Of course:

You reach out, resting your hand on her shoulder.

“Krista, I don’t know what’s in your head, but you look beautiful. When you smile, when the light hits your eyes, when you are up to something you shouldn’t be, when…” You lift your hand up, resting it on the side of her face, “Look, I don’t know how you see yourself. But I know how I see you.”

You have to stand on your toes, but you reach up to kiss her cheek, but just as you’re about to she turns back to you. Neither of you were expecting it, and instead of her cheek you pull her into a full kiss.

You see her eyes go wide, and you go to pull away. Then she wraps her arms around you and kisses you back. Now it was your turn to be surprised.

You think about pulling away, but this is Krista. You lean into the kiss, letting her hold you tight. For a few moments you both stay like that, and you realize that you are definitely going to be late now. At this point you don’t care.

Eventually Krista pulls back, she looks at you for a moment, then turns away.

“Ride safe, kay?”

“I will,” you say softly.

With that Krista hurries back inside, closing the door behind her.

You sigh and walk your bike back down the driveway towards the trail. You hadn’t meant to do that, she is your best friend. So why is your heart racing so fast.

You climb on your cold bike, doing your best to position the skirt so it doesn’t fly up while you’re riding, and start back home.

At least you don’t have to ride too quickly to make it by a certain time now, but you still end up going pretty quick once you notice there are a few people on the trails. You don’t want to be home right now, but you also don’t want anyone to see you dressed like this.

You’re pretty sure you make it home without being recognized. But just in case, you go through the gate and bring your bike through to the back yard. You lock it up next to the shed and head back to go inside, but you see a flash from the Bellwood house.

Looking up you can see in their room, Kyla is topless, holding her phone up to take pictures of you. Her sister hugging her from behind, with one hand dangling over Kyla’s chest.

Kathy smiles and waves at you when they see you’ve noticed them, so you look down and hurry to the door.