élizabeth

You had agreed to run the kissing booth before remembering that anybody could kiss you. Literally anybody. It’s not like you just had to kiss everyone that walked up, you could turn them down. But what was the purpose of volunteering for the booth if you were gonna say no to everybody who wanted a kiss. Besides, it didn’t have to be a makeout. Just a quick smooch. 

You sent a text to all your friends, begging them to come by so you could at least kiss people you knew. 

“Want us to tell Rhy to come through?” You couldn’t help but blush at that. You and Rhyne knew each other, overlapping friend groups, but you had never spent 1-on-1 time together. 

“I mean, you can.” You tried to play it cool but they weren’t buying it. “I don’t know why you playing shy. You know you wanna see her.” One of your friends responded, everyone reacting to the message with exclamation points. 

“I’m not playing. I am shy.” 

“Shy but you manning the kissing booth for SUBOG? Okay.” 

They had you there. You hated talking to new people, so why did you think it would be a good idea to have a turn at a kissing booth of all places. You didn’t know but you hoped your shift would go by quickly. You only had 4 hours and you’d be free. The first 30 mins drag. Randoms stop by every now and again, but for the most part you’re just sitting, playing on your phone. 

“Being on your phone does not make people wanna kiss you.” You look up at the person who spoke and could’ve died on the spot. It was Rhyne. “What if that was the goal?” You ask, tucking your phone into your back pocket. “I should leave then?” She questions with a knowing smirk on her face. 

“I mean that’s up to you. Not gonna beg you to kiss me.” You try to act nonchalant but Rhyne sees right through you. “You’re not gonna beg but you blew up the groupchat tryna get people to come.” You were gonna kill your friends. “I just didn’t wanna kiss random people my whole shift. You know me.” 

“Hmm, a little bit.” She steps closer to you, almost leaning over the counter. “So how much for a kiss?” She says like it’s nothing. 

“$1 for the cheek, $5 for the lips.” 

“That’s kinda low to have your lips touching someone else’s.” 

“I didn’t make the prices Rhy.”

She laughed but pulled out a $10 bill from her pocket. She held it out towards you and you went to grab it but she yanked it back at the last second. “Can I pay you to kiss my cheek?” “Am I running the booth or you?” You ask jokingly, but your heart was beating a mile a minute. 

“It’s my money. Can I not decide how it’s spent?” Typical Rhyne. 

“Fine. How many cheek kisses do you want?” You concede too easily. “Five.” “You want change? This is a $10 bill.” “I know. I want a real kiss after the cheeks.” If your own cheeks could turn red then you knew they would’ve.

“Fine. Five cheek kisses and one regular kiss.” You held out your hand, and she slapped the money in it. “Don’t spend it all in one place,” she says. You laugh and then motion for her to lean down. She practically towered over you, so seeing her have to almost bend herself in half to reach you was funny. 

You grabbed both of her cheeks in your hand and turned her head to the left. Kiss one. You turned her head to the right. Kiss two. You turned her head back to the left. Kiss three. You go to turn her head to the right and she stops you. You’re looking at each other in the eyes and it’s almost like everyone around you disappears. “I could use that real kiss now,” she says in that soft voice that you had grown to love. 

You glance down briefly but her fingers gripping your chin have you looking back up at her. She leans in, as if it’s possible to get any closer, and lays one on you. It’s brief but soft. Feels like something out of a movie. You break away and she gives you a smile. 

“Two more kisses. You almost forgot.” She grabs your cheeks and turns your head, giving you one kiss on the left, one kiss on the right. “Now we both got kissed. Bye.” She says with a wave and turns and walks off. You stare at her and try to process what just happened. 

You’re still standing there when three of your friends walk up to the booth. “Why you looking stuck? Who done been through here?” “Must’ve been Rhy. Look at her.” That breaks you out of your trance and you throw your hand up at them. “Ain’t nobody stuck, I was just thinking.” 

“Thinking bout what?” They stood  and waited for you to talk but you were lost for words. Another one of your friends walks up and tells the others that they saw Rhyne leaving the booth. 

“Damn she beat us here. We tryna be good friends and she showing us up.” 

“You know she couldn’t wait to kiss miss shy girl over here.” One of your friends pointed at you. “Did yall come over here to bully me or buy some kisses?” you ask, ready to stop talking about Rhyne. “How much are they?” “$1 for the cheek. $5 for the lips.” 

“This cheap as hell. Your lips not worth more than $5?” Your friend questions but pulls out her wallet. “You sound like Rhy,” you laugh, holding your hand out. “Rhy Rhy wanna know why it’s so easy for everybody to get their lips on her girl,” she responds. “I’m not her girl,” you say, tucking the money into the blue zipped bag under the counter. “Not yet,” she says motioning for you to come forward. You lean in and she softly grabs your cheeks, pecking your lips. You’re not surprised she wanted a kiss on the lips. You had shared plenty of platonic kisses on your nights out together, this didn’t feel out of the normal. 

Your other friends follow suit, each one handing over their money and giving you a short and sweet kiss on the mouth. “Everybody wanna kiss me on the mouth today, y’all must like me or something.” You tease them, pulling out a water bottle. 

“Honestly we just want Rhy to get jealous enough that she’ll come back and kiss you again.” You choked on the water you were sipping, coughing hard enough for your friend to lightly pat you on the back. “What you mean jealous?” 

“Come on girl. Rhyne got it bad for you. Why you think she was the first person here? We just told her like 10 minutes ago.” That shocked you. 

“What did she say when y’all told her to come through? Matter of fact what did yall even say to her?” Your friend did a few taps on her phone before turning it around and showing you a message thread. 

“Kissing booth on the lawn for SUBOG. your girl running it and want everybody to come kiss her so she don’t have to kiss randoms.” You rolled your eyes at “your girl” cause all they do is play. 

“Bet. When?” You almost laugh at Rhyne not asking any questions. 

“Right now.” 

“I’m finna come through, don’t tell her.” 

Your cheeks flush and you push her phone back towards her. “She ain’t waste no time girl. Alexa, play Need U Bad by Jazmine Sullivan.” “Whatever, who else yall tell to come through?” You were curious now. “AACC girls, the girls from our floor, the girls from the team, and Rhy.” Your friend lists out without a care like she didn’t just name 60 people. 

“Girl, how many people did you think I wanted to come?” You ask her. 

“Did you wanna be kissing randoms for 4 hours? I didn’t think so.” She answered matter of factly.

1 hour had now passed. You had kissed Rhyne, three of your homegirls, and 4 girls from the AACC all in the span of 30 minutes. You glanced down at your phone to see a text from Rhyne, “How many people you done kissed so far?” You couldn’t even think of a response before someone in front of you cleared their throat. You looked up and you recognized Allisha who played on the team with Rhyne. You and her had never hung out but plenty of people had mentioned how close her and Rhyne were.

“Hey girl,” she said with her country accent and a grin on her face. “Hey girly. You here to give me a kiss?” “Ion know about that. Rhyne said you was doing the kissing.” You rolled your eyes because of course she did. “That was just for Rhy, I don’t know why she telling people that.”

“Oh so Rhyne getting special privileges I see.” That got you sputtering. “Not special, she was just the first.” “Uh huh. I don’t believe you but here go $20. I just want one kiss on the cheek and consider the rest a donation.” 

You gladly took the money from her and leaned forward with your head turned. She smacked her lips at you and held her hand out. “Gimme my money back if you not gone kiss me.” You blew out a breath and told her to lean forward, her head turning without you even having to say it. You gave her a peck and she stood straight up with a grin. “Nice doing business with you.” She waved and walked off, phone going to her ear, no doubt on the phone with Rhyne. 

Not even 5 minutes went by and two more players from the team walked up. You recognized Naz and Bri. You exchanged pleasantries and they showed you the money. Big bills but only wanting cheek kisses and you could pocket the rest. So far it felt like you were the one doing the kissing and not the other way around. But if it meant you only had to kiss once and get it over with, so be it. 

You shot off a text to your homegirl when you felt someone in front of you. You hurried and put your phone down only to look up and be met with locs, kind eyes and a smirk. Rhyne was back. “You never responded to my text.” She said first. 

“Damn, no hello, how are you?” 

“Hello, how are you? Why didn’t you respond to my text?” 

“You’re the one who sent all your teammates. I got distracted.” 

“You didn’t let them kiss you did you? I gave very clear instructions.” You had to laugh. You didn’t believe she liked you at first but it was becoming clear that she felt something for you for sure. 

“No, Rhy. Only been kissing them on the cheek.” That had her cheesing and you rolled your eyes. “I don’t know why I’m even explaining myself to you,” you said to her, jokingly. “You know why,” she responded holding out a $20 bill to you. You snatched it before she could say anything and she smacked her lips. 

“Whatchu want this time?” You ask her. She tapped her cheek like she was thinking and you grew impatient. “Okay, you’re playing –” She grabbed your chin, bringing your face to hers and pressed your lips together before you could finish your sentence. You paused for half a beat before fully leaning into the kiss. Your hands went to her waist and your lips started moving with hers. You felt her tongue licking your lips and you opened your mouth letting her in. Before you could get too deep into it someone cleared their throat. You pulled back and your roommate was standing there with a grin. 

“Am I interrupting?” She asked. “Nah, we were just finishing up,” Rhyne replied giving you one more peck before turning and walking off. You let out a breath before looking back at your friend who was looking at you expectantly. “So?” She questioned. “What?” you responded, grabbing your water and drinking from it, noticing your hand shaking as the bottle came towards your face. 

“She got you shaking girl, what’chu mean what? How was the kiss?” You set down your bottle and wiped your mouth. “Which one?” you asked her. “Oh period! Rhy Rhy finally claiming her girl.” “She ain’t claiming nothing. We just kissed.” “You don’t even believe that. But I’m not here to listen to you lie.” She pulled out a $50 bill and handed it over. You jokingly held it up to the sky and let out a whistle. “You bringing out big money for little ole me. What did I do to deserve this?” You tucked the bill inside your pouch while you both shared a laugh. 

“This not for you. This for SUBOG.” Y’all laugh and peck twice, waving to each other as she tells you to text her once you’re finished. The next 2 hours pass with no sign of Rhyne. Not that you were looking for her but you did kind of miss kissing her. All the girls from your floor had managed to stop by, and they had told all of their friends so you ended up kissing them as well. You had kissed more people in the last 3.5 hours than ever before. 

You only had 10 minutes left and you hoped Rhy didn’t send anymore teammates over. You liked them but at this point you would have kissed the entirety of the women’s basketball team. You started packing your stuff, making sure the booth was tidy for the next person and just so happened to look up and lock eyes with Angel. Both of y’all laughed as she walked over with another girl you recognized as Jordin. 

“Hey pretty girl,” she waved and hugged you. “Hey girl,” you replied, returning the hug and greeting Jordin. “Rhy told you to come over too huh?” “You know she did. She told the groupchat actually.” 

“What groupchat?” 

“For the team. Said you were doing the booth and we all needed to come support.” 

You wanted to roll your eyes but you were happy that Rhyne was trying to make you comfortable. Jordin was the first to pull out her money. “Kiss on the cheek for me. Rhyne said we couldn’t kiss you forreal.” You laughed, taking the money from her and kissing her cheek. Angel scoffed pulling out her money. “She told y’all that, not me. I’m not passing up a chance to kiss a baddie.” That got a laugh out of you and Jordin both. You and Angel shared a quick peck, not even lasting 2 seconds and you heard somebody kissing their teeth. You both looked and it was Rhyne leaning against the counter shaking her head at the two of you. 

“I get the girls to come support you and you kissing them for real? That’s crazy.” Rhyne said. “You said we couldn’t kiss her forreal. I gave her a peck. You can’t say that’s forreal,” Angel replied to her. “Whatever, you just wanted an excuse to push up on my girl.” 

“Your girl?” you questioned. “When you ask me to be yours?” Angel and Jordin took that as their cue to leave, giving you a wave and walking off. “Well I wanna be you girl. You wanna be mine?” Rhy asked matter of factly. You were slightly shocked by how blunt she was being but you knew she didn’t like beating around the bush. “We haven’t even spent any time with each other just us. How you know you wanna be my girl?” You ask her. “We spent time together today,” she replies. You throw your hand up at her and turn to greet the person replacing you at the booth. 

You chat for a few minutes, handing the money pouch over to them and giving them the rundown. You grab your backpack and make your way around the booth to where Rhyne is still standing. “You busy?” You question. She cooly slides her arm around your shoulder saying no. “Take me on a date then.” She leans down, puckering her lips and you meet her for a kiss. She leans back up and starts leading you away. “Whatever my girl wants.” 

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