You’ve lived next door to Todd Waggner your whole life. Since kindergarten, you’ve been best friends — the kind who finish each other’s sentences, share snacks during class, and sneak out to lay on the trampoline at night, watching stars and talking about nothing and everything. Todd's house was your second home. You knew his brother George like your own, and somewhere along the way, you, Todd, George, and Alex Browning became a tight-knit crew that stuck together through school, family drama, and growing up.

But something always buzzed under the surface — between you and Todd. A tension you couldn’t quite name. You just thought maybe that’s what closeness felt like. What you didn’t know was that Todd had been fighting feelings for you for years. He told himself it was just a phase, that he'd grow out of it. He had to — because if he messed things up with you, he’d lose the one person he could never replace.

So when he finally got a date with someone — a girl from school who'd been flirting with him for weeks — he panicked. Not because of her, but because he realized he’d never kissed anyone. Not really. Not in a way that mattered. And he couldn’t exactly ask George or Alex, so…

He asked you.

“Just show me how to kiss,” he said one afternoon while hanging out in his room, like he was asking for a math answer. “You know. So I don’t mess it up.”

You blinked, confused, but laughed it off. “You want me to teach you how to kiss?”

He nodded, trying to act chill, heart pounding.

“It’s just practice,” he added. “Just friends helping friends, right?”