Like Two Opposite Things
by
When a group of 90s teens play spin-the-bottle at the campground beach, Helia Desiderio–nick-named Hell-yeah by her friends–finally ends her reign as a kiss-virgin dork baby. But nothing goes the way she plans: not the kissing, not the crushing, and definitely not the no-big-dealness of kissing both girls and boys. When she has to chose between the surprisingly sweet boy who loves her and the best friend she didn’t know she had, Helia is forced to figure out some things about life and love and who she really wants to be.
Excerpt from Like Two Opposite Things:
Looking at Desiree standing over me, offering me a way out and Jason sitting next to me, offering me a way in, I wasn’t entirely sure what to do. The smart thing would be to follow Desiree. The fun thing to do would be to stay with Jason. With Desiree, I’d get to laugh about all this, examine it like a library book, learn a lesson or two, and go on being the same person I’d always been. But with Jason, I could live the story, be the heroine, get the guy. For once, I just wanted to get the guy.
“Stay,” I said, shrugging. I smiled at her, wanting it to mean more, wanting her to understand that it wasn’t about her and what she has said. It was about me and what I wanted to experience. Jason, of course, assumed that I had just chosen him and rewarded me with a kiss on the neck.
“Ok, fair enough,” she says. “But when you’re ready to return to reality, I’ll be around. Probably packing my bags and getting ready to go home.”
She turns and leaves without saying goodbye to anyone else, not even Heather. From a certain perspective, it was brave, just leaving a tense situation full of intense dudes. But from her perspective, it was probably nothing more than leaving the sandbox when the other babies started throwing sand. I watch her walking away thinking she has to be the coolest girl I’ve ever met.
Eda J Vor 