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Dask had been extremely upset, if the box of used tissues in the trash and the tearstains on his cheeks were anything to go by. I'd upset him to the point that he didn't even want to be friends anymore, and yet I knew he really valued our friendship. It hadn't helped that afterwards I'd gotten angry at him. He'd come in here to cry about it, alone.

I realised it didn't matter he'd initially responded to my kiss, I'd obviously read the signals wrong and he hadn't wanted me to kiss him. I'd been so selfish, having wanted to kiss him for so long, I'd imagined he'd wanted the same.

I fell asleep with my arms around him, thinking about how I wanted to make things right between us. I'd hurt him and our friendship. I didn't want to go through life without him, he was too important to me.

In the morning, I opened my eyes to see Dask watching me. He looked like he'd only just woke up. His hair was sticking up at odd angles and haphazardly framed his face in a golden halo, his beautiful eyes were surrounded by slightly swollen skin and his nose was quite pink. He looked like he'd had a terrible time last night, yet still managed to look adorable at the same time. I wanted to squeeze him even tighter in my arms and protect him from any misery he'd been feeling.

His face was full of remorse, his voice quiet when he said, "I'm sorry, Jo. I'd never want to stop being friends. I don't know why I said what I did."

His words didn't sit right with me, because I knew that I was the one who'd put the moves on him without asking him first. I said, "I'm sorry too. I don't know why, but I thought you wanted me to kiss you. I probably shouldn't have."

"Probably."

"I didn't mean to upset you, Dask."

"I know."

"I thought, you know, it was something we'd never tried before. I was curious. I should have known you didn't want to do that sort of thing anymore."

"It's not that I don't want to still do stuff, sometimes. I just, wasn't expecting you to kiss me. I'm sorry for freaking out. It's just, you're still with Kelly and we're older and I don't know if it's the right thing to do anymore."

"That's why I stopped in the first place."

"So why start up again?"

"Been thinking about it. Couldn't get it out of my head, really. I thought, what the hell, we're only young once and we're stuck on this island with no one else around. Who's to say we're too old to experiment?" I shrugged my shoulders.

He admitted, "I kind of did want something to happen yesterday."

I was surprised. "You did?"

"Yeah."

I'd been right, he had been giving me signals to do something yesterday, but I'd foolishly been over enthusiastic and narrow sighted in my excitement. If I had more decency, I'd show embarrassment right now, which is what I felt, that and remorse. Instead, I smirked, my natural response to be cheeky. I said, "Got more than you bargained for, then?" 

"Something like that."

We both looked at each other for a moment, then we both laughed.

I felt so relieved that we were laughing together, a stupid grin plastered its way across my face. I said, "I guess I went past your threshold of 'Jo craziness' for the day." I'd used my fingers to make italics.

He laughed. "I guess."

"So, how was it?" I asked, referring to the kiss. I felt less guilty, and I was happy that we were sorting things out.

"You tell me," he said.

"I asked first."

"I asked second."

Oh, no he didn't! I say that, not Dask. He's learning my tricks. "That doesn't count," I said.

"It matters when you say it."

I laughed, he was so onto me. Maybe it wasn't fair of me to ask him to share his thoughts about the kiss first, when I was the one who'd initiated it. I'd thought about kissing him for so long, his lips had always drawn my attention. "You've got..." I looked away nervously, realizing I'd been about to say he had kissable his lips and decided to change it slightly to say, "nice looking lips."

Dask's face flushed pink with embarrassment. "Ah, thanks."

I watched his reaction, wondering if he felt anything other than embarrassment about what I'd said. I'd just confessed that I thought he had nice lips and he didn't seem angry, only shy. I wondered if that meant he might one day be open to kissing.

He looked so cute when he blushed, I wanted to kiss him right then. My body battled with my head, which told me to not push my luck. We may have been best friends for a long time, and I might know more about him than the next person, other than his family, but that didn't mean I could assume that I knew what he felt about wanting to kiss me, or anything of that nature. I needed to be more careful about knowing what he really wanted and was comfortable with. I needed to check with him.

Dask's eyes shyly met mine again. My heart thumped faster and my brain was beginning to turn to mush. I quickly needed to say something, get back on track, ask him what he actually wanted, before I did something rash I knew I'd regret later. I was still holding him in my arms, I said the first thing that popped into my head, "We can still do this, right?"

"Huh?"

"This." I squeezed him tightly for a moment, before slightly releasing my hold on him.

"Yes." His eyes flickered away from mine.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"I don't want to push you into doing anything you don't want to do. I don't want to upset you again."

"Okay."

There was a small silence as we looked into each other's eyes. Usually, I can read Dask well, but this was a new situation for us and I wasn't sure what he wanted.

He whispered, "Jo?"

"Yeah?"

"Kiss me."

My eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

He nodded.

"Okay." He didn't need to tell me again.

---

Thank you for reading!

I hope this was okay. More to come next week.

Lots of ♡

- dreamydaze

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