Excerpt from Kissing Brendan Callahan

"Want to go to Antonia's and get this mess straightened out?" asks Brendan.

I lean out of my bedroom window and look down. "I can't. I'm grounded because of the last tinme Ilistened to you."

"To bad," he says. "But of course. if you'd rather sit inside and watch the rest of us carrying on with our lives."

Why is he so irritating? Why does he alwyas make sense? I hope I'm not going to regret this. I crawl out the window and hop onto the brance and climb down.

"Is that Sarah?" He leans back. "The girl who's grounded?"

Our eyes lock. "You love it when I break the rules, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do. It's a total ten." He leans in and kisses me. It's a wow!

"You'd better stop kissing me," he says.

"I wasn't kissing you," I protest. "You were kissing me."

"That's ridiculous," he says. "And you'll never prove it."