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BOOM
CRASH
The screams of dozens, echoing through the cramped boroughs of a pygmy sized city that no one really knew, or cared to know, the name of.
Up into the air, a billow of smoke emanating from none other than Andrew Graves’ lips.
He sits upon the type of plastic chair that most families used for camping trips. For his family, this was simply décor. The smoke comes out in ghostly white plumes, beautifully adding to the night sky’s canvas. Bored and restless, he forms an “O” with his mouth and pushes forth the best smoke rings his 15-year-old self could produce. His eyes focused on the cracks upon the balcony’s parapet.
BOOM
More screams.
Among the canvas - hues of red, blue and green now scattered and slowly dissipating amongst the darkness.
No, these were not the markings of a war or some kind of vicious rapture. These were the yearly callings of New Year's Eve. Something that Andrew didn’t care much for celebrating. Especially not tonight.
“Almost midnightttt” his younger shadow bellows beside him.
Ashley Graves. A plight upon him.
“I’m aware” Andrew huffs, taking another slow drag of his cigarette.
“You’ve gotta hold up your end of the deal, you know” her words render his face in a shade of red far darker than the freezing temperature could have cursed him with.
“I’m aware”
“I’m aware” she mimics, mocking him with a faux gruff voice that he didn’t yet possess. Puberty was rough.
“Asshole”
“Ass-“
BOOM
Her parakeet play is halted by another firework, popped off directly in front of their withered balcony. Close. Far too close.
Almost as quickly as the firework had exploded, Ashley Graves launched herself out of her lawn chair, flinging her petite frame onto the balcony’s fencing.
“HEY ASSHOLES! PEOPLE LIVE HERE YOU KNOW! BE MORE CAREFUL!” she shouts into the darkness below. Hell hath no fury like a teenage girl scorned.
She falls backwards cleanly into her seat where she had begun, its plastic legs grinding backwards slightly with a repulsive screech.
Green eyes adore her from the side, watching her every impulse with adoration and desire. When she catches them, she flashes him a toothy smile.
“Take a picture, it’ll last longer!”
Cute.
Andrew faces away from her quickly, red returning to his face and a cough escaping the confines of his throat. Maybe he could pass it off as smoker’s lung. Her toothy smile turned to a shit eating grin.
“Aww, did someone get nervous?” she coos, striking true at his heart strings.
Admittedly, he was a bit nervous. His baby sister was the source of all his affection and admiration but she was also, unfortunately, the girl of his dreams.
Everything about her was undeniable. The way she spoke was always blunt, but true to herself. She was impulsive and reckless, and at her worst, truly psychotic. But she was real. Never hid her true self or tried to be someone she wasn’t.
She was his perfect opposite, and tragically, genetically.
Even now, she radiates something that Andrew finds insanely attractive. Her brash and piggish demeanor, somehow carried by such a small frame that was currently drowning in one of his sweaters and fuzzy pink-plaid pajamas. The long locks of silky black hair she possessed were now falling to the sides of her face, as her hair clips had fallen off when shouting at the merrymakers just moments prior.
She looked like she was not of this earth. She’s ethereal to him.
And she looks at him with those beautiful rosy eyes, smiling as wide as she’s capable of. She looks at him as if she were someone looking at their entire world in front of them.
Undeniable.
Trying to drown out the inevitable, Andrew goes to take another drag of his cigarette before realizing he’s practically burnt it down to the nub. Aside from the slight singe on his fingers, there was no further distraction to be found here.
“I still don’t think it was a fair-“
“A bet is a bet, Andy, and I won! Doesn’t matter how!”
“But why…that…?” Andrew asks, sinking into the plastic chair a bit.
“Why what?” she purrs, devilish intent in her tone.
“Why does it have to be…” he looks around nervously before whispering “…a kiss?
“Why not?” she shrugs casually, “Is there a problem with us kissing?” she blurts out, emphasizing the words, each one a bit louder than the last.
“Oh yeah, thanks, let the whole neighborhood know, Leyley!” he bites sarcastically, anxiously scanning their surroundings.
“Oh please, no one can see us up here”
“And our neighbor?”
“That homebody? You really think he’s watching us? And even if he was – do you think he’d tell Renee and the other one? I don’t think I’ve seen that fucker once since moving day!”
Andrew is then hit with a stroke of genius, thanks to his sister’s nonsense.
“What if Mom and Dad get home and catch us? I mean, we’re practically in spitting range of the front door and–“
“Andrew” the younger sighs, lifting herself out of her plastic chair to encroach his smoked-out space.
“This is happening, whether you like it or not” she says, sliding her malnourished self onto his lap and letting her legs rest on the plastic armrests.
“Though let’s be fair, you’ll totallyyy like it” she laughs all but in his face.
His hands instinctively find themselves upon her thighs, both in an effort to keep her from falling and partially as an excuse to touch her. Embarrassed and ashamed, he turns his face from hers, looking instead to their neighbor’s vacant balcony.
“Hey” she whispers, bringing her cold hands up to his face and turning him to face her once more.
“Are you afraid of kissing or something?”
“What? Of course, not” he exclaims, slightly bullish.
That, of course, was not the answer she wanted.
“Are you afraid of kissing me?” she asks quietly, somewhat dejected.
In the distance, they can hear a crowd chanting; counting down the final ten seconds of the year.
10.
“Leyley…” Andrew trails off, unable to stop his hands from cupping her face. She was so soft beneath his touch. The way she felt was nothing like the brutish tongue she possessed or the psychoticism she usually paraded.
9.
“I just want you to be my first kiss, Andrew” her pink eyes lock onto his and everything around him disappears.
8.
There were no plastic chairs to sit upon. No balcony to be held up by.
No fireworks discharging a menagerie of colors and no night sky canvas to be painted upon.
It was just the two of them, just like it had always been.
7.
“It can’t be anyone else” her voice quiet and sweet.
Andrew’s thumb slowly glides across her bottom lip.
6.
His eyes flicker from her eyes down to her lips and back up again, tempted to give into his darkest and most basic desires.
5.
“Are…are you sure…?”
4.
“Andy” she practically mouths, the sound struggling to come out as she finds herself lost in desire.
3.
“I’m sure that I love you” she smiles at him, her hands finding their way into his messy hair to pull him closer.
2.
“Ashley, I-“
BOOM. BOOM. BANG.
Midnight; the dawn of another new year upon a world accepting a fresh start. The sounds of a gazillion fireworks exploding, covering the sounds of firecrackers, noisemakers, pots, pans and the whole kitten caboodle on the streets below.
And at the same moment, on the sickish grey balcony?
Ashley Graves slams her lips onto her older brother’s, gleefully earning her first kiss. Whatever he was about to say, whether he rejected her or accepted her, wasn’t important.
Potential repercussions be damned; this was all that mattered in the end.
Andrew finds himself in heaven. Her lips, small and plump against his admittedly chapped ones, were all he ever wanted to feel. She was rushing, kissing him roughly and he can’t find it in himself to stop her. He just kisses her back like his existence depends on it.
Living in this moment, just the two of them, was preferable to anything else.
When they finally part, it’s two minutes into the new year. The only thing still connecting their hungry lips, a string of saliva. His eyes open, half lidded, to look at her. The nervousness returns, in fear that finally crossing this threshold would destroy them.
Her face is flushed but not from the winter cold. Before Andrew can even think to apologize for a sin he didn’t even choose to commit, she giggles atop him. Her laugh, light and airy. Feeling at ease once more, he gently rests his forehead against her’s – praying she can’t feel his hardness beneath her.
Their eyes locked on one another, faces flushed and grinning ear to ear. Their hearing collectively decimated by the merriment of New Year’s celebrations. So, they sit there for what feels like minutes, looking into one another’s souls and breathing in the frigid climate.
Finally, she breaks the silence.
“Bet you I can launch a firework into the sky from inside the house!”
Before he can respond, she’s already ejected from his lap and gone for the sliding door that lead inside.
“Wait – what?! Where the hell did you get fireworks?!” he shouts, chasing after her.
“If I can, you owe me another kiss!” she laughs maniacally in the distance.
With that, the Graves siblings find themselves back inside the warmth of their crummy apartment. The noise of the outside world slowly coming back to a gentle lull as another year begins. What that meant for Ashley or Andrew and the intimacy they just shared?
Only time would tell.