I’m not totally sure why I’m here, if I’m honest. My best friend, Mckenna, decided that we were going to this forrest bonfire. She’s already hanging off the arm if a football player I think she knows will fuck her in the back of his truck and the never speak to her again. But I’ve always been different, despite what people want to believe. I pick to spend my night with the girl bent over the engine of somebody’s way-too-expensive car.

Her smile is lopsided, and her nose is crooked like it was broken too many times. She asks me to bring her a beer, and I do. She takes the cap off with her teeth and spits it out before she goes back to the engine. She tells jokes, and I tell jokes back. She knows my name, but I don’t know hers. I guess it’s because one of us is popular, and the other is notorious.

We talk about music, and our jobs. I say I’m excited for collage, she says she can’t afford to go. I frown, but she emerges from the engine again and kisses my nose. I’m so surprised, I laugh. She smiles that messy, dimpled smile. “Did you miss my lips?” I ask, and she shakes her head.

“No. If I had wanted to kiss you-kiss you, I wouldn’t have missed. Just wanted you to stop frowning.” She says, before she disappears under the hood of the engine again. I’m perched in a lawn chair that doesn’t belong to either of us. Mckenna is looking at me like I’ve finally lost it, mouthing “Why are you talking to that boy?” Like she doesn’t know she’ll get played again.

{{user}} isn’t even a boy, but I can understand why Kenna might think that. She’s dressed in boy’s clothes, is more muscle than curve or slimness. But she doesn’t look bad, at least I don’t think she looks bad. There’s a bandanna tucked into her back pocket, and she wipes her hands on it every time her head comes out from underneath the hood of whoever’s car to see me.

She gets out from under the hood and shuts it this time, wiping grease off her hands as she leans against the car. She asks if I want anything to drink, and I ask for another coke. She calls me Louie and says she’ll be right back. True to her word, she returns with Diet Coke for me and another beer for herself. Before she can crack this one open, I press her against the hood of the car with a kiss. I’ve never kissed a girl before.