The car ride home was filled with silence. My mind was racing from the kiss with Finn, and Jack seemed preoccupied with something. Finn Wolfhard had kissed me. He was a damn good kisser, too. He tasted like cigarettes and mint and wind and-

"I saw you and Finn," Jack spilled, breaking the silence. I almost crashed into a stop sign and had to slam my foot on the breaks. I sucked at driving today. "I told you he likes you! And I told you he wants to hook up!" he continued. Deciding it was better for me to talk to him while I wasn't driving, I pulled over on the side of the road and faced him.

"Finn doesn't like me. It was just a stupid kiss," I reasoned with him. Jack rolled his eyes.

"Why are you denying it? He literally kissed you, he won't stop talking about you, he shares his earbuds with you, fuck, Madison, can't you see he likes you?"

"How did you even see us? You were waiting for Ellie inside," I tried to change the subject.

"The doors are made of glass, idiot. The whole theater saw you two locking lips!" he exclaimed.

"Please don't ever say 'locking lips' again." I began to drive home again. I was even more confused than before. Something was holding me back from admitting he liked me. I liked him, so there was no reason why he couldn't like me. Right? Why was Finn Wolfhard so damn simple yet so confusing.

"Finn talks about me?" I asked. Jack nodded. My heart filled with warmth at the thought of Finn talking about me.

"All the time! He talks about the way you laugh and the color of your eyes and how pretty you are, and more shit like that. But I already know all that about you. I'm your best friend. You know, Finn would be lucky to have you." Jack rambled.

"Thanks, Jack Attack," I said, reaching over to ruffle his hair, something he didn't like one bit. He tells me it 'ruins the curls' which take 'months to perfect.' They always looked perfect to me, so I don't know what he was on about.

"Stop! You know I hate when you touch my hair," he giggled.

"I know."

A few more silent minutes passed, but this time it wasn't awkward. We simply didn't have anything to say. About to turn onto Jack's street, I paused and turned to him.

"Can we have a sleepover tonight?" For some reason, I was nervous just asking. Maybe it was that I hadn't spent a lot of time with Jack recently. This Finn shit was freaking me out and I needed someone to be there with me to take my mind off it. Actually I didn't need just somebody. I needed Jack.

"You know I'd love to, but I just can't. I promised I'd facetime Ellie when I got home so we can have some alone time, if you know what I mean. But really, I which I could."

"Please? My parents aren't home, I'll even drink with you. Please, Jack?"

"I really can't. Next time, though. You aren't that upset right. I mean, I know it's hard to be apart from a guy as great as me, but-" he broke off laughing.

"It's fine! I'll just call Finn or something. It's totally fine," I tried to play it off. But it wasn't fine. I missed being with Jack, I really did. I missed the way his eyes lit up when he laughed, I missed his warm smile, I missed the soft feeling of his hair in my hands, I missed him.

"See you later." Jack hopped out of the car. I watched him walk into his house as I always did and saw him flick the porchlights off and on, my cue to leave.

I got home and debated texting Finn. I wasn't sure how he felt or what was going through his head. After our kiss, I ran to my car and didn't look back. I sat there for a few minutes trying to catch my breath until Jack showed up and we left. Was he mad at me for running away? Why hasn't he texted me already? I changed into my pajamas and put on a movie, but I wasn't paying attention. I could taste the cigarettes and mint on my lips. Fuck it. I'll text him, I thought.

I typed out 'hey' then deleted it. That sounded to casual. Hello sounded too formal. Howdy sounded like a joke. I decided on a simple 'hi' and pressed send before I had time to stop myself. Now we wait. An hour passed and there was still no response. Anxiety bubbled in my stomach. God, I was so stupid. Why did I have to tell him how I felt. I ruined everything. It had been about 2 hours since I dropped off Jack. He'd probably be off facetime with Ellie now. I needed to hear a comforting voice, so I settled on calling Jack instead. I liked calling people way more than texting, for multiple reasons. One is that I like being able to actually hear people's voice, but it was mainly because my parents read my texts occasionally, which is fucking annoying. One time my parents found a video of Jack vaping and got him grounded for a week. After that he didn't talk to me for a month before coming to his senses and realizing it wasn't my fault I had nosy parents. I called Jack 5 times; he didn't pick up once but shot me a text explaining that he was still talking to Ellie. Bitch. I checked my phone one last time, but realized there was no use and Finn probably never wanted to talk to me again. Feeling lonely and defeated, I went to sleep.

I woke up to the sound of my phone buzzing. Remembering it was a Saturday and there was no school, I groggily reached for my phone. I had one text from Finn. I shot up, rubbing my eyes. My heart was racing out of my chest and I rubbed my eyes vigorously.

Hey

Sorry I'm lame and I fell asleep

ugh you scared me

i thought you hated me or something

you dont hate me right

Of course I dont hate you

good

So about that kiss last night...

FINN OMG!!

My parents read my texts!!!

LOL.

Wanna do it again?

——————

authors note: yes i stole that from xoe (editsbyxoe) it was cute oK