Kisser’s Delight

“Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling,” Fletcher sang along with The Bangles. Then, moving the woman’s hand to his heart, he continued, “Do you feel my heart beating? Do you understand? Do you feel the same? Am I only dreaming? Is this burning an eternal flame?”

As her student crooned the song, Marissa Resto glanced around in embarrassment. After several slow songs, less committed pairs began to break apart and find other dance partners. An engaging young business executive from Diamond Corp, who had been Marissa's midnight partner, slipped away less than a minute ago to get them a drink. Not that the English teacher needed many more. That became apparent when she accepted a dance with one of her students without any hesitation.

However, as the smitten eighteen-year-old held her close and serenaded the lovely teacher, Marissa grew concerned. That worry increased as one of Fletcher's hands slid down to caress the skin exposed by the dress's high slit.

“Fletch,” she warned, but her student waved it off by continuing to sing the lyrics.

Say my name.
Sun shines through the rain
A whole life so lonely
And then come and ease the pain
I don't want to lose this feeling, oh

Ms. Resto's agitation grew as the teen moved both hands to the top of her ass. This came partly from how inappropriate the dance might look to others. Also, she began to fear her own reaction to her student's forwardness. Similar to when Sean crossed the student-teacher line prior in the evening, Marissa found herself growing warm in places that shouldn't.

The struggle inside the educator continued as the song wore down, as did her pupil’s hands. By the time the final lines played out, Fletch had a solid grip of Marissa’s firm ass cheeks.

“Close your eyes, give me your hand…” Fletcher sang as the song faded away.

Marissa did close her eyes. Only for her dark brown eyes to pop open along with her mouth as Fletcher delivered a scorching kiss. Unable to stop the teen or herself, the pair shared a passionate kiss until Fletcher broke it off. Marissa’s lips automatically followed, but they only met air.

“Happy New Year…Ms. Resto,” Fletcher added as he spun around and departed.

That left the flummoxed teacher standing there, wondering what was happening to her tonight, when her midnight partner returned with drinks.

Fortunately for Marissa, no students noticed, or Nosy Nectar chose not to highlight the inappropriate dance. For many tips about Honey Hollow High teachers (usually accompanied by photographic evidence) flooded the gossiper’s inbox. Unknown to ball-goers, a phone nearby blew up with all the details about which teacher danced with whom and whether it got handsy.

Newish math teacher Glory Blick, dancing with the uncle of star quarterback, Austin Rusk, got forwarded more than a dozen times. Many tipsters gushed over the potential for their divorced teacher to find love, while others speculated on how possible it would be for in-laws Austin and Tyler to get along.

Once a darling of the Nosy Nectar chatter, Cash Colcord's tips poured in at higher levels than usual in recent years. Clearly, the early twenties crowd at the ball had reverted to their high school ways. Also, because Ashlynn Nish was unfamiliar to those who moved away, she was described as a mysterious woman. Or tipsters demanded to know the name of the woman attempting to steal Cash.

More speculation poured in over Wanda Zee’s midnight partner. None of the teens could place the face of the nurse’s energetic dance mate. The Nosy Nectar follow-up tomorrow would identify the man as a junior sales executive at Huguet Labs, whom Wanda’s good friend, Nevada Strecker, brokered the introduction.

The popular mother-daughter Brass duo also brought gossip tips with plenty of pictures. Topaz raised eyebrows with her wandering hands during several slow songs with Honey Hollow native and current Vapor Valley University professor Kirk Langley. While the younger crowd tittered at the behavior of their married English composition teacher, the older generation nodded amongst each other over Kirk’s known preference for brainy gingers. Still, womanizing Dr. Adam Chase watched Topaz with new interest after Bridget Tarver’s departure.

The younger Brass teacher sent the Honey Hollow tennis team into a fit of giggles and chatter. London Olmstead herself tipped Nosy Nectar about Tuesday grinding up on her older brother, Laredo. Of course, the pairing wouldn’t last long as other men swooped in to ask for a dance with the sexy cheerleader captain turned French teacher.

The biggest "Eww!" messages came from Principal MacArthur "Mac" Manske's turn of dances with his former students. Usually overly fond of former Sugarbees, Principal Manske chose four ex-cheerleaders to ring in this new year. He started with ex-cheerleader captain and current college senior, Lupita Cerrito. Then, lowering the age by one year with each dancer, Mac ended with last year's cheer captain and current college freshman, Kelly Nomura. Finally, finished with his cheerleader efforts, Manske grabbed his secretary and ex-Sugarbee co-captain Simone Savoy. This choice brought knowing nods from his current and former students, as there had been rumors for years about those two.

Finally, what brought an explosion of “OMG” and “Ohmigawd!” to the screens of Nosy Nectar’s editor came from the school librarian. Even to the shock of Fawn, she found herself in the arms of Honey Hollow’s most eligible bachelor, Ian Thirlby. How it happened mystified not only Miss Graff but also her best friend. Dancing with former neighbor Elliot Ridge, Brandy kept mouthing “How?” at her BFF.

“Would you rather join them?” Elliot teased.

“Would you like to know why I agreed to dance with you?” Brandy shot back. “And it’s not because I had a crush on you while growing up. So don’t think that?”

“Ugh! I hope not,” Elliot responded to the woman, a solid decade younger than him.

“I’d be more worried about the possibility that Tinny asked me to,” Brandy hinted, sending her partner stiff.

“What? Why?” he asked, glancing around suspiciously. Although older and supposedly more mature, Elliot and Tinsley’s prank war had never officially ended.

“Perhaps I’m her surrogate tonight,” Brandy teased, winking. “Hmm, Teddy’s kids did a fine job with Crystal. But we both know I’m several levels above that. Don’t we?”

“You know what? Fuck this,” Elliot stated as Brandy cackled like an evil cartoon character. So, he let go of the beautiful blonde and walked away, with her laughter still following.

One pair that Elliot passed on the way to grab a stiff drink was Graham and Frida. Although worried about his brother’s actions and Dalton’s health, the younger Diamond brother couldn’t turn down his best friend’s demand for a dance. He immediately regretted the decision as his BFF fussed over his life and romantic options.

“You need to find yourself a woman, Hammy! Life is short. Look at what almost happened to our Whitney.”

“Me? What about you?” Graham shot back and regretted it.

“Don’t you change the subject! I am not the one with a string of awful women in my past,” Frida reminded, bringing up one hand to wag a finger at him while they danced.

Graham chose not to mention that two of those golddiggers were in attendance at the ball under what he found to be suspicious circumstances. If anything, he counted himself lucky that Frida hadn’t spotted either woman yet.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I need to find myself a good woman to settle down with.”

“No! You also pick the wrong ones. I’m going to start handling that from now on,” Frida declared, frightening Graham. “For tonight, you need to be like your brother for once. Find yourself a hot thing and fuck her.”

“What?! Y-You can’t be serious.”

“I most certainly am! I can see how tense you are. And don’t get any ideas about waiting for Bridget in your head. She just agreed to a divorce. You need to leave that crush in the past. Got it?”

“What? I-I’d never swoop in like that. She just got…Don’t mention her again,” Graham ordered after lowering his voice.

"Good! I won't if you act like your brother tonight," Frida agreed. "Now, go find a one-night stand, or I'll have Tamsin find one for you."

While one best friend caused another to groan in embarrassment, another shook her head in annoyance. Teresa watched as Jewel rushed in to replace her in Reece’s arms after she ended their dance. And while Teresa preferred her other close friend dancing with her BFF more than any other woman, she still found it tiresome how Jewel always flocked right to Reece. I thought this childhood crush would’ve been over by now!

The eldest Zuccaro sister’s irritation only grew as “Then He Kissed Me” by The Crystals began. Jewel didn’t even wait for Reece to follow the song and kiss her as she did it first.

In another section of the ballroom, a familiar teen picked up the pace of his jaunty walk as he recognized the opening music to the song. Singing along, he timed his approach perfectly with barely any effort. Finally, arriving at his intended target group, Fletcher reached down to slap/cup the ass of the bitchy blonde. When she turned around to slap the foolhardy ass grabber, Fletcher began to sing.

And when he walked me home that night
All the stars were shining bright
And then he kissed me

With her mouth open to scold her cousin, Sienna instead found her obnoxious, oddball of a cousin slipping his tongue inside for a brief kiss. Then, breaking off, Fletcher hurried to play catch-up to the lyrics.

“He kissed me in a way that I've never been kissed before.”

“I-I-I’m going to–” Sienna fumed while sputtering.

“He kissed me in a way that I wanna be kissed forever more,” Fletcher continued.

“No, I don’t! I’m going to tell my parents and your mom!” Sienna screamed, forgetting that she wanted to avoid a scene.

Fletcher merely held up a finger to say wait before he sang the next part.

And one day he took me home to meet his mom and his dad
Then he asked me to be his bride
And always be right by his side
I felt so happy I almost cried

“Wha–How dare…Arrgh!” Sienna stammered before shrieking.

Moving on, Fletcher stopped before a grinning Rylee.

“Happy New Year, Ryls,” he greeted, leaning in to plant a soft, sweet kiss on her cheek.

“Wh-Why can’t you do that to me?” Sienna demanded to know as he turned toward Paige next.

“Remember what I warned you,” his best friend warned, recalling the sloppy New Year’s kiss Fletcher had laid on her when they were ten.

“C’mon! A guy doesn’t forget his first-ever **** threat,” Fletcher joked, leaning in to kiss her forehead while issuing a holiday greeting.

"As if Sienna didn't threaten your life well before then. And I know that Whitney Diamond vowed to remove your balls back in first grade. Hmm, maybe she had a good idea."

“Huh? Would you look at that? Your ass is looking very grabbable lately,” Fletcher commented, peering down his BFF’s back.

“Do that, and I’ll give Chance the key to your bedroom,” Paige threatened, referring to the Wynwick cousin they all expected to be a murderer someday.

“Yes! That’s what I’ll do. I’m going to lock you and Chance in the same room,” Sienna vowed.

“Ah, like I’m worried. Poppy knows if I end up dead, the blood is on your hands,” Fletcher replied, causing the ice queen to grow paler.

Although Poppy's reputation and behavior kept Sienna off-balance, the party girl had a soft spot in her heart. That’s why she danced with Barney. It’s also why she executed a plan that found her throwing Barney into the arms of Emily Buttery. Emily had been Barney’s prom date three years ago. And due to the photographer’s clumsiness, they also took each other’s virginities.

“Pop–”

“Shush, Barn. You two kids need to get with the program,” Poppy said as Emily blushed. “It’s about time.”

Finn gave Poppy a thumbs-up when he saw what she engineered. If any girl was meant for Barney, it had to be the sweet wallflower of a band geek. Then, still dancing with his two cousins, Finn leaned down once again to let Sanna and Serinda kiss each of his cheeks. They'd made that a requirement at the end of each song by playing up the guilt of never getting to see Finn.

Now, rising up again, Finn scanned the crowd absentmindedly. Then, like he’d been stabbed in the back, he saw a sight that turned his blood cold. Immediately, he apologized to the Bank sisters, letting them know that trouble might happen. But of course, they followed Finn as he raced ahead, only diverting from his destination when he saw Lacey and Austin.

“Lacey!”

“What?!” the petite redhead reacted, dropping her hands away from Austin. Her first thought was that Finn had come over to yell at her, and she felt like crying.

“How did that happen?”

Lacey followed Finn’s outstretched arm and gasped.

No! I forgot about–No!

Without even a word to Austin, Lacey rushed off with Finn, and the Bank sisters following them. Along the way, she grabbed Fletcher’s arm, dragging him with them.

"Hey! Oh! I always thought we'd do this on the down low. But if you want to humiliate Austin publicly, I'm so down with–Who the hell is that?"

“That’s Sean’s cousin Brynn!” Lacey screeched as they all skidded to a halt.

"Back, foul creature. Back!" Fletcher commanded dramatically as Lacey snatched a shocked Brynn away from her dance partner.

“What’s wrong?” the damsel in distress questioned with a confused expression.

“Back, I said!”

“What’s the matter, Fletch?” Bert Wynwick asked, plodding over.

“This goblin sought to besmirch the reputation of Brynn Tarver,” Fletcher explained as the other man rolled his eyes, albeit with murderous eyes.

“Um, I’m Brynn Baccaro, not Tarver.”

“What does besmirk mean, Fletch?” Bert asked.

“It means your brother was going to do bad things to the young lady, Bert. Bad things.”

“Chance? Stella told you–”

“Shut up, Bert! Fletcher’s just playing the fool as always,” Chance stated through gritted teeth. "I was only dancing with her."

“Best move along, Chance. And stay away from Brynn,” Finn ordered, stepping forward.

“Chance, you made Finny mad? But what about his mom?” Bert questioned with a hurt expression.

“Don’t worry about that. You’d better get Chance out of here before Sienna comes over,” Fletcher told Bert.

Although a timid soul, the big brute of the Wynwicks paled at the horrible stuff Sienna had threatened to do to Chance over the years. So in spite of his brother’s attempts to get past him, Bert used his large body to usher Chance away.

“I don’t get what’s going on,” Brynn said.

Finn and Lacey filled her in, with occasional comments from the Banks sisters and Fletcher. Brynn’s confused expression turned to a sickly one as they explained about Chance’s rumored reputation with women.

“Oh, no! My mom is going to freak out if she hears about this,” Brynn cried, nearly coming to tears. "She won't let me near another guy until I graduate from college."

“Don’t worry! We’re going to find another guy so that your mom never knows about Chance,” Lacey reassured, her mind going into matchmaking mode.

“I’d gladly offer myself as–”

“Not happening, Fletch,” Lacey shot down his proposal.

"Geezish! One second you're a hero; the next, you're used goods," Fletcher responded. "No worries, Stratton. I'm still here for Operation: Humiliate Rusk if you need me."

The giggling from the Bank sisters caught everyone’s attention. Handing over their phones to Finn, they asked to have their picture taken with Fletcher.

“Absolutely! I see some gingers appreciate a hero,” he replied, shooting a hurt look at Lacey.

“No, you’re famous in our town,” Sanna corrected.

"I am—Of course, I am!" Fletcher masked his confusion with a bright smile. "And where are you girls from again? Eldermoss? Huh? Can't say I've ever been there before. So why did you need my picture?"

“To prove you exist!” Serinda replied.

“Yeah, our friends think you’re the most unbelievable character on Nosy Nectar,” Sanna added.

“And now we have proof that you exist,” Serinda added as Fletch’s face fell.

“Character? Exist?”

With Lacey laughing boisterously as she escorted Brynn away to find a more suitable guy, Finn attempted to explain how his cousins viewed Honey Hollow and Nosy Nectar. Any disappointment at finding himself viewed as Honey Hollow’s madcap son vanished with the Bank sisters’ description of his friends, families, and enemies. By the end, Fletch loved the concept of their life as a reality show, and to Finn’s disbelief, Fletcher offered to introduce the girls to more of their favorite heroes and villains.

A different type of entertainment boiled over on another side of the dance floor. Pissed off at Palmer not showing up with his cousin to the ball, Kaitlin decided enough was enough. Stomping over to where Kieran danced with Rory, Katie chose her victim.

Pushing a girl away from Jaxon Quill, Kaitlin laid a fiery kiss on the older guy. She ensured everyone around her saw the lengthy and tongue-filled kiss, especially Kieran. Then, breaking off the kiss, the irate girlfriend turned to face him.

“Tell your cousin about that!”

"The fuck, Katie!" Cat yelled upon seeing one of her best friends kiss her brother in that manner.

“Listen up, world. I’m a single woman again,” Kaitlin announced.

While that announcement reverberated around their ballroom section, Yumi hurried over toward Jaxon. Thinking she had blundered by forgetting to kiss Cat's older brother, she pecked his cheek with a sheepish "Sorry."

A final pair of best friends shot one another glares until the more rambunctious half of the friendship remembered what song came up next on her mom’s playlist. Turning her head away from Peyton, Lana smiled mischievously as the song’s intro started.

A tick tock, ya don't stop-stop, to the
A tick tock, ya don't stop-stop, to the
A tick tock, ya don't stop-stop, to the
A tick tock, ya don't stop-stop, to the

“Ready, Nate?”

“For what?”

“Your shot,” Lana stated, giving him an exaggerated wink before shouting. “Switch!”

Flinging herself in the direction of Eoin, Lana watched as Nate picked up on her intentions right away by moving into Peyton’s personal space. And while a bit on the slow side, Nate recognized the song at the precise moment he needed to. Thus, he began serenading the lyrics of “I Wanna Sex You Up” to Peyton.

Come inside, take off your coat, I'll make you feel at home.
Now let's pour a glass of wine 'cause now we're all alone.
I've been waiting all night so just let me hold you close to me,
'Cause I've been dyin' for you girl and make love to me.

Lana found the expression on her BFF’s face to be priceless. So much so that, besides wishing she could’ve taken a picture, she didn’t care how furious Peyton got. Her level of enjoyment increased as Nate fell to his knees while singing up at the leggy blonde.

I wanna sex you up.
All night.
You make me feel real good.
I wanna rub you down.
I wanna sex you up.

And when Peyton attempted to storm off, Nate wrapped his arms around her ankles to keep her in place. Lana nearly fell over from laughing as her partner-in-crime lay sprawled on the floor, as he continued to sing the lyrics badly.

Let me take off all your clothes.
Disconnect the phone so nobody knows.
Let me light a candle,
So that we can make it better.
Makin' love until we drown.

"Quick! We need to get footage of this so we can send it to Bee and Tinny," Brandy ordered as she saw the adorable scene and the camera phones recording it. "Where's my mom and Mrs. Day?"