“We are all unique, and in that way, we are all the same.”

-

It is a competition between us who can reach the other one faster. Oliver cups my cheeks with both of his palms and leans in as I pull him toward me. We meet in the middle.

I make a sound in surprise as our lips meet. It feels like kissing him for the first time again. A rush of electricity travels down my spine. I feel goosebumps.

Oliver holds me gently and rotates us, so my back is against the aisle as he’s kissing me.

“You could have just told me, you know,” I say, as we pull back to catch our breaths.

“Told you what?” Oliver asks breathlessly before pressing his lips on mine again.

“That you need another—mmh,” I get interrupted.

After he kisses my lips, he starts kissing down from the corner of them.

“I need another what?” Oliver kisses the hinge of my jaw. I breathe in. My body is heating up.

“Lesson. You need another lesson,” I whisper and try not to make any loud sound. We are in the library. Every word sounds like I’m announcing it.

“Mhm,” Oliver mumbles, kissing his way down the side of my neck.

“You know what?” I say as I run my fingers through his hair. “I think you have a neck fetish.”

Oliver is still kissing the side of my neck. He pauses and looks up at me. “A what?”

Honestly, I wonder if his brain is working at all right now. He doesn’t seem to get any of the words I’m saying.

“Neck fetish,” I have to repeat. Oliver shrugs and goes back kissing there again. He works on it, taking his time. I wonder what he is trying to do.

“No. Only when it’s you,” he mumbles. I grin, but soon my grin is wiped off my face.

Oliver Carlson really knows what he’s doing.

I can’t make any sounds here, but Oliver is making it really difficult for me.

A little sound leaves my throat. Oliver hisses.

Biting on my earlobe, he whispers, “Shh, we are in the library.”

Son of a—

I place my palms on his jaw and pull him upward as I attack him again. “Of course, we are.”

I have a little bit of trouble taking control because Oliver is taller than me. He gets the point and lifts me, grabbing my waist.

This is better.

As we pull apart again, I glare at him. “You ruined my studying.”

“If I remember correctly, I found you looking at me,” Oliver replies. There is it, the little line of flush over his cheeks.

I touch it with my thumbs. “You started it.”

“And you are complaining so much,” Oliver says and rolls his eyes.

We clash again. This time, Oliver doesn’t let me do anything. I wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist as he kisses me like I’m the only girl he has ever kissed.

Then I hear someone clearing their throat loudly.

Oliver and I pull apart a few inches and look around.

A girl is standing there at the head of the aisle. She has a few books in her arms. She readjusts her big black-rimmed glasses and glares at us. Then she says, “Some people come here to study.”

Then she flips her hair and leaves.

She looks like she’s a sophomore. How dare—

I look at Oliver as he looks at me. Then I say, “Didn’t you listen? Some people come here to study. Understood?”

Oliver shrugs and removes his hands, with which he has been holding me up. I would have fallen if not for me clinging to him like a monkey.

I start to squeal but Oliver covers my mouth with his palm.

“Quiet,” Oliver says. “Some people come here to study.”

I narrow my eyes at him as I place my feet back on the ground. Then I flip my hair and leave him there.

I find Jason sitting at our table still studying. I get suspicious and lean over his book to check out what he’s doing. Jason is doodling on the side of his book. Of course.

I sit down. A few moments later, the chair beside mine moves. Oliver sits down.

“Found your dictionary?” Jason asks, looking at his book.

“Hmm,” I reply as I open my copies.

Jason looks up at me. His eyes get wide. Then he looks at Oliver, back at me again.

Jason is looking at the side of my neck, to be specific. What’s wrong there?

“Nice dictionary you got there, Gwen.” Jason mouths, shaking his head.

“What dictionary?” I mumble.

I glance at Oliver. He looks like he is about to smile.

I don’t understand.

“You also found your encyclopedia, didn’t you?” Jason says in a flat voice looking at Oliver.

Oliver nods yes.

Then I feel someone squeezing my knee.

There goes my studying.

*****

As you might have guessed, I didn’t get much studying done today. Oliver needed another guitar lesson before the end of school.

However, a weird thing happened today. I was sitting in my English class. A girl was sitting beside me. I caught her looking at me and rolling her eyes. I usually get ignored by people. But never have I seen them rolling their eyes at me.

I get home and shove down some food quickly. Instead of going back to my room, I get my study materials and study at the kitchen table. I finish my English assignment after three hours of work.

It shouldn’t have taken that long. A certain someone occupies my brain even when he isn’t around.

When I am finally done with it, I throw myself on the living room couch, watching Netflix.

Mom comes home. I greet her. I complain that I’m really hungry and there’s nothing to eat. She rolls her eyes and tells me to wait.

When Mom is finally done making dinner, I join her. I set the table and we sit down for dinner.

Dad has gone to the next town for some work today, Mom tells me.

Then suddenly she asks, “How’s Oliver?”

I blink. Where did that come from?

“Umm, he—”

The words that want to come out of my mouth is: He finally kissed me. Can you believe it?

I am probably blushing again. “He is fine. Why?”

Mom smiles a little. “Maybe you should invite him to have dinner with us. He hasn’t met your Dad yet.”

I choke on my food.

“What? Why?” I say. “Why does he need to meet Dad?”

Mom shakes her head smiling. “Invite him over.”

I gulp. Is it somehow visible that I like him? Or that we’ve been kissing? How can Mom say something like that? It almost makes it sounds like Oliver and I—

“Umm, Oliver is not my—you know—” I fidget.

“We would like to meet him,”Mom says in a voice that indicates it’s decided.

I finish my dinner in silence. wondering what gave Mom an idea like that. She only met Oliver once and saw him for a few minutes. We were nothing then like what we are now.

I go into my room and look at the teddy bear. I remember Oliver teaching me how to shoot.

He was always sneaky, wasn’t he?

I go to my washroom. As I am about to wash my face, I look in the mirror.

Suddenly everything makes sense. From Jason telling me I got a dictionary, to that girl rolling her eyes at me, to Mom wanting to invite Oliver over.

Oliver Carlson is so dead.

My neck looks like-like… I don’t even know how to describe that. It’s big, and it’s red. I’ve been displaying that the whole day. He didn’t only work on that in the library, he did the same thing at the back of the school.

I fume as I come out of my washroom. I call him instantly. Oliver picks up after one ring.

“You-you-you—,” I struggle. “How could you do this?!”

I wish I had him here with me so I could punch the daylight out of him.

“I did what?” Oliver asks flatly. Like always, there’s no emotion in his voice.

“My neck,” I say, “What-how-why didn’t you tell me? I’ve been displaying it the whole day. Even my mom saw it!”

Oliver doesn’t reply for a moment. Then he says, “How is that my fault?”

“How’s that your fault? You are the one who gave me—”

“If I remember, you were not yelling at me then. Your reaction was quite the opposite,” Oliver says.

I open and close my mouth like a fish out of water.

You have to be quiet in the library. But at the back of the school? That’s a different story.

Somehow I can feel Oliver smirking on the other end. “You could have told me. You—”

“Next time, look in the mirror maybe?” Oliver says. I don’t know why it feels like he’s suppressing his laughter.

“Laugh one time and I will kill you. My mom saw it. My mom,” I say.

This time, I have the rare experience of hearing that sound, the sound of Oliver’s laughter on the other end. It seems like he couldn’t keep it down anymore.

If I tell him how Mom told me to invite him to come over and meet my Dad, I don’t think Oliver would be laughing then.

So I don’t tell him anything.

“You are so dead,” I say threatening him. “I am going to take revenge. This is so not over! I declare war!”

Oliver stops laughing. Then he says, “Really? What would you do?”

Oliver says it so low that it feels like he’s whispering in my ear. It sounds enticing. The hair on my neck stands up.

“I will show you,” I say.

“Mhm,” Oliver says.

“Seriously, you couldn’t find a better time to take guitar lessons? It’s midterms. Ugh,” I whine as I flop down on my bed with my phone pressed to my ear.

I don’t think Oliver and I have talked this long over the phone ever.

“So?” Oliver says.

“So? I need to study, you dumbhead. I can’t concentrate and it’s all your fault. It took me three hours to finish my assignment.”

“Mmh,” Oliver says in a suggestive voice. “Then maybe we should stop.”

“Don’t say it like that,” I say groaning. He is saying it in a way it suggests that maybe we should do it more.

“Like what?” Oliver asks back innocently.

“You know exactly what. You are so devious,” I say as I look at the teddy bear. “I don’t know how I am gonna get any studying done.”

Oliver doesn’t reply. But a few moments later I hear him mumble, “You are not the only one unfocused.”

My heart skips a beat. “Oh.”

We stay silent after that, as if talking, would break some sort of magic that is here. Every word doesn’t need to be said.

Oliver Carlson makes silence meaningful.

I don’t remember when I fell asleep. But as morning lights hit my eyes, I wake up and groan.

I turn and my head hits my phone. I groan again.

Then I hear a voice.

Wait, what?

I pick up my phone and say, “Oliver?”

That’s when I hear his morning voice. God bless me.

“Yeah?” Oliver says. He sounds sleepy. It’s 7 in the morning.

“Why didn’t you hang up?” I ask.

“You called, so you should have?” Oliver says with that same morning voice.

I can’t believe this. Neither of us hung up the call, and now we are here.

“Hang up, Oliver,” I say.

“Why don’t you?” Oliver says. He yawns.

“You are so cute. You don’t want to hang up on me,” I say, grinning.

“I am hanging up right now,” Oliver says.

I burst out laughing and yes, Oliver does hang up.

I bury my face in my pillow and laugh some more.

Today I have to choose my outfit carefully. It’s almost winter so I choose a turtleneck, the solution to my problem.

I go downstairs and try to leave without meeting Mom. I have my breakfast quickly, yell “I’m leaving for school!” and start on my way.

I have planned quite a revenge on Oliver. As soon as I enter school, I find him. He looks at my turtleneck, realization dawning on his face. Probably the playback of his crime.

“Hi,” I say, with a look. Oliver comes towards me.

“Hi,” he mumbles.

I smile broadly and stand on my tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. When I pull back, Oliver looks surprised.

“Thought I would say good morning,” I say, grinning.

Oliver narrows his eyes. “Why does it seem suspicious to me?”

Oh, crap. He can’t know anything.

“What’s suspicious?” I scrunch my eyebrows. “Can’t I say good morning?”

You have to agree I am a good actress.

“Of course. Although, that’s not how I say my good morning,” Oliver says as he corners me against the locker.

I place my palms on the locker behind me as Oliver hovers over me. “Oh really? Then how do you say it?”

I guessed him right. That makes the rest of my plan easy.

“Something like...” Oliver leans down as he continues.

“Wait,” I say. Oliver is just inches away from my face.

“For what?” Oliver asks. He has that drunken look on his face.

“Let me try first,” I suggest, grinning.

Oliver raises one of his eyebrows. “Okay,” he agrees.

I stand on my tiptoe and kiss him right on the corner of his lips, slowly making my way over.

Oliver wraps his arms around my waist. Nope. That won’t do.

“Hands off. Let me do my thing,” I say, pulling back instantly.

Oliver looks at me with a drowsy look. If I tell him to jump off a cliff now, he probably will.

Oliver sighs and takes his hands off me as I cup his cheeks and kiss him, on the corner of his lips again. He places his hands on the locker on either side of me. That will not be a problem.

I kiss him slow and sweet, making my way to his mouth. Oliver leans in further for what’s coming.

But nothing happens.

The next second I duck down and get out of my place, leaving Oliver with his hands on my locker, eyes closed and face leaned in for a kiss.

Revenge? Hell yeah. Kiss the locker, Carlson.

I stand by his side. Oliver realizes my displacement immediately. He turns around with a look and, you guessed right, I run.

“Gwen!” I hear him say my name as I run in the hallway, telling people to get out of my way. I quickly get in the washroom, the only safe place I can think of.

I close the door and burst out in laughter. The look on his face.

Oliver was lost in the moment. He absolutely didn’t see that coming.

It’s not like it wasn’t hard for me to pull back in a moment like that.

When I think it is safe, I get out of the bathroom. I peek around before finally getting out and heading for my class.

If Oliver thinks I am done, he is so wrong. It was just the beginning.

*****