Never Been Kissed Read online

  I consider this. “Well, I’m not sure how they define child porn exactly. I mean Leslie’s not a child . . . but you are.”

  She just nods.

  “If I were you, I’d go turn myself in to the police. Just confess what you did and get it over with. I have a feeling given your age and your sister’s age . . . well, they’ll probably go lightly on you. They told me if I’d confess—even though I didn’t do it—that I’d probably just have to do community service and take a class or something.”

  She nods and her mom groans.

  “You better take her in,” I warn Stacie’s mom. “The sooner the better.” I turn to leave.

  “Elise?” Stacie calls out in a meek voice.

  “Yeah?”

  “Will you ever forgive me?”

  I turn and give her a long look. “Yeah. I have to forgive you because that’s what God did for me.” A jolt of reality hits me, and I know Stacie isn’t the only one at fault here. “And you’ll have to forgive me too,” I tell her.

  “Forgive you?” Her eyes grow wide. “What for?”

  “I wasn’t honest with you this summer. I made it sound like I’d had a lot of boyfriends and stuff. The truth is I’ve never had a real boyfriend . . . and I’ve never been kissed.”

  “No way!” She looks stunned.

  “It’s true.” I nod. “Sorry I lied to you. It seemed like no big deal back then. But I realize now that I could’ve set you up to think I was someone I’m not. Maybe that’s why you thought it was okay to send that photo.”

  “That still doesn’t make sending that photo okay,” her mom points out angrily.

  “I know, Mom.” Stacie presses her lips together then looks back at me. “So do you mean it, can you really forgive me for that?”

  “Yeah. But how about if I make a deal with you? Kind of like a form of penance, okay?”

  “Sure, whatever. Want me to clean your room? Do your chores? You name it—as long as it doesn’t involve photography.”

  I laugh. “Trust me, it has nothing to do with photographs. Here’s the deal, Stacie. I’ll forgive you, and in return, you have to come to church with me for . . . let’s see, how about one day for one day.”

  “Huh?”

  “Well, I’ve been through six days—some of them were pretty rough days too. Six long days of being considered guilty of something I didn’t do. You go to church with me for six Sundays and I think we’ll be okay.”

  She brightens. “Okay.”

  “Now,” her mom says, “get your shoes on, Stacie. I think Elise is right. The sooner we take care of this, the better.”

  Life settles down the following week. At least for me. Thanks to Stacie and Bristol, all charges against me are dropped. But Stacie, as predicted, is sentenced to community service, which includes removing graffiti from public restrooms and speaking to middle school students about why sexting is really, really stupid, not to mention illegal. She’s also sentenced to going to church with me, which she admits after the first time isn’t so bad.

  Brianna, I learn from Bristol, could’ve had a similar light sentence if she’d simply agreed to it. Of course, Brianna decided not to own up to everything she’d already confessed to her friends and Asher. Now she’s hired an attorney and plans to appeal. Wally is trying to get an out-of-court settlement from Brianna’s parents for the damage to my car, which Lindsey (thanks to Bristol) told me she witnessed.

  Asher’s name is cleared as well, but he and Brianna are history. And even though he’s been unusually friendly to me, I am keeping him at a cool distance. It’s not that I question his sincerity—I simply question his judgment. I mean what kind of a boy goes with a girl like Brianna for that long without figuring out what she’s really like?

  Anyway, Phillip isn’t like that. From what I can see, Phillip has good judgment and he genuinely cares about me. And those might be rare qualities in seventeen-year-old boys these days. Not that I’m an expert. Although I am getting smarter.

  Among the many things that I learned through all this mess is that crushes are usually misleading. It’s like I’d set myself up to believe whatever it was I wanted to believe about Asher because I’d convinced myself I was madly in love with him—and trust me, that’s asking for trouble. Because, think about it, when I thought I was falling for Asher, I was actually corresponding with Brianna. Ugh, how sick is that?

  That’s what the internet is like sometimes—you think you know who you’re talking to, but sometimes you don’t. For one thing, you can’t hear the tone of the person’s voice to know whether it’s sincere or not, and you can’t see into a person’s eyes to know if they’re stringing you along. Even if a guy sends a cool photo, you can’t be sure it’s really him. You could actually be a scam victim like me . . . or worse.

  But I’ve decided that even being scammed was partially my fault for playing along—and for being dishonest with Stacie. I have to admit that I made myself a willing participant when I went for the bait—hook, line, and sinker, as they say. I set myself up for a great big fall. Really, I can’t blame everyone else without blaming myself as well. No one forced me to play along.

  So I may be only sixteen now, but already I’m a whole lot smarter than I was at fifteen. And even though I still haven’t been officially kissed, I’m thinking that maybe I need to just wait.

  Now, you probably think I mean I’ll be waiting for Phillip . . . and who knows, that might be how it goes someday. The truth is I don’t really know that part for sure.

  What I’m actually saying is that I need to just wait on God. Because I know now that his timing and his ways are a whole lot better than mine!

  Melody Carlson is the award-winning author of around two hundred books, many of them for teens, including the Diary of a Teenage Girl series, the TrueColors series, and the Carter House Girls series. She and her husband met years ago while volunteering as Young Life counselors. Visit Melody’s website at www.melodycarlson.com.

  Books by Melody Carlson

  Just Another Girl

  Anything but Normal

  Never Been Kissed

  WORDS FROM THE ROCK

  True

  Life

  Always

  www.melodycarlson.com

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  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

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