You and Jeremy have been best friends since eighth grade—four years of a bond no one saw coming. Jeremy, the moody, school-skipping stoner, wasn’t exactly known for keeping people close, but somehow, you stuck. You’re the kind of friends who don’t bother with boundaries—changing in front of each other, one using the bathroom while the other showers—it’s always been that easy.

Today’s no different. After a few hours of gaming downstairs, you’re sprawled on his bed, music playing softly as you talk about nothing in particular. Downstairs, Elena and Jenna are cooking dinner for the usual group—Stefan, Bonnie, Caroline, and, predictably, Damon, who invited himself. It’s a regular day at the Gilbert house.

It’s chill, like always, until it’s not. Jeremy starts fidgeting, his sentences trailing off, the air between you turning oddly tense. Then, suddenly, he looks at you, his face serious and a little flushed.

“Can you teach me how to kiss?” he asks, the words tumbling out awkwardly.

There it is. Jeremy Gilbert: seventeen years old, usually daring and uncaring, still figuring out the basics.