WITCH

ONE

Amorie

I had a feeling Betra was going to kiss me by the way she’d been getting closer to me in the woods lately. When we would peer at pretty flowers growing off the sides of trees, she’d move her face so close to mine. I could feel her breath on my lips. She won’t look at me when we are huddled closely together, though. Not even when a butterfly landed on my nose. She leaned in close to get a glimpse before it fluttered away but quickly jerked back before looking at my eyes. She makes my skin tingle.

What I didn’t anticipate after our faces drew close, and her green eyes stayed in contact with my brown eyes, and our lips found one another- was the intensity. It felt like an electric current had buzzed through my body, like when Alvin, one of the town boys, cluelessly stuck a wet, metal clothing hanger into a wall socket. He was okay -- eventually. But the buzz between Betra and I felt exciting, not life-threatening. Our lips were opposite-ended magnets that got sucked back into one another as soon as we pulled apart for air.

The only kiss I’d ever had before her was from Electric Alvin, who abruptly kissed me two summers ago on a neighborhood dare. Orchestrated to embarrass me, I’m sure. “Was it shocking?” the town girls teased. I was still a kid then. I’d been awaiting my first kiss for years, delighting in the magic of what it would be like. It was nice to say I’d finally been kissed by age sixteen, but that’s all it had been. A simple act that left me with no feeling.

Kissing Betra, however, was addictive. Her lips were so soft, and her tongue felt like velvet against mine. I didn’t realize how badly I’d been yearning for her hands on my hands until they were interlocked. It felt like my hands had been reaching for her touch my entire life, and I hadn’t known it.

We couldn’t stop kissing. Night was falling when we finally pulled apart. We had wandered into the woods before the sun had even thought about setting. We had been consumed in one another’s taste for hours.

“I need to get home,” Betra said, seemingly worried, examining the sky. I nodded in agreement as my belly grumbled in hunger. It was past dinner time, and as much as I loved food, I was more hungry for her lips. She leaned over and kissed me one last time as if she could hear my desirous thought and then hurried off as discreetly as she could. Zoom, my wild rabbit friend, came hopping up to me upon Betra’s depart. I reached out and pet his soft brown fur atop his head, still in a daze of what had just happened. Zoom nudged me after a few moments, and I got to my feet. He was right. I needed to get home before it got too dark. Our town police had been reporting strange occurrences happening at night that were growing paranoia among the townfolk. The buzz rumored it was the work of witches.

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