Replay

“Wait.” George peered at the video on Lily’s phone. “Go back a little bit.”

Lily slid her finger to rewind the scene from last night’s party in her neighbor’s dorm room. Dancers moved backwards as the scene reversed.

George leaned closer to Lily on the couch, studying the screen. “There!”

Lily pressed play, and George watched for a second, then pointed to movement in the background that Lily had totally missed.

“Is that Felix?” She widened her eyes. “And… oh.” Felix was kissing Melanie, whom George had dreamed of dating since freshman year.

George’s round face flushed. “I was hoping maybe they were doing something else.”

Lily didn’t know what else they could have been doing, but she wasn’t about to kick George when he was down, no matter how she felt about Melanie. Besides, maybe now there was a chance…

“You know,” Lily said gently, “there are other girls on campus.”

“How many of them even look at me, Lily? Come on.”

“You don’t know they’re not looking. Maybe if you stop focusing on Melanie, you’ll notice.” Lily tried not to sound like she was hinting.

“What’s the point?” George buried his face in his hands. “All anyone sees is a chubby nerd.”

Lily squeezed George’s knee. “That’s not what I see.”

“Don’t do that. I don’t want pity.”

“You have nice eyes. My favorite shade of blue.”

George’s cheeks reddened more deeply. “You don’t have to do this.”

“You give the best hugs.” Lily moved her hand to George’s shoulder. “You always listen to me even when I ramble.”

“Please don’t. Melanie is one thing, but losing you too…”

“I’m not going anywhere, George. I want to be here. I always do.” Then, sliding her hand to his cheek and turning his face toward hers, she kissed him once, twice, and then again, and again.

At last, he pulled away, breathless. “Did that really just happen?”

“Well, I don’t have a recording this time but...”

George cut her off with another kiss, and then Lily knew for sure that, even without video footage, neither of their minds would stop playing these moments on repeat for a long time to come.