Girlfriend

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"Do you want to be my girlfriend?" he asked. 

"Just like that?" She was sitting on the edge of a counter, chewing gum.

"Yeah I guess so," he said. "Is this okay? I mean—"

"Yeah, it's fine," she said, reddening and looking away. "I've just never had someone come out and ask like that."

"Okay cool," he said, heart racing. "Can I get your number then?"

She gave him her number. 

"I'll text you."

"Okay great."

He texted her after class the next day. "Want to hangout?"

"Lol, sure. See you at The Point."

They met up at The Point, a meeting place where the boys' and girls' college dorms converged. 

"I want to take you to my favorite spot," she said. 

They walked behind the campus, ducked under some barbed wire and sat on a sand dune. 

"Are we allowed back here?" he asked. 

"Nope," she said, grinning. He grinned back. "But I love how you can see the flowers over here, and it's peaceful."

"Pretty peaceful everywhere in this town if you ask me," he said, flicking a rock.

"True true."

He leaned toward her. "I've actually never kissed anyone before."

She didn't back away. "Really?"

"Really," he said, losing courage and facing away. "I just held hands with a girl for the first time last year."

"Come here," she said, touching his leg. 

He kissed her. Not her lips but her cheek. He'd made the mistake of closing his eyes and aiming blindly. But she didn't laugh, so he tried again until he felt her wet, peppermint lips. 

"Thank you," he said awkwardly. 

"That was beautiful," she said with an air of solemnity. 

He couldn't think of any words to say, so he said, "Yeah."

He leaned back and she leaned back with him. He felt her breathing, felt her breasts against his chest.

She drew circles on his chest with a careless finger and said a lot of things he wouldn't remember. But before they broke up a few months later he would remember this moment. He would remember her brushing strands of hair from her face, laughing as she talked. He'd remember how the sun seemed to dance in her blue eyes.

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