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It came with no surprise that the idea was Beth’s.
“This is so stupid,” muttered Sam. It was lunch break and she was sitting next to Beth and Hannah at the sports oval. She sipped at her bottle of juice. “I don’t want to have a freaking tennis battle at your place.”
“It could be fun,” said Hannah. She swallowed down the last drops in her water bottle. “I mean, the weather is good this week and you really need to practise your swing.”
“The weather is bloody hot this week, Han. And I don’t even care about tennis,” Sam grumbled.
“Oh, come on, party pooper,” teased Beth. “You just don’t want to come because Josh’ll be there.”
Sam gave an exaggerated groan.
“Give her a break, B,” Hannah laughed. “Can’t you see she’s still traumatised?”
“Yeah, right. She loved it.”
“You dared him to kiss me!”
“Yeah, and it was hilarious.”
“Beth!”
The twin ducked the empty bottle. “No littering, princess.”
Leaning back on her hands, Sam looked at Beth. “You’re not going to let me get out of this, will you?”
“Nope.”
She closed her eyes and yelled.
And two days later she stood in Hannah’s bedroom, putting on her tee and not believing she fell for Beth’s plans.
“I hate your sister,” she pouted, pulling her hair into a tight pony tail. “She even asked Josh to be our referee!”
“You’ll be fine,” Hannah reassured her. “I’ll go easy on you. Look- I’m even still wearing my glasses.”
Grabbing her racket and a towel, Sam continued to grumble angrily under her breath. Hannah only gave a chuckle and linked their arms together as they made their way to the courts.
“You know, you two would look kind of cute-“
“Argh!”
“Thirty-love, to Hannah.”
“What?” Sam grunted, wiping sweat out of her eyes. “That was totally in!”
“Actually that was half a meter out, Sam,” Josh said from the sidelines. He was sitting in the ref chair, hat on his head. He sheepishly gave her a little shrug. “Go easy on that backhand.”
“Go easy on your friggin’ face,” she muttered under her breath, preparing for Hannah’s next serve.
She watched as Hannah delivered the perfect serve and didn’t even reach it.
“Ace! Forty-love to Hannah.”
“You know what, Hannah, you’re cheating.” Sam leaned back and placed her hand on her hip, breathing heavily. The midday summer sun was getting to her and she could feel sweat sliding down the curve of her spine.
“How am I even cheating, Sam?” Hannah called out from the other end. She wiped her hand across her forehead and grinned. “I thought you were the sports queen here.”
“Hey, if this was a rock wall right now, I would slay you.”
“Yeah, well, we’re both on solid ground now so-“ Hannah flailed her hands in the air. “You up for this or what?”
Beth, from her position near Josh, flicked up her shades and winked at Sam. “You can do it, loser,” she called out.
With a groan, Sam walked back into position, praying she could at least hit the damn ball.
“And another ace for Hannah! That’s a 6-2 set for her.”
Giggling, Beth ran up to Hannah and high fived her before blowing a raspberry Sam’s way who threw up her hands in defeat.
“I give up.”
Chuckling, Josh jumped down the ref chair and made his way to Sam. “You can’t blame her,” he said with a smile. “You know how she is with her tennis.”
“Yeah.” Sam glanced over to Hannah before rolling her eyes to Josh. “Congratulations, you have a future Olympian in the family.”
As Josh laughed, Sam looked at him and couldn’t help but smile herself. His flat brim hat looked ridiculous on him and he had a white smudge of sunscreen across his nose. She remembered his shy ice-cream flavoured kiss from a month before and wondered what it would feel like to taste another one.
She blamed the sun for the heat on her cheeks.
Hannah and Beth had walked over to the net.
“Up for set two?” asked Hannah. She had retied her hair and was wiping sweat away from under her glasses.
“Actually, I think I need some time out,” Sam said. “Unlike you, playing tennis in the middle of summer is kind of killing me.”
“I’m also going to go get a drink,” quipped Josh.
“Oh, alright,” said Hannah, putting down her racket. Beside her, Beth leaned on the net with a raised brow and a cheeky smile. Her eyes flitted between Sam and Josh and she gave Sam a pointed wink.
Sam coughed and placed down her racket and turned to go back inside the house, Josh at her heels.
“Oh, thank god for air con!” she said in relief as she opened the doors to the Washington home. Inside, she happily made her way through the cool room into the neat, modern kitchen.
Throwing down his cap, Josh gave a satisfied sigh as he opened the refrigerator. “And the lord saves us once again,” he said, pulling out a bottle of root beer and passing it to Sam.
“You’re my hero,” she murmured, taking a long draught. “I felt like I was melting out there.”
“Same here.” Josh opened his own bottle and sipped.
They stood in silence and Sam could feel the mixture of awkwardness and shyness in the air. She leaned back on one of the kitchen counters and Josh did the same opposite her. He nervously ran his fingers through his hair which was soaked through from the heat.
“Um, Sam,” he began slowly.
“Yeah?”
“About the last time you were here-“
‘I dare you to kiss Sam. On the lips!’
Oh boy, Sam thought to herself.
“I just-“ He looked down and placed his bottle to the side. “I hope I didn’t make you feel uncomfortable or anything. I mean, you know how Beth gets during truth or dare.”
Sam snorted. “Don’t I.”
“Sam-“
“It’s fine, Josh.” She swallowed down the last drops of the root beer and placed the bottle down. “The kiss, it was- it was fine.”
As Sam looked at him, she felt tiny little pangs in her chest. Josh was just so sweet and tentative and she couldn’t help but be drawn in by that. Ever since Hannah introduced her to him and she realised she had that stupid crush. But he was just so-
Emboldened, she licked her lips. “Honestly,” she began, hoping her voice sounded as confident as it was in her head. “Honestly, if I wasn’t this sweaty, I’d even kiss you again, right now.”
His eyes flickered up to her and she held her ground, poising both hands on the edge of the counter behind her. She watched as he again reached his hand to his hair and felt her heart in her throat.
He opened his mouth and time seemed to freeze.
“Well, if it’s any consolation,” he said, “I got pretty hot out there too.”
Sam blinked and then felt her lips part into a grin. A weight seemed to disappear off her chest as she lightly stepped towards Josh, who was looking at her with blush darkened cheeks.
“With no Beth to laugh at us,” Sam said, leaning close, “I guess we can take our time.”
His lips were just as soft as before and she could taste the root beer. The kiss was soft, fleeting like the bumping of a moth and Sam pulled back only to have Josh follow her, pressing his lips anew upon hers.
Sam smiled against the kiss and felt Josh do the same. Gently, she slid the palm of her hand to his cheek, caressing the skin with a thumb. His arms went hesitantly to her waist and she pressed herself into him, smelling sunscreen and sweat and summer.
There was no tongue, the two content with soft, slow merging of their lips, pausing and pulling away to take little wisps of breath before leaning back towards one another. Josh’s hands had gained confidence and held her closer, thumbs rubbing circles on her thin tee.
With a happy little sound, Sam began placing soft little pecks on Josh’s check and trailing across his jaw.
“You know, Sam-“
“Yes, Josh?” Sam hummed against the side of his cheek.
“You really are bad at tennis.”
Chuckling, Sam pulled her head back and slid both her hands behind Josh’s neck.
“Well, what can I say?” She gave him a smirk. “I’m more of a ping pong gal.”