The International Kissing Club (6 page)

She’d already figured out that sleeping with him had been a pretty
stupid idea. Like, colossally stupid. Like, she’d previously thought only cheerleaders-made-mistakes-that-dumb stupid.

And the thing was, when you did something really, massively stupid, you didn’t rush out to tell your friends about it.

Even though she knew they’d be on her side—Cassidy would be first in line to break River’s nose—it was too soon to talk about. There was a giant raw spot inside of her and she wasn’t ready to expose the wound to air.

Besides, this wasn’t
ha-ha
stupid, like the time she’d driven from her house to Cassidy’s with her iPod sitting on the roof of her car. Or the time she’d locked her keys in the trunk at the state park after dragging Piper hiking.

This wasn’t the kind of stupid you could joke about a few days later. No, this was the kind that burned in your gut and ate at your confidence. The kind of stupid that hurt. The kind you were ashamed of.

What good would telling them do? Cassidy would probably lecture her about personal responsibility and girl power. Mei would ask if she’d practiced safe sex, even though Mei would never in a million years sleep with a guy who’d already dumped her. But it was Piper’s response that Izzy dreaded the most. Piper would be
supportive
.

Trudging up the stairs, Izzy shuddered at the thought. Supportive was the last thing she needed right now. One word of sympathy and she’d be blubbering like a baby. And nobody needed to see that.

Besides, Piper had enough drama going on for the four of them. As if kissing the pig wasn’t bad enough, life with Piper’s mother was hell. Izzy wouldn’t trade places with her for anything—not even if it meant getting away from the mess she’d made with River. No, she just had to keep her misery to herself for a few more weeks. As soon as they went their separate ways to other countries, they’d forget about River. All of them. Even her. If it was possible to forget the guy who was your first.

She entered Piper’s bedroom to find Cassidy already sprawled on
the beanbag, her fingers bright red from a bag of Flamin’ Hot Crunchy Cheetos. Piper sat cross-legged on the bed, a folder of DVDs open on her lap.

“You’re late,” Piper chided.

“Sorry. I got distracted by your boyfriend.”

Piper perked up. “Tanner was at your house?”

Izzy sighed, instantly sorry she’d brought it up. “When isn’t he at my house? Along with most of the football players. It’s just one of the perks of my father being the coach.”

“Remind me why we’re not spending the night at your house.” Piper waggled her eyebrows lasciviously.

Everyone else groaned and ignored the question.

Cassidy chuckled. “I’m surprised that Germaine the Vain lets him out of her sight long enough to hang out with the rest of the team.”

“She doesn’t own him,” Piper reasoned.

Cassidy didn’t even look up, just continued flipping through the magazine open on her lap. “No, she just controls him with the promise of sex.”

“Not just the promise. Or at least not according to Jackson Grosbeck.” Mei shook her head in disgust. “When is that girl going to learn to use her brain instead of her body to get what she wants?”

“Easy for you to say. You have the best brain.” Cassidy popped a Cheeto in her mouth.

“But only one?” Piper teased. “I thought maybe with all those fantastic grades, you kept a spare one stashed somewhere.”

Mei rubbed her hands together like an evil scientist, cackling. “Igor, bring me the spare medulla oblongata!”

“Ah, so that explains why Germaine is so vapid,” Cassidy said. “Obviously, her brain is no longer in her head.”

“Yeah.” Piper giggled. “How dumb do you have to be to not appreciate Tanner?”

Ordinarily, Izzy would have been right there with Cassidy, slamming
Germaine, but today she wanted to kick something. Some girls used sex to get what they wanted from boys. She, on the other hand, apparently used sex to actively drive them away.

How bad in bed must I have been?

To distract herself, she teased Piper, “I
so
don’t know what you see in him.”

Piper looked truly offended. “What’s not to see? The rippling muscles? The silky dark hair? The piercing blue eyes?”

“The ego?” Izzy countered. “The vanity? The subhuman IQ? The ungodly obsession with a sport that worships pointless violence?”

“Last year he was in my honors biology class,” Mei pointed out.

“So?”

“Sooo, he was the only other person who got an A.”

That gave Izzy pause, but she soon dismissed it with a wave. “Okay, so maybe a few functioning brain cells have survived the numerous blows to the head he’s sustained. But you’ve got to give me the football thing.”

Piper crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Izzy. “This is Texas. Everyone is obsessed with football.”

“That doesn’t make it any less pointless or violent.”

Piper smirked. “Objections to football, coming from the only girl in the history of the school to try out for the team?”

Izzy gasped.

Cassidy’s head jerked up. “Not cool, Piper.”

Freshman year, Izzy had gone out for the football team as the kicker. Cassidy had spent all summer helping her practice. The rest of the football team had laughed their asses off when she showed up for tryouts, but she’d been prepared for that. She
hadn’t
been prepared for her father to not even let her walk onto the field. That was the last time she’d tried to win his approval.

“I was just teasing, Cass.” Piper paused, head cocked to the side. “I think this is what I’m going to miss the most. Who’s going to tease us when we’re off in the four corners of the globe?”

“Um … a globe doesn’t
have
corners,” Mei pointed out.

Cassidy snickered. “That’s why it’s called a globe.”

Piper beamed, clutching the DVD folder to her chest. “See, that’s what I mean. In France, no one will know me like you guys do. I’m going to miss that.” She sniffed a little.

“Don’t buy stock in Kleenex just yet, Pipes.” But Cassidy smiled as she said it.

“We’re going to be apart. For ten whole weeks. Seventy days. No sleepovers. No movies. No Cheetos.”

“I’m pretty sure they have Cheetos in France,” Cassidy interjected.

“That’s
so
not the point.” Piper grabbed a Cheeto and threw it at her.

Cassidy—überathlete that she was—dove for it and actually caught it in her mouth.

She held up her hands as if modestly accepting the praise of thousands. “Thank you. Thank you very much.”

Izzy flopped back on the bed. “Jeez, Pipes, just pick a movie. We’re not vampires who are never going to age, you know? What about
The Princess Bride
?”

It had always been one of Izzy’s favorite movies. When she’d first moved to Paris, Piper, Mei, and Cassidy had invited her over for a slumber party. As they huddled around the TV, watching
The Princess Bride
and downing Pixy Stix, Izzy had known that these were the friends who would be with her for the rest of her life.

“Oh, are we back to picking a movie?” Cassidy asked. “I didn’t realize Piper was done waxing melodramatic.”

Piper gave Cassidy a playful shove. “I refuse to apologize for being woman enough to admit I have feelings. Just you wait until you’re all alone in Australia next semester, we’ll see who’s—”

“Actually,” Mei interrupted, “I’ve been doing research. There’s one program we could still get into this semester. We could leave in October.”

“Wow, that’s so quick.” Piper’s eyes lit up. “Awesome!”

“But,” Mei looked a little sad, “we’ve seen each other almost every day since the first grade.”

“Excuse me?” Izzy protested.

“Okay, Ms. Precise,” Mei conceded. “Since the sixth grade. The point is, we’re going to be all alone there. We’ll be lonely.”

“Not me.” Cassidy shook her head.

But Mei gave her a piercing look. “No phone calls. No hanging out at lunch. Plus, some of us won’t even speak the language.”

“All of us except Cassidy,” Piper pointed out.

“I’m not sure Australian qualifies as English,” Izzy said. “Don’t you remember when we tried to watch
Mad Max
?”

“The point is,” Mei interrupted, trying to steer them back on course, “are we really prepared to live on texting alone?”

Cassidy froze, seemingly considering it, and Izzy didn’t blame her. Izzy had been so focused on how great it would be to get out of Texas for once that she hadn’t thought about leaving her best friends. Her head had been full of images of hiking through the jungle, picturing herself like one of those cool chicks in the Subaru ads driving off-road somewhere. Or zipping from tree to tree on a canopy tour. Maybe even being interviewed for some hip ecology e-zine.

She hadn’t imagined being lonely. “There’s always e-mail,” she pointed out.

“No, Mei’s right,” Piper said slowly. “We should try to keep in touch on Facebook.”

“But we’re going to be busy. We won’t be checking our Facebook pages.”

“We could Foursquare our locations,” Mei pointed out.

Cassidy groaned. “We’ll let you do that, Ms. Vogel, while the rest of us are off doing something fun.”

Piper coyly added, “Or some
one
fun.”

They all squealed at her bad joke. Izzy said, “Yeah, right. Please
tell me that you’re not actually considering having sex with guys in France.”

“Uh, no, perv. But now that you mention it, a little smooch action might be nice. Preferably something without snout.”

“Now there’s something for your Facebook page,” Cassidy said.

If Piper had been a cartoon, a lightbulb would have appeared in a thought bubble above her head. “Oh my God. I have the most spectacular idea!”

“Yes, yes,” Cassidy grumbled. “You want to get some lip action in France. Big shocker.”

“Nooooo.” Piper drew the word out. “I want us
all
to get a little.”

“You can’t be serious,” Mei chided.

Sometimes it was like Mei and Piper didn’t even belong to the same species.

“Of course she’s serious,” Izzy said. “It’s Piper. Talking about guys. And kissing. She’s always serious about guys and kissing. Throw in some cute shoes and it’s her nirvana.”

“Excuse me? Who
isn’t
serious about guys and kissing?” Piper asked, genuinely dumbfounded.

Cassidy dropped another Cheeto into her mouth. “You want us to kiss guys and then post about it on our Facebook pages? That’s way classy.”

Mei’s spine stiffened as if she’d only just realized the horror. “On our Facebook pages? Our parents would see!”

“You’re Friends with your parents?” Cassidy asked her, chuckling.

“Aren’t you?” Mei looked at each of them in turn.

“God, no.” Piper shuddered in disgust. “Can you imagine? As if Germaine’s cyberbullying wasn’t enough. The last thing I need is another forum for my momster to torment me.”

“My parents don’t even know what Facebook is.” Izzy shrugged. “If you’re Friends with them on Facebook, wouldn’t we have seen them post?”

Mei smiled meekly. “They respect my privacy enough that they don’t post on my wall.”

Cassidy snorted. “That’s so sweet.”

“We definitely don’t want our parents to see it,” Piper chirped, steering them back to the topic at hand. “I doubt they respect your privacy
that
much.”

“Couldn’t we just create new Facebook accounts? And then make our own private fan page?” Izzy asked. “As long as we kept it completely separate from our real Facebook stuff, no one would ever know it was us, even if someone did stumble onto it.”

Cassidy folded over the top of the Cheetos bag and set it aside. “Are we really doing this?”

“Why not?” Izzy asked. “I could use a lip lock or two.” Anything to distract her from River’s lack of communication.

“So what do we do? Just post if we kiss someone?” Mei asked.

“No no no!” Piper said, perfectly mimicking Germaine’s bless-your-heart tone. “These are not going to be your everyday occurrences. We need something bigger than mere posting on Facebook. These are not I’ve-decided-to-buy-Milk-Duds-instead-of-Jujubes-at-the-movies posts. These are life-altering experiences we’re talking about!”

“Um … we are still talking about kissing guys, right? Not radioactive spiders?” Mei asked blandly.

Piper groaned. “You have no sense of drama.”

“That’s because you have enough for both of us.”

Cassidy snorted. “As long as this doesn’t involve us mailing each other some tacky pair of jeans.”

“Like I said, we have way more panache than that,” Piper retorted.

Izzy leaned forward as genuine excitement for this distraction began to take hold. “What are you suggesting?”

“Something …” But then Piper seemed to flounder, apparently unable to think of anything worthy. “Just something bigger than what we’ve done here in Paris. Something we can all get excited about.”

Izzy cocked her head to the side and considered her three friends. She and Piper would be on board no matter what. She needed the distraction and Piper was game for anything. As for Cassidy and Mei, they definitely needed something to hook them. But what?

They were each driven in their own way: Cassidy to prove she was more than her mother’s daughter, and Mei to prove she was as worthy as any child her parents might have had if they’d been able to conceive. It took Izzy only a moment to land on the thing that would appeal to both of them.

“What about a competition?” Izzy offered.

“Right,” Cassidy quipped. “One point per guy?”

“And three for a superhottie!” Piper exclaimed, ignoring Cassidy’s sarcasm.

Mei banged her head against her palm. “I can hear my mother now. We’re setting feminism back to the dawn of the last millennia.”

“Come on!” Piper fairly bounced up and down. “How can I ever paint a masterpiece if I haven’t embraced my carnal nature?”

“Some of us are nervous enough about embracing a new language.”

Once again Piper ignored Mei’s comment. “I’m starving for life experiences! We all are! But none of this is going to be fun if it’s just me doing it. It has to be all of us. We’re in this together.”