Engels,  Short Story

To Trap a Kiss

‘How did I get myself into this?’, Jake mumbled to himself when he looked past the curtain to see the crowd. The school’s Theater Hall was slowly becoming packed. Everyone would come out to watch the play tonight, including his parents. The thought of what was ahead of him brought back the same nausea that had prevented him from eating most of the day. If his plan would work out then it would all be worth it, he kept telling himself.

It had all sounded so easy when he first started planning to get what he had wanted all through High School. To kiss Emily. His careful planning and hard work should pay off tonight so that he would remember this moment for the rest of his life.
But Jake’s best friend Morgan wasn’t fully on board in helping him out. ‘I don’t know, it seems an awful lot of trouble just for a girl.’
‘Not just a girl Morgan, it’s Emily I’m talking about.’
‘Yeah she’s cute and all, but…’ Morgan’s voice faded in Jake’s mind when he thought about the first time he saw Emily. Cute was barely scratching the surface of her true beauty.

It all started four years earlier when he first laid eyes on Emily at the start of the semester. They were doing a reading exercise in class until the door swept open and soft careful steps entered the class. Someone was late. She walked in and Jake felt his stomach drift and his heart stutter. She walked in and took her place at her desk on the far side of the room. The teacher didn’t even blink as if she knew exactly where she had been. Now that was an entrance. She had long curly hair that glowed the color of autumn woods. Her face looked soft and her eyes were as green as spring leaves. Her lips were as red as Jake’s face at that moment because, as their eyes met, he noticed he was staring at her. When she noticed Jake’s glance she stood up, walked over to his desk and kissed him on the mouth, and swore to him that she would be his forever. Well, of course, it didn’t exactly go that way, or maybe not even close. Actually, it was far from what happened in real life.

Ever since he saw her up until the theater play years later he spoke only a handful of sentences to her. The first time was a couple of weeks after they started school. He ran into her while changing classes and said “Hi” while passing her. It was his first attempt at making contact and it went unnoticed as if he was invisible. She gave not a single reaction to his existence. Not to blame her since the “Hi” that Jake heard in his head was in reality a soft exhaling without any form of sound to it. But it didn’t matter to him, it looked like her eyes flickered towards him for a microsecond, and the lingering scent she left in her tracks kept him in a euphoric state for weeks.
‘She looked at you?’ Morgan said. ‘That’s why you are grinning this whole time?’
But Jake didn’t care. He was floating. ‘Could I be with her?’ Jake asked.
Morgan stared at him in disbelief. ‘You?’
‘Come on Morgan.’
‘No, I mean like in a relationship?’
‘Of course that’s what I mean.’
‘I guess so, I mean you are not an ugly dude,’ Morgan said uncomfortably.
‘Why thank you Morgan, I appreciate that.’

But just the thought wasn’t enough for Jake. Whenever he saw Emily he felt like the whole world greyed out and she took the center stage. Sometimes he would be hypnotized by her bright red lips. Wanting to touch them, to kiss them. What would it be like to have her as his girlfriend? It looked impossible to him. She was just so vibrant and he was so dull, so average.
‘Don’t you dare call yourself average,’ Morgan had told him, ‘If you start there what will become of you huh?’
So Jake promised himself at that point, sworn actually in front of Morgan, that he would not finish school before he’d kissed Emily’s bright red lips.

Time passed on and Jake was feeling less and less sure he could actually pull it off. She felt so distant to him as if she was moving in another dimension, one where he did not exist.
‘Can’t you ask her for me?’ he asked Morgan one afternoon.
‘What, are we in kindergarten? You sent me to her and it’s over, for good. The hell are you thinking? Plus she might notice me and will fall in love with me and forever see you as MY best friend. It would haunt you until infinity.’
‘Jeez, it was just a joke, I wasn’t serious,’ Jake said unconvincingly.

But in the last year of school, when time was running out, he found the perfect answer. He walked through the school halls when his eyes fell on a poster that said: “Apply now to take part in the biggest school play of the year! We’ll be performing ‘Robin Hood’ on the 25th of October. Auditions open right now!” Emily was doing theater class, and Jake himself had done some plays when he was younger. In the center of the poster Robin Hood and Lady Marion – a picture from another theater – were kissing. Emily had performed the lead role twice the last couple of years and it was always Jake’s favorite moment of the year, to watch her perform. To stare at her for a full hour without having to be ashamed. This time though, he would apply himself and go for the role of the brave and cunning Robin Hood.

Jake hadn’t heard anyone laugh as hard as Morgan did when he told the plan. Morgan stopped laughing immediately once Jake’s expression turned sour.
‘You are serious?’
‘Why not, this is basically my last chance. It won’t be possible just by being me, I would have to trap her for a kiss. It’s the only way. You said so yourself: what would become of me if I didn’t try.’
It wasn’t exactly what Morgan had said back then but there was not a doubt Jake would pull back from this. ‘Then let’s do it,’ Morgan said.

And now here he was pacing backstage in his Robin Hood outfit afraid that he would chicken out at the last minute. He looked in the crowd and saw Morgan who noticed him peeking and put up two thumbs mouthing “You got this.”

The play went great, they had been practicing a lot and Jake felt more and more at ease. He heard Morgan say “Just pretend to be Robin Hood and that you kiss Lady Marion. Robin ain’t scared of nothing.”
The moment drew nearer as Jake defeated the sheriff in an arrow shooting contest and Lady Marion came running towards him. It all felt unreal. The lights above were very bright and Jake noticed how hot it was on stage. He was sweating profusely but Emily was already there dressed as a Lady with her natural curls hanging over her shoulders. She smiled as if Jake was the only man in the world that she wanted to be with. The thought that she was acting came to the surface for a microsecond but he shook it off. Emily was now closer to him than ever before. The kiss had not been rehearsed. The director had asked if they wanted to but as Jake was nodding yes, Emily politely shook no at the same time. So they didn’t. It all came down to this moment.
For a second the class door opened again and soft steps entered the room. Jake was pursing his lips when he noticed that Emily’s face was pulsing red and a loud screech was heard throughout the building on and off. Emily looked terrified and Jake didn’t know what was happening until the school director yelled: ‘Tornado alarm! Everybody to the storm shelter!’
All order vanished into chaos as people stood up from their chairs and started running. Jake stood frozen on the stage until some other actors grabbed him along with them. He noticed his parents when they all streamed into the shelter but he couldn’t face them. It was after everybody was down in the shelter and the scene went quiet that Jake understood that he had missed his chance. That all was for nothing. Tears welled up in his eyes as he sat there, a defeated Robin Hood. He put his face into his hands and wanted to sink through the floor.

That was when he felt an arm around him. He looked up and it was Morgan. She had been looking everywhere for him in the midst of chaos.
‘I’m super proud of you, you know that,’ she said.
‘Thanks,’ Jake said as he brushed away his tears. ‘But look at me. Instead of kissing the girl Robin Hood got thrown in jail. Trapped. I blew it.’
‘Well maybe you didn’t,’ she said.
Jake looked up and Morgan kissed him right on the lips. The kiss lasted around ten seconds, or maybe longer, and when they disentangled Jake looked her straight in the eyes. All their time together flashed in front of his eyes. All her love and care for him. The laughs, the tears. Her selfless encouragement of his stupid plan. She was his best friend but because of it, he hadn’t noticed her in any other way. Jake grew up in that very moment.
Morgan smiled and shook her head. ‘I’m sorry.’
There was nothing that needed to be said. Jake smiled and he held her hand. Morgan put her head on his shoulder and they sat there for five minutes until the school director came in and yelled ‘False alarm! Everybody come out now!’
People were pouring out of the shelter and went straight towards the theater.
‘So what do you want to do?’ Morgan asked. ‘Go back or run?’
They both looked at each other and grinned as they set out into the dark hearing the director behind them call ‘Where’s Robin?’
As they started walking off the school premises two boys passed them in the other direction. ‘Someone had set the alarm off, for a moment I thought we were goners.’
Morgan giggled.
‘What?’ Jake asked
‘Nothing’ she said as she squeezed his hand and they ran into the night.

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