Survival Of The Fittest

It was a beautiful, fine day. Cold and clear outside, warm and cozy inside. An extremely squashy couch, the warmth of human connection, the dancing flame of the here and now to fire that crisp substrate to preserve in perfect memory. A good old day in the making. Kelsey couldn't have picked a better time or place to be losing horribly at Super Smash Bros.

She glanced outside through the windows set along one wall. The space wasn't small by any means, but compared to the other rooms in the house, which in Kelsey's estimation tended to be too big by half, it felt positively quaint. And from that to-floor vantage, one could see the landscape extending out toward the sea. Trees, shed for the winter. Expansive lawns. The water far beyond. Grand houses built in the hopes of displaying the benefactor's prosperity, spaced carefully to avoid catching anyone else's prosperity in the mix.

"Maybe I'll do better on Green Marth," Kelsey said, turning back to the screen they sat facing. "She is a lot cuter." She looked over at her sole companion, held the gaze a second or two longer than she otherwise might. Quite a small gathering today, which was kind of expected when you only invited one specific person.

A wry smile, only partially because of her insistent little joke. She'd spent plenty of time discovering what exactly each incarnation of the Fire Emblem was in the couple lines of exposition it got snuck in amidst the main attraction of a few dozen characters being extremely stylist at each other. But here she only played Marth; Marth and Red Marth and Book Marth and Girl Marth. Green Marth was the best out of all of them because she could date Edelgard, who might have done some warcrimes and was absolutely fucking hot.

She settled in, adjusting her posture a bit, working a little deeper into the depths of the cushions and leaning softly against the shoulder of the girl sitting next to her.

"What do you think?"

[Evie McKown cleaned up after Skateballing, now she’s here.]

It might’ve been just another afternoon of casual gaming, under other circumstances. But winter’s icy fingers were really starting to dig into Salem, and the cosy warmth of a shared couch became a truly wonderful experience after the brisk chill of Evie’s walk across town to meet Kelsey. Hanging out alone was by no means an unusual setup for them, but in the wake of her disastrous oh wait that was a date? with Teddie and the attending realisations she’d made about herself, the intimacy of it all wasn’t lost on Evie.

Sure, when they were in the midst of a tense match, she was focused. But in the moments between, the little waits and load times, every second felt longer, each sensation that bit heightened. Was Kelsey doing it on purpose, or was she just more alert to her own feelings now? How did that song she liked go again, I can’t read you, but if you want the pleasure’s all mine? Yeah. Sounded about right.

Byleth appeared on screen, and oh my indeed, Evie couldn’t disagree that she was an attractive design. She tensed up just a little as Kelsey leaned in closer, gave a little chuckle she hoped was normal, casual. Tried to relax. Can you see me using everything to hold back? So that’s what the lyrics had meant. Living it made it make a lot more sense than just hearing it.

“Ha, yeah. They knew what they were doing with her design alright.”

Evie adjusted herself a bit too, wriggling her back against the cushion to get more comfortable and, incidentally, tilting her shoulder into a less awkward position to lean against. Her eyes flitted from the screen to the girl nestled against her, just for a moment, and Evie resolved to steal as much time on the couch like that as possible.

“Guess I’ll go with Green Mario then.”

Evie snorted at her own lame turnabout, and selected Luigi. Floaty, awkward, and hard to punish. She’d just avoid going in for the kill to early herself, and then she could enjoy the sort-of-cuddle for a good few minutes more.

Kelsey smiled at Evie's reciprocation of her insistent little joke. Wriggled in a little more, almost unconsciously, to reciprocate the offer of her shoulder. She wasn't a superficial person—didn't think of herself that way at least—but there was a certain magic to the way they fit against each other. All too often, it took a bit of contorting to properly relax into a proffered shoulder. It wasn't every day that a guy matched her height so well, let alone a cute girl. Or any girl, really. She didn't discriminate in such matters. But it did help if they were cute.

They started a new match, pulling their shared focus to the shapes, the sounds, the colors curated for maximum effect before them. All creative work was art, and art was about the connections between people. Discovering them, exploring them, creating them. To share a moment was to get in on the ground floor of a shared idea. So it followed that chasing a weirdly floaty green plumber around with a sword and attempting to land That One Big Impractical Smashy Thing to yeet him off the stage was performance art, or something of the like. And so was that warmth beside her, the shared subtle motions rippling up from the movements of their fingers.

Their chosen characters ran a frantic little duet. High-minded notions about the concept of art and the essence of togetherness, running around as licensed characters trying to bonk each other off the screen was just fun. Flipping around, taking potshots, sometimes whiffing spectacularly and sometimes putting an exclamation point on their engagement with a sudden solid hit. Kelsey on the receiving end more often than not, but keeping her eye on the ebb and flow of it. Stepped in, stepped back, actually managed to connect with one of those attacks you had to call in three days in advance to make a reservation for. She giggled maniacally and followed up with a few uncharacteristically deft combos, clawing her way back.

Soon enough, they were both on their last stock, dancing around the extremity of the arena, dangerously close. Byleth hanging from the edge. Luigi dangling from the edge. A tempting target. Kelsey jumped out to deliver the coup de grace, committing wholeheartedly and watching that slippery little plumber slide right out from underneath her thumb.

"Ah," Kelsey cried as Byleth plunged enthusiastically into the abyss, "That was so cool!" She laughed and turned and threw her arms around Evie to give her a delighted squeeze.

A moment passed.

She stopped, considered herself, bit her lip and gave an extremely platonic little chuckle as warmth touched her cheeks.

Was Evie throwing? Not exactly, but she also wasn’t giving it 100% to start with. Overly cautious in the neutral to lengthen the game, stealing glances at Kelsey’s pretty hazel eyes when she should be capitalising on pressure, throwing out moves that would be funny instead of effective. But by degrees, she found herself entirely engaged. A stock thrown away trying to down-taunt Byleth off of ledge only to be punished heavily finally sealed the deal, and by the time it came down to one stock each, Evie was absolutely playing to win.

Both were at a high enough percentage to fear any serious hit, both danced around one ledge, daring each other to play riskier and riskier. Evie’s breath caught in her throat, knuckles white, gamer focused. Luigi’s goofy little dash attack came out, Byleth dodged off-stage. Luigi dropped to grab ledge, Byleth approached for the kill. More by instinct than judgement, Evie released, spot-dodged in mid-air, stole the ledge back.

Game!

Her first instinct was to leap to her feet and pop off like she’d just taken first at a tournament. But as Evie began to move, she felt arms wrapping around her, and she acquiesced, dropping back into Kelsey’s grasp. For a moment there, she’d almost forgotten the tension, so focused she’d been on securing the win.

Except now the source of that tension was biting her lip and blushing.

Their eyes met, and Evie’s breath caught once again.

She wasn’t sure, but she’d listened to the songs, she’d seen the movies: was this it? The moment?

Some sort of gravity seemed to be pulling Evie in, but in her anxiety that she’d misread, that she would ruin a moment and a friendship, she hesitated, using everything to hold back. Savouring with everything she had inside her.

Then the connection seemed to sever, the pull towards Kelsey dissipated, the moment passed. Kelsey chuckled. Evie grinned awkwardly, took in restraint like a breath into lungs already numb from holding back. Had it been anyone else, anywhere else, Evie would’ve teased her for blushing, made light of the whole situation. Instead, not entirely sure she wasn’t blushing right back, she pulled away and changed the subject.

“You, um, want a drink of anything?”

God, her mouth was dry. Her voice came out a little scratchy, a little croaky. At least it sold the cover story.

Kelsey's little chuckle died away, strains of nervousness and incredulity and desire and shame all flattening out into a broad, wistful smile that barely touched the corners of her mouth. She was blushing. From a simple hug. Hugs were the water in which she swam. How she said hello, and goodbye, and hey I noticed you happen to be within arm's length for no particular reason. That had made things obvious, she was sure. Well, you had to at some point, right? To ask for maybe a little more, but not too insistently if it could mean any less.

"Yeah, it's gotten kinda warm in here, huh," she said almost absentmindedly, agreeing with the out that Evie had made for herself. No, not really. Not without the aid of the furnaces stoking tentatively in her gut and beneath her cheeks. But, sure, if they wanted it to be. Her eyes wandered to the window, to the winter stretched out beyond their lofty eyrie.

She made as if to get up, leaning forward in her seat. They could go downstairs, and Kelsey could open the fridge and feign ambivalence toward all the things in there that would taste nice and go straight to her waistline, stuck there in the hopes that they'd do exactly that, and have a nice glass of water. And they could find something else to chat and giggle over, and they could be friends. Or maybe she really was just thirsty. She certainly sounded the part. Kelsey was thirsty as hell herself. She also wouldn't have minded a drink.

But it was an awful long way down to the kitchen.

She relaxed back just a little, away from the edge of the cushion. Ready to sink right back in if she wanted. Or to the side.

Her eyes met Evie's again.

"...Unless you wanted to try another round?"

At least the sudden flush of heat wasn't just her, that was a relief to self-sabotaging expert and disaster-lesbian Evie McKown. Either it really was warm after snuggling together for so long, or Kelsey felt the same way. Or both, possibly. Could be both. But she had her answer too, that had not been "the moment". Evie followed Kelsey's wandering eyes to the window, regarded the soft light filtering through moreso than the frosty landscape beyond. Any other day? She would've been captivated for just a moment or two by how pretty it looked, both the incoming light and the wintery scenes outside. But it paled in comparison when her eyes drifted back to the pleasant company by her side.

As she stole a little glance at that face, the one pushing everything aside to monopolise Evie's sense of awe and beauty for as long as it could, Kelsey seemed to move to get up. Well, Evie had offered a break from... all of this, all this tension. But a not inconsiderable part of her had been hoping to hear a no, to be forced by politeness to stay and enjoy suffering the unbearable longing.

And then she relented a little, scooted back towards a more normal seated position. Not that Evie was looking at her ass, obviously not. Body language, that's how she'd read how Kelsey was sitting. Definitely.

Evie felt eyes settling on hers, and she rapidly pulled her gaze up to meet them. The warmth rose in her chest and her cheeks again, her breath hitched again. The Moment, take two.

Unless you wanted to try another round?

It didn't take long to draw some creative interpretations of what Kelsey had meant by that, then chide herself for assuming, then double-chide herself for assuming she shouldn't assume. Another round of Smash Bros and awkward cuddling sounded nice, a second shot at actually seizing The Moment sounded... well, it sounded terrifying, but alluring in equal measure.

A question arose in Evie's mind, innocent at first, just a default query when starting a game: who do you wanna be this time? Creative interpretations of that abounded too. Who did she want to be? Answer one: probably Ganondorf? Luigi's floatiness was awkward to control at best, and a big brick type guy would be a welcome change. Answer two: ideally not the same Evie McKown who expertly avoided making any kind of change, even for the better? She could count on one hand the number of times she'd actually made a conscious decision to affect a change, rather than just roll with the path of least resistance, and as terrifying as each of them had been, hadn't they always turned out for the best? Hadn't taking the leap over the precipice always been rewarded with exactly the good results any idiot could've predicted would've happened? So what was she always so damned afraid of? She could do it if she tried. It didn't have to feel like a crime.

"I..." her voice came out soft, faltering. Uncertain.

Deep breath. Gulp. Swallow back the anxiety. No more being afraid to be forward or cut corners.

"I want to."

It was sudden, it was awkward, it was probably a little bit too forceful. But it was also Evie's first time kissing someone else actively, romantically. A chaste peck was her intention at first, just leaning in and softly planting her lips on Kelsey's, but in forcing herself to act at all, her movement was significantly more aggressive and insistent than planned. Oops.

Kelsey's heart soared as Evie stumbled over herself. There was something special about someone going all goofy over you. The feeling of a glowing comment on a drawing she'd posted, writ a thousand times larger. That sense of validation. Like, yeah, objectively she couldn't really be surprised at anyone's enthusiasm for pulling the cute goth-adjacent cheerleader out from behind her peek-a-boo bangs. But there were things you knew, and things that you felt. Again, like a drawing. You could step outside, or not even bother, and see a thousand instances of light falling across a scene with absolutely zero mistakes or limitations of format. It was easy to know how things were. Feeling was about how things were supposed to be. The specific intent of putting this line here and that line there. That element of communication that forged connections between people.

And boy were they doing some connecting right now.

Kelsey had done some kissing before. She was some people's first, or first girl. Or last girl. It didn't make her an expert, just someone who knew the lay of the land. So even if, maybe, she kinda had a plan for how things might go today and it didn't exactly involve going from vague tension to full on the lips in five seconds flat, she was ready to grab the rudder. To steer them through that overeager little collision, the half-moment's parting, the awkward little "Ooh!" squeezed into the hairsbreadth between them. And, not that she was in the habit of discouraging anyone to act on their affections with her, but when someone was looking to broaden their horizons, she took extra care to give them the proper experience. To show them what it truly meant to desire and be desired. That made sense. If someone was thinking about playing for a new team, you gave them every reason to do so.

So, as they reconnected, Kelsey dug in eagerly, wrapped one arm around the back of Evie's head and pulled herself in tight against her. It was only good manners.

The moment passed by in a tangle of heat and passion. Soon enough, they were breaking apart again, leaving Kelsey's mind to race to destinations best left unsaid as she broke into a fit of crimson-cheeked giggling. She smiled and leaned her weight against Evie, slid her chin onto her shoulder with a satisfied hum.

"So, what do you think?"

Not really knowing what she'd expected, or what she was doing frankly, Evie very nearly pulled away on becoming aware of how strongly she'd accidentally come on. She hadn't been 100% sure she was reading the correct signals from Kelsey: how was she supposed to be sure anyway? She'd been kissed, once, which had come as a surprise and she'd been so not-into-it that it helped her realise how not-into boys she was in general despite what centuries of hetero media had tried to instill in her. So knowing when she was supposed to be the active party was somewhat of a mystery to Evie, a stab in the dark, one she'd luckily high-rolled. Kelsey responded with great enthusiasm, and Evie let herself savour the experience for as long as it would last. True, she had no idea what she was doing, or if it was actually enjoyable for her partner, but the signs seemed to point to at least an adequate performance.

And the moment passed.

A much less melancholy feeling than moments before, when it had passed en-seized. A scarlet-cheeked, messy-haired, heart-fluttering, shallow-breathing, wonderful kind of feeling. Her arms closed, tentatively at first, around the other girl's torso. With her head resting against Evie's shoulder, Kelsey couldn't see it, but the goofy grin plastered across the brunette's face was plain to hear in her voice when she responded what she thought. A hand wandered upwards, fingers ran gently through black-and-purple hair.

"I dunno," Evie began, stifling a giggle.

"I think I might need another try, y'know, to be sure?"

Of course in truth, Evie knew damn well that she'd confirmed what she had really already known. Kissing girls was definitely more enjoyable of an experience than kissing boys. A thought occurred to her, and she inched away from Kelsey, enough to shift her head and look the other girl in the eye again. Evie's mouth opened slightly, her blush deepened, but she couldn't get the words out. Second-guessing herself, too afraid to spoil the exchange with the kind of silly humour that would otherwise come so instinctively to her. More than one instance of social bravery in the same interaction? Not likely.

Fingers through her hair. Fuck, that felt good. Kissing, hugging, squeezing herself in so tight they could practically feel each others' racing hearts, that was the good stuff. But those little acts of admiration, the idea that her mere existence was so appealing that there was joy to be found in the idle exploration of it? That was the really good stuff. Kelsey could live in that moment forever. And Evie, to her delight, wasn't quite done yet either.

But first, she pulled back a bit, fixed her with those marvelous blue eyes. Lips parting as if for the obvious, and then working silently with the promise of something else. Whatever it was—and Kelsey wasn't short of idea—there was another language they could speak, one in which being tongue-tied was a bit more of a positive. One of Kelsey's broad smiles cracked across her face and she reached out, slid her hands along Evie's jawline and pulled herself in.

Another glorious endeavor. Less spontaneous, more practiced, deliberate. Different and delightful in its own way. One Kelsey was in no hurry to bring to a close.

When they finally did part again, Kelsey took her turn in pulling back and snatching Evie's gaze up with her own.

"So," she said, "Does this mean we're—you know...?"

Was it a stroke of good luck, or just highly predictable given the circumstances? Either way, Evie's intent had been to ask Kelsey to take the lead, obfuscated enough with a dorky joke to make it possible for her to actually spit the words out, and it soon turned out that she hadn't needed to actually ask. All that notwithstanding, she'd been right to want that. Kelsey was by no means less passionate nor less enjoyable just more... everything else. Ready for it? That was about as well as Evie could get her head around it: Kelsey was just more prepared. For her part Evie was all too happy to benefit from the extra practice.

Once again the pair had to come up for air however. Though she had at some point caught herself wondering if anyone had ever passed out from kissing too much, and if it would be such a bad thing anyway, breaking off to catch their respective breaths did seem like the wiser move. It was around about the point that the other girl leaned back and fixed her with a meaningful gaze, that Evie realised that she was essentially being straddled and not-quite-pinned under her. It felt vulnerable, yet, it felt good. Safe. Like she didn't have to be afraid in that cosy space underneath Kelsey's presence.

"Does this mean, we're—you know...?"

Staring back up into her eyes, Evie forgot to second-guess herself. The first thing that came to mind burst straight out of her face with about as much grace as her earlier attempts at kissing.

"Gay?"

No, that hadn't been what Kelsey was driving at. That was Evie's hangup, not the girl's who clearly didn't care too much what gender her partner happened to be. Certainly some kind of revealing, though.

"Heh, I, I mean,"

Evie forced a little laugh at her own expense.

"You mean like, dating?"

Around about that point, she began to realise her breath was coming shorter, faster.

But she didn't have to be afraid here, not of Kelsey. She could say what was eating her, right?

"I mean, I, I um,"

Her words spilled without much of her characteristic forethought, blurting faster than she could even really think them at all.

Even so, she'd started. Having trouble speaking up was rare for her. Having trouble shutting up, on the other hand, was a common problem.

"I'd like, well, I mean, I wanna be, um, I,"

Evie gathered her thoughts for long enough to actually form a coherent sentence. Then carried it on long past its intended conclusion anyway.

"I'd really like to be, you know, y-your, your girlfriend? But I mean, I, I haven't told anyone. I didn't even really tell you! And I shouldn't be scared but I am and and I'm an idiot and I'm scared of changing things even though I mean, everyone's probably really cool about but I..."

Take a breath, girl.

"I'm still scared. Is that stupid? I'm stupid."

Kelsey smiled at Evie as she went on, nodded a little in encouragement, chewed her lip and smiled at the way her presence washed away her composure.

"You sure were telling me a lot just now," she said in partial response, and grinned, flicked her tongue over her lower lip.

But, fun as that was, there were things Kelsey did know that Evie didn't. Beautiful, vital, important things. Sure, she could be passive to a fault, and yeah, she was such a fucking bottom that you could generate a secure password by giving her a compliment. But she'd felt that uncertainty, made those discoveries, experienced that pain all on her own. She knew the path through that wilderness, and she would be utterly remiss not to share the way.

Her smiles softened. "I think you're wonderful." She leaned in a bit, locked eyes for another little moment's memory, flopped down across Evie's lap. Arching her back, she stretched out like a cat. A crescent of bare skin revealed itself as her top pulled away from where her belt cinched around her hips, a gap she made exactly zero effort to close.

"I'd like to be your girlfriend, too," she said softly, gazing upward, "You don't have to tell everyone. Not right away. Not unless you want to. Some people won't like it. I think you're cute," she spoke to a gentle rhythm, delivering her last statement in a tone that suggested that settled the matter.

She reached down, took Evie's wrist in one hand. Guided her over to that patch of exposed skin, helped her slip her fingertips beneath the hem of her top.

"Whatever feels right."

Deep breath.

Yup. Lungs still working. Not dead. Life not over.

Kelsey seemed pretty neutral to the entire braindump, or unsurprised? Unbothered, at least. Not in an I don't care way, but in a yeah, that's fine kind of way. She just smiled and made a little joke, defused the tension that really only existed inside Evie's own neuroses. Then she said she thought Evie was wonderful, and the young girl's heart skipped a beat. She hadn't experienced a compliment like that before, and had never really thought how she'd feel about it either. She'd always so desperately wanted people to like her, but until very recently, she'd barely considered wanting people to like her. For most of her adolescence, Evie had just kind of assumed that some day she'd find a boy that made her feel differently than she had about anyone so far, and she'd have two-point-five kids and a dog.

But there was Kelsey capturing her gaze, making her feel desired, not to mention making her feel desire too. There was Kelsey lounging across her lap, showing off some skin in a way that would barely have registered to the other girl's dormant sexuality scarcely a year ago, that your average conservative wouldn't even find scandalous, but grasped Evie's attention near-instantly. Her eyes travelled down to soft pink crescent, her mouth felt dry again, her pulse made its way back up to where it'd been mid-kiss.

Kelsey spoke again, tearing the other girl's eyes back across to meet her gaze. Confirmed that she was indeed down to be dating. That she didn't even mind being quiet about it until Evie was comfortable.

Then Evie's heart jumped a second time, as she became aware of a warmth against her hand. Kelsey had moved it onto her midriff while she'd been busy wrapping her head in knots about what it meant to date a girl in secret and how she felt about anyone telling her she was cute. She bit her lip, and took the hint, extending her fingers to caress the bare flesh under the other girl's shirt.

Whatever feels right.

Touching Kelsey certainly felt right, right about then. Evie's lips parted. Mouth still too dry. Awkward gulp, breath. Kelsey certainly seemed to want that too, so she braced herself for taking a more active role again.

She moved her other hand back to those black-and-purple locks. Kelsey had seemed to like that before. Then she opened her mouth again, managed a few soft words in response.

"When... did you say your parents were getting back?"

Kelsey could do this forever.

Cuddling with someone soft and strong and cute, the soft touch sliding over her stomach, frission sparking as those gentle fingers skimmed through her hair. Her midriff was a little softer than she would have liked to present, but she trusted her rational mind that Evie wouldn't know the difference, or car either way. That it wouldn't stop her from becoming gloriously, disastrously enamored with her. Which had paid off in spades. There was something undeniably hot about being the object of so intense a desire, of...

...did Evie mean what Kelsey thought she meant?

Kelsey paused for a moment—not that she was really doing much in the preceding one—and turned that question over in her mind. How long were her parents going to be gone, and what did they intend to do about it? The answer would be yes, always yes. The only thing that rivaled cuddling was, uh, advanced cuddling, and never in her life would she say no to either. Just, things had progressed a bit quickly, hadn't they? Evie was seemingly making up for lost time, throwing herself enthusiastically into the task of exploring absolutely everything about girls. Well, Kelsey wasn't going to pass up the chance to show her. Assuming that was her intention, of course. If it feels right. They both knew it did.

"They, uh..." Kelsey replied, halting in her absolute, enthusiastic affirmation. "They're both out late."

She took Evie's hand in her own again, gave it a gentle squeeze. Guided her fingers down to her belt buckle. She looked Evie in the eye, chewed her lip and flushed deeply and smiled.

"If you want to... go see my room?"

What a feeling. Evie hadn’t really put much thought into what sex might look like for her, she’d barely had a libido, and had long assumed she’d just follow some guy’s lead and hopefully it’d feel nice. Sure she’d touched herself from time to time, but in truth she’d put very little imagination into it, just a generalised sense of being held and desired. Caressing Kelsey was different. It felt empowering, somehow. Her mind wandered, considering what the experience must be from the other girl’s perspective: Evie tried not to be but she had to admit she was masculine in a fair few ways, she was tall, athletic, strong… oh goodness, here she was enjoying the sensations of a pretty girl under her, clearly appreciative of her ministrations, was Evie a top? Was that how it worked?

Of course, she wasn’t actually sure. But making Kelsey feel good sure did feel good.

And then Kelsey answered her question. With her words at first, telling her it was plenty safe to just keep on cuddling and kissing and making googly eyes at one another. Then with her hands. Oh. Oh dear, that hadn’t entirely been what Evie had meant. Her eyes watched as her hand was gently, insistently guided downwards, and Evie found herself unable (or just unwilling?) to stop the motion. Obligingly, she extended her fingers, long and slender, well suited to exploring a territory both familiar and wholly new. Same anatomy, someone else’s reactions.

But did she want to “see Kelsey’s room”? A part of her that grew up on Xbox Live voice chat yelled at Evie that yes, obviously she wants to go bang the cute cheerleader. Another part was more than a little self-conscious of her babyface, her small chest, her inexperience, the slight tummy paunch she’d acquired over Covid and as-yet failed to shake off. A third chastised her viciously for being so eager to go from first date, straight through first kiss, and on to first time so easily. She wasn’t exactly raised to save herself for marriage or anything, and yet…

Ultimately what won out was the coalition of enthusiasm, arousal, curiosity and perhaps chiefly, desire to please and be liked. Kelsey really liked her, she’d like her even more if she did it, right?

“Yeah, I,”

Her fingers pressed the slightest bit lower, finding the hem of something. She stayed above it, for the moment, but the movement punctuated her meaning. Had to show confidence, nobody wanted an awkward dork in a moment like this, right?

“I’d like that a lot.”

Gripping gently into the other girl’s hair, Evie at once leaned in and lifted her up to meet her. No doubt her face was scarlet too, but she powered through, doing her best impression of a person who had any idea how to be sexy, and laid another kiss on Kelsey’s lips.

Brave face on.

She still had all evening to keep up the act.

[Evie McKown continues somewhere much less cosy]