It Started With A Kiss (2 page)

By the end of the term, Nate — as he liked to
be called — and Georgie were best of friends. He was smart and
funny and when he held her hand, Georgie felt like she was the only
little girl in the world. Nate had a way of getting into mischief
but never getting into trouble. He only had to smile his smile at
the teacher and say something funny and she forgave him. Not that
he was ever really naughty. He was just a bit of a boy. Georgie
liked that about him. It was as if she was being mischievous by
default.

Every Friday afternoon, the
class was allowed free time if they’d completed their weekly tasks.
Georgie and Nate worked hard, so they always got free time and they
always chose to play in the back corner of the classroom where the
teacher kept the big plastic carton of
Lego
. Georgie designed houses and
Nathan made trucks and cars. One particular day, he made a
Lego
gorilla that he
stomped through Georgie’s village and used to kidnap one of
the
Polly Pocket
dolls she’d put in the castle she’d made. (He’d watched a
re-run of
King Kong
the previous weekend with his dad).

“
Stop it, Nate,” Georgie
cried. “Give me back my
Polly
Pocket
or I’ll tell the
teacher.”

Nate held the tiny doll between his fingers.
He lifted it high above his head where he knew Georgie couldn’t
reach it. “Make me.”

Knowing Nate would give in if she were upset,
Georgie threw a pout in his direction. “Give it back.”

“
No.”

“
But that one’s my
favorite. Please?” This time, she really was upset. She wanted that
doll back. Nate had a habit of losing things and
Polly Pocket
dolls were
so small he could lose it quicker than she could blink. Her eyes
grew watery. Her lip wobbled and she began to bite on her nails,
something Georgie never did because Jessica had told her that was
how babies were made.

“
Please?”

“
Here,” he whispered, as he
placed the doll in the palm of her hand. “I’m sorry, Georgie. I
didn’t mean to make you cry. It was only a joke.”

Georgie put the doll in her
pocket and zipped it up where Nate couldn’t get it again. She
pushed the tears away with her fingers and began to pull the pieces
of
Lego
apart,
putting them into the box. “It’s okay. I’ve had enough of this
game, anyway.”

Nate sat up, leaning his back against the
laminate cupboard. “Georgie?”

“
Yes?” Georgie shifted to
sit up beside him, her annoyance with him forgotten as she examined
the serious look on his face. He was very quiet, which was a bit of
a change. She hoped he wasn’t getting Chicken Pox again. One of the
other kids had got it twice.

“
You know how we’re best
friends?”

“
Yeah?”

“
When we grow up do you
wanna get married to me? If we get married we can live in the same
house and we’d never have to have sleepovers again.”

Georgie thought about this for some time. It
sounded like a good plan. She did like going for play dates at
Nate’s place and she hated when her mother arrived to collect her.
If they got married they could be together all the time. Imagine
that.

“
Don’t people need to be in
love to get married?” she asked. She was pretty sure that was how
it happened with the Disney princesses.

“
I guess so but we love
each other already, so it’d be okay.”

“
How do you
know?”

“
My mum said when people
are in love they want to be together all the time.”

“
I want to be with
you.”

“
She said people who love
each other be nice to each other.”

“
You’re nice to me.
Mostly.”

Nate leant very close. His shoulder grazed
Georgie’s. His voice was small and soft as he put a hand to her ear
and whispered, “People who love each other kiss all the time.”

Georgie pulled away. “Eww. I’m not kissing
you. You have boy germs.”

“
There’s no such
thing.”

“
Jessica said there
is.”

“
Jessica makes stuff
up.”

“
Oh.” Georgie turned to
face him. Thoughts ticked over in her mind. Then her hand reached
out to his knee. “I saw Mummy and Daddy kissing!” she exclaimed,
confirming his idea. “They were slobbering all over each other. It
was in the bedroom. I was meant to be in bed but I had a bad
dream.” She gave him a demonstration on the back of her
hand.

“
Gross. They must
really
love each other if
they were doing that.”

“
Yeah.”

“
So, if we kiss that will
mean we love each other and then we can get married, right? And you
are the prettiest girl in the class by a long way. Even more than
Jessica. Her big white teeth and ribbons are just plain ugly.” The
logic was twisted but somewhere, in some parallel universe, it made
sense.

Georgie bit her lip. “What about the boy
germs?”

“
There are no boy
germs!”

“
Well, I guess it’ll be
okay then. If
you
think it’s okay.”

Nate peeked sideways around the classroom
again. Nobody was watching them. He gave a slow, serious nod.

Georgie puckered and closed her eyes. She
felt the warmth of Nate’s breath as he leaned closer, placing a
chaste kiss on her mouth. Her lips tingled and a funny feeling
began to race around in her chest. Somewhere, she heard the sound
of drums playing. Opening her eyes, Georgie frowned at Nate. His
eyes were still closed. She moved slightly away.

“
Did you hear that?” she
whispered.

“
What?”

“
Those drums. It sounded
like Miss Simpson was doing that bongo song again. It was so loud
in my ears.”

Nate’s eyes were open now. He was nodding
vigorously. “I think it was my heart. It was beating real
hard.”

“
Mine was too. And my lips
are all sparkly.”

Nate peered at Georgie’s lips. He couldn’t
see any sparkles, though the way he was feeling he wouldn’t have
been surprised if she had some shooting out of her head. “You mean
tingly.”

“
Yeah. Tingly.”

“
I guess that means we’re
in love.”

Neither of them had any idea what to do with
this information but they knew it was important and very, very
special.

*****

That weekend, when Georgie went for a play
date at Nate’s house after her ballet class, he had a surprise for
her. It was in the spare bedroom they used as a playroom, hidden
away behind the large double doors of the built-in wardrobe.
Georgie and Nate loved to play in there. It was huge and filled
with all sorts of old junk his parents had forgotten. It was like
being in a secret treasure cave where adults never came.

“
Close your eyes,” Nate
said, tying an old pillowcase around Georgie’s head, to make sure
she wasn’t peeking.

Georgie was so excited she could hardly
speak. She loved surprises, especially Nate’s. The other week he’d
caught a butterfly for her and brought it to school in a plastic
storage container. He’d given it lots of leaves and grass to eat,
so it was a bit hard to spot but when Georgie had flipped the lid,
it had walked onto her hand, it’s orange and black wings opening
and closing. Georgie adored butterflies.

“
They are closed,” Georgie
said. “You just can’t see because you’re smothering me with the
pillowcase.”

Nate took her soft hand in his and led her to
the double doors. She heard the squeak of the hinges as he pushed
the door back, then sound of clothes hangers sliding along the rack
and the flick of the light switch. It was like going into
Narnia.

Nate let go of her hand. “Open your
eyes.”

“
You mean, take off the
pillowcase.” Georgie pulled the material from her head, letting it
fall to the floor. Nate was on his knees in front of her. He had a
ring in his hand. A yellow, plastic ring he’d gotten from a packet
of
Wizz Fizz
they’d bought at the shops the other weekend.

“
You know how we’re in
love?” he said.

Georgie looked around the closet. Nate had
decorated one end of the room as a makeshift altar. There was a
cloth and a candle sitting on the upturned side of an old milk
crate, even though they both knew they were not allowed to have
lighted candles. Paper chains hung from the lights and Nate’s
teddies and Batman collection lined the walls acting as witnesses.
Despite the obvious clues, Georgie wasn’t fully aware of where her
friend was going with this.

“
Yeesss
?”

“
Well, I thought we could
get married.”

“
But we’re too young to get
married. You have to be a grown-up or ask your mum and dad. My
parents would never let me get married, yet. I have to go to
Nooniversity and be a vet like they want.” It was actually Georgie
who wanted to be a vet but she didn’t want to sound like she was
smarter than Nate. He wanted to be a fireman or a World
Championship Wrestler. Both were really important jobs but she
didn’t think you needed to be clever to put out fires.

“
But I love you, Georgie.
Please marry me. It can be a secret.” He bit his lip uncertainly
and held the plastic ring out for her to inspect. It was very
pretty. It had a red stone in the center.

“
You won’t tell?” she
asked.

“
Cross my
heart.”

“
Well, I do love you, so,
yes. Let’s get married.”

Nate jumped to his feet. “Coolaphonic.”

He took her to the other end of the closet,
where a bunch of boxes were stacked. His mother kept all kinds of
old clothes in them and when they went to fancy dress parties, she
dug them out. Nate’s family always had the best costumes.

“
Here.” He handed Georgie a
white frilly petticoat and a piece of lace that had been a
tablecloth in a former life.

“
What will you
wear?”

Nate pointed to a black suit jacket and blue
spotted tie that belonged to his father. He’d put a yellow silk
rose in the buttonhole on the collar. Carefully, he took it from
the hanger and put his arms into the sleeves. It was miles too big,
the hem reached his knees and Georgie had to roll the sleeves up so
his hands could be seen but it made him look handsome. It made
Georgie happy that she was marrying him.

“
I got this for you, too.”
Nate handed over a bunch of fake flowers he’d found in the box and
tied with some curling ribbon left over from the Christmas
wrapping.

By this time, Georgie had slipped the
petticoat over her clothes and discreetly removed her jeans and
top. The petticoat had a sticky-out skirt that hung down to her
ankles like a real wedding dress but it was very baggy at the top
and she had to keep pushing the strap back onto her shoulder. She’d
taken two hairclips from her ponytail and used them to secure the
lace to her head in the form of a veil.

Nate beamed when he saw her. “You’re so
beautiful, Georgie.”

“
Thank you,
Nate.”

Then Nate turned on the CD
player and as the music played his Mum’s favorite song,
Dream A Little Dream,
he
walked Georgie up the makeshift aisle of old red towels. Urged on
by the audience of teddies and toys, he slipped the ring on her
finger and said, “I do.”

She placed a tender kiss on his lips. “I do,
too.”

“
Will we be friends
forever, now?” Georgie asked, when the ceremony was over. She was
feeling very solemn, like something important had
happened.

“
Forever,” Nate
replied.”

Chapter 3

Standing in front of Nate, who was looking at
her as if he’d lost his memory or she’d lost her mind, Georgie felt
hurt and small, like the first day of school all over again. A stab
of pain twisted in her chest, replacing the euphoric feeling of
only moments before. It wasn’t the embarrassment of having stopped
him in the middle of the jogging track that made it so bad, or the
fact that she was wearing one shoe and jogging tights with a great
rip in the crotch, it was the fact that Nate truly had no idea who
she was. It was as if their past never existed, that it had meant
more to her than it had to him. But that couldn’t be right, could
it? Nate had cried the day they broke it off.

“
You don’t remember me, do
you?”

Nate peered at her closely. He was struggling
for recognition but she could see it wasn’t coming.

Georgie removed her sunglasses and cap. Her
ponytail swung carelessly and flopped over her shoulder as she
looked into his eyes, trying to trigger his memory. He had to
remember her. It would be soul destroying if he didn’t. Not to
mention, more humiliating than having her name and some rather
untrue accusations plastered on the boys’ toilet wall in her last
year of school. One of the male teachers had seen it first. When
he’d confronted her, Georgie didn’t know whether to be embarrassed
about the fact that it was there, or that she had no idea what the
lewd action mentioned was. Georgie and Nate had been together a
long time. He’d kept her sheltered.