Adrian pulled away from me. I was stunned, and my brain didn’t seem to be functioning. Did he really just kiss me? Did the most desired guy in this school just kiss me? The new girl?

I blinked and shook myself mentally. “Uhm… okay, then… what was that?” And did it really just happen?

He was red in the face. I mean really red in the face. “That was… I don’t know.” He was looking down at the ground, embarassed. “I guess it was my way to ask you to be careful and watch your step?” It sounded more like a question than a statement.

I wasn’t over my embarassment – or my happiness at beign kissed by him – but my anger took over. “So the way you ask girls to be careful is to kiss them?” I tried to keep my voice down. I really did. But my anger tends to take over me sometimes. Now was one of those times.

He looked up, both his green eyes showing. They were beautiful, but no amount of anything from him would help. I was really angry. “Dani, I’ve only ever kissed –“

“I don’t want to know who you’ve kissed!” I shrieked and slapped him hard across the face. It was an unconcious act, but it made me feel a tiny bit happier. I ran from him and the dark hallway, leaving him with his hand to his shocked face, his fingers lightly touching the place I slapped him.

I didn’t realize where I was until I heard the click! of the bathroom stall’s lock. I had run into the bathroom’s biggest stall and locked myself in. My cheeks were wet with tears and my vision was blurry. I vaguely wondered how I had managed to get here without hitting anything. Maybe I had but didn’t notice.

Why did he kiss me? Why did he kiss me? Why did he kiss me? That was the only thing I was capable of thinking. I sat huddled in my stall, thinking those five words for the rest of the period and most of the next. I felt nothing, only numbness. No embarassment. No happiness. No anger. No hatred.

Someone shook me out of my black hole by banging on the stall door. “I know that’s you in there, Dani!” Franky’s familiar voice shouted. I didn’t reply. How did she know I was in here? Has she been through this, too? I didn’t feel anything about that last comment. I still wasn’t capable of feeling anything except the cold tile beneath my feet and the cold stone on my back.

I saw her hair under the door. She’s going to crawl under, I thought numbly.

“What happened to you? Airleata found me in the hall and said you didn’t go back to classes. I have Adrian this period.” I flinched at the name. Either she didn’t notice or chose to not respond. “He has a red mark on his cheek the shape of a hand.” I felt a little tug on my heart. Whether it was happiness or guilt, I didn’t know. I didn’t want to know, either.

“It was my first kiss,” I whimpered. I hadn’t realized that until now. More tears slipped down my cheeks, tracing the paths the previous tears had carved. “It was my first kiss,” I repeated, my voice choked.

Franky’s eyes widened, and she sucked in her breath. Then she pulled me into a hug. “I’m so sorry, Dani… If I had known what he had done… I would have hit him, too…” She didn’t seem to know what to do now. She pulled away and examined me at arm’s length. My head fell down, so my gaze was at the tiles with their hynoptizing patterns and swirls.

I looked at her, my eyes dried and puffy from all the crying. I hoped I was out of tears. I was feeling really dehydrated. “Why did he do that?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know, sweetie. I really don’t. But I promise I’ll find out.”

I nodded. “Okay… Thank you, Franky…”

She stood up and pulled me up, too. “Alright, Dani. Enough sitting around in this stall. You’re going to get in trouble if you don’t go to class.”

I nodded and walked out of the bathroom and to my Social Studies class. Ms. Ariata looked like she was about to yell at me for coming in halfway through class without a pass, but she saw my face and gave a little sympathetic smile. Has she been through this?

That’s what I thought for the rest of the day whenever I saw a girl. Except for the lucky ones that had boyfriends. I didn’t get a chance to see Franky, Adrian, or even Airleata the rest of the day.

I vaguely remember Mom asking me about my day. And how she didn’t come up to my room to check on me when I didn’t reply. That night I fell asleep in all my clothes, with my backpack still on my back, and an empty stomach.

“Dani, wake up. You over-slept.” Mom was shaking me awake, but gently. I muttered something, turned over, and fell back asleep. “Dani, come on. Are you not feeling well?” I shook my head. “I’ll be right back, let me get the thermomter.” She got up and walked out of my room. I sat up, rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and took off my backpack.

“Don’t get up. Let me take your temperature. You might have gotten the bug that’s flying around. Half of my office is out today, so the boss said we could just take the day off.” Mom sat back down next to me. “Open up.”

Too tired to object, I opened my mouth, and she stuck the thermometer under my tongue. “It’s not a bug,” I muttered around the thermometer, keeping it under my tongue.

“Then what is it?” She asked, looking at her wristwatch to time it. She looked at me, and I figured my eyes were red. “Oh, Dani… is it a boy?” I nodded. “Well, let’s just hope you caught something, otherwise I can’t keep you home…” I nodded again. “Just lay down, I’ll be back in five minutes to take the thermometer out.” Again, I nodded.

She walked out, and I rolled over to the other side of my bed, where my lamp was. It was on, but I didn’t remember turning it on. I shrugged, took out my thermometer and held it up to the light. When I heard Mom coming back to my room, I stuck it back in my mouth, rolled back onto my bed, and closed my eyes. The thermometer was really hot.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Dani. I got called by the boss, asking if I could go to the office and grab some things off the printer that I need to work on.” She took the thermomter out of my mouth and looked at it in the light. “Oh, my, you certainly are sick! One hundred-two right on the mark. It looks like you’re staying home today.” She pushed my hair out of my face. “I’ll be right back. I just have to run to the office. Just go back to sleep.”

I nodded, and soon I was back in a deep sleep. I faintly wondered if I really was sick.