabrina but also her date for the evening? No way in hell.

What type of twisted universe was this that I'd not only volunteered willingly to hang and document my crush and her date, but to also suggest the idea of them pairing up in the first place? This universe apparently.

At eight o'clock sharp, Sabrina honked her car outside of my house and collected me and then drove to collect Parker from her home. They were both dressed in cute and warm casual wear for the cold end of January, wearing fluffy matching beanies and sweaters. Whereas Parker wore a black light rain jacket, Sabrina wore this dark blue trench coat. They dressed appropriately for a date and well . . . I was the camerawoman, not to be seen, so I was okay to wear a plain old hoodie.

The roller rink was the perfect place to go as it was freezing outside, and any sane person would be curled up inside by the fire but not us three. Here people from our school wouldn't see that these guys had their own photographer following them around as they staged cute scenarios. The only person who was there was the guy at the register. He handed a pair of skates each to the girls. When it came to me, I decided it was probably best to watch from the safety from outside the barrier.

Positioning myself so that I sat on top of the wall blocking entry to the roller rink, I set up my phone to take pictures. At the same time, the girls were testing their skating skills around the arena. Parker was surprisingly kind of awesome at it. Then there was Sabrina who . . . sucked. But that was the perfect combination for cute pictures.

Parker grabbed hold of Sabrina's hands, guiding her forward as she skated backwards.

"Perfect," I called, holding the capture button down, so no moment was missed. "Stunning. Models."

"Wait, don't take pictures yet." Sabrina wobbled in her haste to tell me what to do. "We have to practice first!"

"I'm in charge. We need it to be as authentic as possible. Where's the fun if you're both perfectly skating around and smiling like bozos? You can't be perfect. We need people to relate to you. That means once in a while, you need to be a complete mess."

"Sam's right," Parker said.

"That's right, I am."

"I guess you do have experience of being caught on camera looking like a fool." Sabrina wobbled some more. "More of a fool than me."

"That's also right. I do. Okay, now Parker, only hold one of Sabrina's hands and guide her around the rink like that. A full lap."

Sabrina refused to let go of Parker's hand. "I'm clearly not ready for such an advanced moved . . ."

"That's the point!"

Parker did as she was told and somehow managed to escape Sabrina's firm grasp and held only one of Sabrina's gloved hands. Sabrina's knees were bunched together, but her legs were spread apart like a new-born deer. It looked like her legs were broken. What they didn't know was at this point, instead of taking pictures, the phone was on video mode, capturing all their shenanigans in live-action.

Sabrina gripping onto Parker's hand like her life depended on it while her other hand flailed about, grasping at the air – Parker's attention focused solely on keeping Sabrina upright and moving? It was a cuter image than I'd like to admit. I'd only noticed that I had a death grip of the phone when my thumb cracked the screen a little. Oops.

One second, they were awkwardly skating inches at a time, and the next they hit the ground. Sabrina flat on her back, and having pulled down the other girl, Parker landed right on top of Sabrina. Could it get any more cliché? Sighing, I pinched the screen and zoomed in as Parker's face inched closer and closer to Sabrina's. At the last second, Sabrina turned her head to the side, and Parker's lips touched against her cheek. They held the position silently, and then they turned to me expectedly, still stretched out on the ground in a clump together.

"Please tell me you got that," Sabrina said, breaking the silence. "I'm not doing that again."

"I bruised everything there is to bruise," Parker added.

Sabrina pushed her off and sat up. "Next time you can fall onto the ground—then you can feel real pain."

"Mission successful. I think we've got plenty of footage in the roller rink." I stopped the video, knowing I'd have to edit out the part where they snapped their attention to me and kind of admitted to staging the fall. "Anywhere else you want to go or do?"

"We can sit in at the café for a while." Parker stood up and helped Sabrina to her feet and dragged her off the rink to the exit. "We can take selfie pictures while we treat you to something. Something warm. At least we were moving around. You must be freezing."

"I won't say no to a free tea." I turned around on the wall and hopped off and headed to a table while Parker went to the register to get us something.

Sabrina joined me on the opposite side of the table once she took off her roller skates and replaced them with shoes. "Can I see what you have?"

I shoved my phone across the table into her waiting hand. "I didn't really look, but there's plenty to choose from."

"One hundred and fifteen pictures." Her thumb kept on scrolling. "They might as well be a video."

"I have a video in there too."

"Of course, you have."

"What do you think?"

"You were right," she admitted in a grumbly sort of way. "They look real."

"Told you so."

"There's only one problem. Who will we say took the pictures?"

"Anna," I supplied. "She's the only one who knows the truth, and you could just say she was there to pick you up in your car."

"Hold on, I'll shoot her a text," she mumbled.

Parker carried back three steaming cups in a cardboard holder in one hand and a bag full of baked treats in the other. She dumped them on the table and relaxed into the chair beside Sabrina, throwing her arm behind Sabrina's chair with a wink in her direction—only her attention was focused on her phone.

Parker held out a muffin for me to take. "Like the whole cheek kiss thing, Sam? You were the inspiration."

My eyes rolled, taking the muffin. "Somehow I think it was cuter when you two did it."

"Yeah, we are an awesome pair," Parker agreed, snatching Sabrina's phone out of her hand. "Selfie time!"

"What will you have us do?" Sabrina asked me.

"Oh." Guess I was still wearing my director's hat. "Parker, hold it out as far as you can go . . . perfect, now smush your cheeks together. Smile. Take picture. Again. Again. Smile with your eyes, Sabrina. Tone it down, Parker. And . . . perfect. Shoot."

Parker showed Sabrina the picture, eyebrows high. "I can see why you wanted Sam helping us out. Look at this cute shit. I can already feel the crown on my head."

Sabrina took the phone and handed it back to me. "She has an artistic eye."

"More compliments please," I said.

"I still think I did a perfect job in matching you with Maisie." Parker leaned her cheek against her fist.

"No," Sabrina and I said at the same time. Clearing my throat, I continued, "She's cool, but no."

Parker's eyebrows doubled their height. "If you say so. Okay, my ride's here. Feel free to eat my muffin. Send me the pics later!"

And just like that Parker was gone, leaving Sabrina and me to ourselves.

Awesome.

It wasn't awkward at all.

We could have taken our cups and muffins and got into Sabrina's car right there and then, but we didn't. We sipped on the tea, both agreeing that it wasn't the best cup and was ranked among the lowest forms of tea from town and despite that we still drank it. As soon as the last drop was gone, the chilly air seeped back into my bones. As much as I tried not to shiver, I eventually gave in, it was the body's natural way of warming itself up after all. Standing up, Sabrina took off her beanie and planted it on my head before heading to the seat where she left her roller skates.

"Come on, we paid for two hours, and we might as well use it," she said over her shoulder.

I fixed the beanie on my head and got myself a pair to shove onto my feet. "This time you'll be the expert looking one, and I'll be the disaster."

Sabrina eyed the rink. "How about . . . I'll be the expert on one side of the rink and you the disaster on the other."

"Two safety hazard zones."

"I learn quickly," she told me as she headed into the rink and took off . . . not looking much better than she did before.

"Sure . . ." I mocked under my breath, and almost immediately, we gravitated to each other and relied on the other to keep us upright. "Quick learner, huh?"

"Shut up," she said through a laugh and yanked on my arm, purposely so that I toppled onto the ground and she landed on me. "Hurts, doesn't it?"

I groaned and closed my eyes. "That was so not called for."

When I opened my eyes, I expected to see some sort of superiority, but there was none.

There was only a thoughtful flickering of her eyes across my face.

My eyes flitted down to her lips; they looked so soft and kissable. My mind drifted to the memory of her kissing me for Valentine's Day . . . to when she went around in her bedroom in only a towel. I was about to kiss those lips again for the second time, half a decade apart. No one was around. There was no publicity stunt to pull off. It was just the two of us, breathing the same air, on top of each other, waiting. When I leaned in, so did she, as if she was waiting on me to make the first move this time.

When my lips touched hers, she tasted of the sweet apple pie. I kissed her back, and the world around us didn't exist anymore– forgetting how we were on the ground of a public roller rink, forgot that the last time we did this we didn't speak for years on end, forgot that it was probably stupid of us to do this. Stupid of me to do this.

It was as perfect as our first kiss.

I just kissed her back, following her lead. And when I felt her tongue touch the tip of mine, I let her deepen the kiss. I kissed her back harder, hands cupping her cheeks, eyes closed tightly shut.

We broke apart at the same time, but she stayed there on top of me.

"You were supposed to turn your cheek to the side," she said; a smirk playing on her lips and her eyes sparkled at me.

"I've never been all that reliable," I whispered back making her chuckle and move to sit on the ground next to me.

She tapped my shoulder, and god knows how long. "Sam?"

"Uh—" I said, standing up and kind of out of it from the kiss. I started skating slowly toward the exit in a dream-like state, somehow rolling out of there without tumbling back onto the ground.

"There's no excuse this time, Sam. You're run—skating away."

"I have to go home."

"I'm your ride."

I could still feel her lips on mine, and the tingling made my body shiver. "I'll walk it. I'll send you the pictures of you and Parker later."

"That's it? You're leaving. Just like that?"

I pressed my fingers against my lips, not turning around to face her. "See you Monday, Sabrina."

The next thing I knew, I was skating down the street and came back to myself to realise what I'd done. I kissed Sabrina Jenkins and then I skated away, incapable of getting more than a few words out of my mouth. I'd stolen skates and somehow hadn't fallen in my haste to get out of there. It was a mistake. Kissing Sabrina was a mistake. The last time we did that it had life-altering effects on both our lives. We didn't speak or look at each other for years. What would Anna think?

But why did a mistake feel so damn good?

I swallowed and went to run a hand through my hair, but Sabrina's beanie blocked the way.

I skated away from her.

I sucked.