Kiss the Sky by Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie Page A

of the show relies on Lily and Loren.
    “I’m going to get over it,” she tells me, reading my
expression well. “It’s just new. New things are always kind of scary, you know?
Well, you probably don’t know.” She laughs nervously. “You’re not scared of
anything.”
    That’s not true either .
I was scared not long ago. Terrified. Someone—who I will not name—put his thumb
in my mouth. And I think I liked it.
    My phone buzzes on the counter, and I wipe my hands on a
towel before I swipe the screen. I have two new texts.
    The first: 5 months
and 20 days until the wedding – Mom
    I’m not even surprised at this point. I receive a daily
countdown from her, reminding me that I’ve taken responsibility of planning
Lily’s wedding.
    I open the second text to distract me from all the things I
still have to do.
    Prince Charming, Robin
Hood, Beast – Connor
    Really? I texted him three brilliant female authors and he
gives me Disney characters to choose from? Oh, he’s starting a war.
    I type quickly, not even having to think twice about my
choices. Kill. Marry. Fuck.
    Less than a minute after I hit send, I receive another
message.
    You would fuck the
Beast over Robin Hood? Explain.
    You’re not even going
to mention me killing Prince Charming? Deflection in a text is my
specialty.
    Not surprising. I
would kill Prince Charming as well. Always believing every girl needs to be
rescued from a tower. He’s an asshat .
    I smile, my stomach fluttering at his words.
    “Is that Connor?” Lily asks, eyeing my smile suspiciously.
    My lips level and she peers over my shoulder to try and read
the text. I hold it close to my chest, and her eyes twinkle in amusement.
    “Are you texting naughty things?” she asks with glee.
    Should I be? What
couple texts about killing off Prince Charming? If I seriously evaluate my
relationship with Connor, it will rank somewhere closer to strange than normal.
    My phone buzzes again, but I don’t pull it away from the
security of my blouse. “What do you and Lo text about?”
    Her face wrinkles in thought. “Well, I text him things I’d like to do. And he usually replies with a
generic okay even if at times he’s a
big fat liar and we don’t do it anyway.” She shrugs. “He’s a brief texter .” Her smile brightens at another thought. “But sometimes he’ll randomly send me
messages like this…” She holds up a finger for me to wait while she opens her
flip-phone with her other hand. The old device doesn’t have internet or apps.
The less temptations for her to look at porn, the better. “This is what he
texted me last week.”
    She raises the phone to my face. Brett and Ben’s cameras try
to zoom in on the screen. Lily cups her hand around it protectively.
    I read the text quickly. I
miss your pussy. – Lo
    How eloquent. Lily practically beams. “He doesn’t do
foreplay texting,” she explains. “So whenever he sends something dirty, it’s
like Christmas.”
    She motions to my phone. “What does yours say?”
    “Just work stuff,” I answer evasively.  
    I type back: Robin
Hood is a manwhore . I’d want to join the Merry Men,
not join a notch on his bedpost. The Beast is probably a virgin.
    As soon as I hit send, my stomach falls. What the fuck did I
do? I blame Lily who peers over my shoulder as I type, distracting me from
rereading the message.
    I basically just admitted to wanting to have sex with a
virgin.
    Connor is not a
virgin.
    I don’t have time to think. The doorbell rings. I pad across
the kitchen and living room to answer it, leaving Lily by the refrigerator. I
glance back for a quick second to make sure she doesn’t crumble without my
presence. I relax when I see her focused on my salad, slicing cucumber.
    Ben follows me with his steadicam contraption, and without Lily constantly eyeing the lens, I have an easier time
pretending he’s invisible.  
    When I open the door, my entire mood shifts. I hope I’m
giving off the “I’d rather murder an