Carly watches Sam's legs swing back and forth, to and fro, over and over beside her on the bed. Her bare toes carving 10 shallow lines in the soft, pale pink carpet because Sam has shot up an inch or two over the summer and now when she sits on the side of Carly's high bed, her feet brush the floor.

"So…" Carly starts, plucking at the stitching of the yellow comforter beneath them. "are you, like, nervous?"

"Ha! Me? Nervous?" Sam questions lifting her eyes from where they were watching her toes to look at Carly. "Never. I've done this lots of times. A whole bunch."

"Really?" Carly questions, lifting a dark eyebrow and breaking the thread she's picking at.

"I mean, not like an absurd amount of times and never with a girl." Sam mutters, all of her false bravado melting away. "But, I have some… experience."

"Me too." Carly nods watching Sam puff out her cheeks and raise her eyebrows like she does when she doesn't know what to say before reaching into her pocket and producing a strip of beef jerky. "Hey don't eat that."

"Why not? Awkwardness makes me hungry." Sam says and Carly rolls her eyes but snatches the jerky from Sam's fingers. "Hey!"

"If we're gonna…ya know, I don't want you to have dehydrated cow flesh breath." Carly explains, reaching over to put the jerky on the night stand beside the lamp.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Sam huffs, throwing a longing glance at the beef jerky. "And besides if you want to do this you should be willing to even if my breath smells like a dead quadruped."

"That's some discombobulated logic right there." Carly points out and Sam shrugs.

"Well discombobulated logic is my specialty."

They lapse into awkward silence again, Sam looking down at her feet and Carly slides her hand over the mattress to hook her fingers with Sam's at the edge of the bed.

"Feels weird." Sam mutters, eyes moving to there entwined fingers and Carly frowns, ready to pull her hand away.

"Bad weird?" She asks and Sam shakes her head, her hair dancing on her shoulders.

"No, good weird." Sam clarifies, tightening her fingers around Carly's like she knows the other girl might pull away. "It's like I'm all tingly."

"And you're sure you still want to?" Carly asks cautiously, her eyes finding the skin of Sam's shoulder where her skin, that is sunburned and brown, gives way to soft pink skin that Carly just wants to touch.

"Yeah." Sam answers quickly, "Do you?"

"Of course I do." Carly smiles sweetly, "It was my idea, after all."

"One of your best, I think." Sam whispers and Carly shrugs proudly.

"Aww, well…"

Sam grins at Carly, bumping her knee against the other girls playfully. "Alright lets get this show on the road then. You've only got about 10seconds before I have beef jerky breath." Sam declares and Carly nods, twisting around to sit cross legged on the bed and Sam does the same, brushing her hair out of her face.

"Alright so how do you want to do this? On a three count?" Carly asks and even though her voice is steady, she's so nervous she doesn't know who's hand is sweating more Sam's or hers.

"How about a 'ready, set, go'?" Sam suggests and Carly nods.

"Okay."

"Alright."

There's an awkward pause and Carly swallows hard before leaning forward and closing her eyes and she assumes that Sam is doing the same thing because she can't really see her.

"Wait." Sam whispers and Carly opens her eyes and rears back quickly.

"You don't want to anymore." She blurts and Sam shakes her head and squeezes Carly's hand.

"No, I do. I do." Sam reassures, "I just need some more information about this kissing situation."

Carly looks at her completely bewildered. "Kissing situation?"

"Yeah, is this going to be, like, close or open mouthed?" Sam questions and Carly hadn't even thought of that.

"Um, I dunno. Closed?" Carly offers and Sam nods, once.

"Right, because its our first kiss and we don't want to be skunk bags." Sam says shifting on the bed.

"Are you gonna tilt your head left or right?" Carly asks and Sam looks stricken for a moment.

"Right I guess." Sam says and Carly frowns a little.

"I was going to go right, too." She admits and Sam just lifts a shoulder.

"Then I'll go left. Okay?"

Carly nods and can't help but think they're both over thinking this whole thing. Its just a kiss. True its their first kiss. Their first kiss after admitting they both felt something beyond friendship but a kiss none the less.

"Okay." Carly exhales scooting a little closer and Sam watches her eagerly.

"Lets do this." Sam grins and its contagious because Carly grins too.

"Ready….set…go…" Carly breathes leaning while Sam does the same.

It's a disaster. There's lip to lip contact so it counts as a kiss but Carly and Sam bump heads so hard that they ricochet apart and Carly presses her hand to her forehead while Sam rubs at her brow with a wince.

"That was a catastrophe." Carly grunts and Sam pull her hand from her face, checking for blood.

"You can say that again."

"That was a catastrophe." Carly repeats, licking her lips.

"I think I have a concussion." Sam croaks and Carly blinks at her sympathetically.

"I'm sorry. I think I went left."

"Me too 'cause I went open mouthed." Sam sort of laughs and Carly giggles and knows exactly why she likes Sam more than she should. Why she's here, now.

"I think we're making too big of a deal of this." Carly says, "I think we should just do it."

"Just do it?"

"Yeah. Here we go…" Carly says and this time she leans in close to Sam's face while the other girl touches her hair lightly, lips pink and eyes bright. "Countdown from five omitting the one." Carly instructs.

"5...4...3...2..."

They kiss. It's eager and clumsy but real and honest and they both pull back slowly.

"Wow." Sam says around a grin and Carly swallows hard.

"Yeah."