The Kissing Booth (19 page)

‘Well, maybe if he met the right girl,’ Karen laughed, pointing to herself.

‘Think about it though,’ Candice went on. ‘I haven’t seen him with anybody – and I mean
anybody
– in weeks. Usually you’ll see him making out with some lucky girl at parties, but—’

‘Ohmigosh!’ Tamara squealed. ‘You’re so right! There hasn’t been any girl with him for weeks. But you all saw that hickey he had a couple of weeks ago, right?’

‘Who could miss it?’ Olivia laughed.

I was trying so hard not to blush or look too guilty or worried. These girls noticed more than I gave them credit for.

‘Have you seen him with anyone, Elle? You know when you’re around his place, hanging out with Lee?’

I shook my head. ‘No, I haven’t seen him with anyone.’

‘I wonder who it is . . .’

‘
If
there is anyone,’ Faith put in.

Then I said, oh so very casually, ‘Maybe he’s gay.’

There was silence for a little while, and I carried on calmly eating my pasta salad. Everyone was gawking at me.

‘No way.’

‘He can’t be.’

‘You don’t think he
really
is, do you?’

‘No, there’s no way!’

I couldn’t hold it back any longer; I burst out laughing. ‘I’m kidding! You should’ve seen your faces just then . . . I wish I’d had a camera . . .’

Candice swatted my arm, scowling. ‘That wasn’t very nice, Elle.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I giggled. ‘I couldn’t resist.’

But it had distracted them from the subject of Noah Flynn’s supposed mystery girlfriend, and
I
was completely off the radar. I breathed an inaudible sigh of relief, listening to them discussing boys. I heard enough Flynn-related gossip when I wasn’t involved in it; I don’t know how I’d ever survive if they found out that innocent little Rochelle had been fooling around with bad-ass Flynn.

Hell, that would be about as believable as if I told them I’d gone out and bought a motorbike.

Chapter 17

WAY TOO SOON
, it was the middle of May.

As if I wasn’t already preoccupied enough with everything going on in my life – not to mention finals coming up – I had the school council to deal with, too.

‘Well, the Summer Dance is going to be at the beginning of June,’ Tyrone announced to us.

‘What? But that gives us hardly any time!’ someone protested loudly.

Tyrone threw his hands up in surrender, and everyone hushed up. ‘I don’t choose the date, sorry. This is the only time we could get the ballroom at the Royale.’

‘You got us the Royale?’ Kaitlin shrieked, voicing what most of us girls were thinking. The Royale was a totally extravagant hotel, all white and gold and marble.

Tyrone nodded. ‘Yup. The budget managed to swing it, but we’ll be tight pressed on the decorations and the band, unless we bump tickets up a little.’

‘Well, we can do that,’ I said. ‘It’s the Royale. Nobody will care if they have to pay a little more to go there.’

‘True,’ he said, and everyone nodded to show they agreed with me. ‘Well, anyway, we really need to figure out food, a band, the tickets and—’

‘We need a theme,’ one of the girls said, planting her hands down on the table.

Faith jumped in her seat excitedly. ‘We should totally do, like, medieval! I saw this show where they had a medieval theme and it was awesome!’

‘No,’ all the boys said, almost simultaneously. I giggled at the horrified look on Lee’s face.

‘How about black and white?’

‘That’s hardly summery.’

‘Vintage? Like, the sixties or something? Or, no – we should do, like, the Roaring Twenties! The guys would all turn up like gangsters in flashy suits, and you know they had those – oh, what do you call them? – the flapper dresses. It’d be so cool,’ Bridget suggested excitedly.

‘Um, no,’ someone said flatly.

‘Do I get to take a gun,’ Tony joked, ‘if I’m Al Capone?’

‘That would totally work,’ one of the boys said sarcastically. It was Max, from my English class. ‘Prohibition era? At a school dance? Because nobody’s going to try and smuggle in alcohol and get school dances banned.’

‘Well, we could have a masquerade—’

‘Yeah! Oh my God, yes! That’s awesome!’

I groaned and banged my head down on the table before sitting back up. ‘Oh, come on! Don’t you think that’s just so overdone?
Everybody
has a masquerade these days. It’s even all over TV. There’s got to be
something
else . . .’

‘We already had that stupid Hollywood theme or whatever the hell you called it for the Winter Dance,’ Eric grumbled. ‘At least the masquerade thing is kind of cool.’

‘But it’s been done so many times!’

‘I agree,’ Lee said.

‘Of course you do,’ I heard Tyrone mutter as he shook his head at us.

‘Hey, we could always have a mini carnival,’ said Lily with a gleam in her eyes. ‘You know, with a fortune teller, cotton candy . . . another kissing booth.’

‘So long as Elle’s running it I’m all for that,’ laughed Tony, one of the seniors, winking at me. I just rolled my eyes and hoped I wasn’t blushing. All this time, and they were still bringing up how I’d made out with Flynn at the kissing booth.

‘No, we’re not doing that,’ Lee said, sounding so much like Noah I did a double take.

‘Well, anyway,’ Tyrone said, clearly getting impatient now. ‘Everyone in favor of a masquerade?’

Everyone bar Lee and I raised their hands.

‘Then it’s settled. Lee, Elle, can I count on you guys to do the posters and the tickets?’

‘Sure,’ we sighed at the same time. While Tyrone basically dictated what we were to make, without giving us a particular design, everyone else split up the rest of the duties between them.

Don’t get me wrong – I was really looking forward to the Summer Dance. It would be amazing – especially since the venue was the Royale. But I hated the prospect of having to get a date.

The dances at our school were for juniors and seniors. The Winter and Summer Dances were huge events here. For the Winter Dance I’d just gone with Lee as friends, since he didn’t have a girlfriend at the time.

But now he’d ask Rachel.

And that meant he wouldn’t be going with me – so I had to get a date. There was no way I was going alone.

So . . .

Who would I go with?

I knew who I
wanted
to go with – but then I thought of the rumors and gossip that would spread like a virus if I turned up with Noah Flynn . . . even the thought of that made me feel nauseous.

And I could hardly turn up without explaining it all to Lee first: he’d hate me if I sprang it on him; but when would I get a chance to tell him? And summon the courage to tell him . . .

I couldn’t exactly see guys queuing up to ask me, thanks to Noah.

On the bright side – if I turned up alone and it was a masquerade, maybe nobody would know it was me?

I held out a wild hope that Noah would ask me, though. I wondered if I should drop a few hints, and the opportunity rolled around a couple of days later.

We were doing some mock-ups of posters and tickets on Lee’s computer when his phone rang.

‘Hey, Dixon . . . What? Are you serious? Oh, man! I’ll be right there!’

Lee leaped up, grabbing his sneakers and looking like a five-year-old on Christmas morning.

‘What’s going on?’

‘He’s at the food court in the mall with some of the guys, and guess who’s there? Buying
donuts
?’

‘Uh . . .’

‘Matt Cain. From the San Francisco Giants. You know – the baseball player? He’s a pitcher?’

‘Oh, right, cool. So you’re off then.’

‘Hell yeah!’ he laughed. ‘Hey, do you know where my baseball cap is?’

‘In the closet,’ I said, pointing. I rifled through his messy desk before finding a Sharpie, which I handed over my shoulder as he ran out of the room.

‘Later!’ he yelled, the front door slamming behind him.

I laughed. I’d heard of Matt Cain, but I wasn’t much of a baseball fanatic. Sure, it was great to play and fun to watch. I’d been to a couple of games with my dad and Brad, and with Lee. Personally, I preferred watching football.

Especially if it’s Noah playing . . 
.

They had another game coming up Friday, I remembered. It was, like, the quarterfinals or semifinals. I’d probably end up going with some of the guys.

I saved what we’d done so far on the computer and got up to head on home. Lee wouldn’t be back for ages and I didn’t really want to stay here alone.

I made my way outside and heard noises coming from the garage. I wandered around, pulling the front door closed behind me, and saw the door half open. I heard the clank of metal and the slight crackle of a radio interfering with the music playing.

I ducked under the door. ‘Noah?’ I asked, looking around the empty garage, even though I knew it was him.

There was a rattle, and he suddenly appeared from under his car lying on a skateboard, oil stains on his face and arms and shirt, and some kind of tool in his hand.

‘Oh, hey,’ he said. ‘I think I just heard Lee leave.’

‘Yeah, there’s some baseball player at the mall so he ran off. We were working on posters for the dance.’

Noah groaned. ‘I hate all these crappy school spirit events.’

‘It’s optional, you know.’

‘Yeah, not so much for the football team,’ he muttered. ‘It’s like with the Carnival. It’s “strongly encouraged”, but we all know that we’ll end up having to sit on the sidelines for a game if we don’t make an appearance.’

I laughed. ‘I can’t believe they’d actually do that.’

‘They’re all about image, this damn school,’ he muttered.

‘Which is why you’re still there?’

He smirked. ‘Hello, have you met me? Perfect grades, great footballer . . . They overlook a couple of fights for that. Especially when I never actually
start
the fights.’

I just rolled my eyes at him.

‘So are you and Lee going to the dance again?’ he asked as he slid back under the car. I didn’t bother to ask what he was doing; I wouldn’t understand anyway.

‘No. He’ll go with Rachel.’

Noah slid back out again to give me a concerned look. ‘Then who are you going with?’

‘I don’t know,’ I admitted.

The look on his face told me he’d probably threaten to beat up the first guy to ask me, but I pretended not to notice.

‘It’s a masquerade, by the way,’ I said.

‘It is?’

‘Yup.’

He nodded and went back under the car. That was one thing that annoyed me about Noah – most of the time I couldn’t even guess at what he was thinking. Whereas with Lee, we could finish each other’s sentences and tell exactly what the other was thinking – well, except for this whole Noah situation. That was just a lucky fluke . . . or he was choosing to ignore any signs of something going on.

But Noah . . . Noah was like a Rubik’s Cube. An impossible puzzle, but one I didn’t want to give up on just yet because it was too compelling, too enticing.

‘Well, if someone asks you, say no.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘I don’t want you going with any idiot who’s gonna try something, got that?’ His voice was a little muffled, what with the music and the metallic clanking, but I could hear the command in his voice. ‘If someone like that Dixon guy asks you –
as a friend
– then fine, if you want to, say yes, but—’

‘You can’t tell me who I can and can’t go with,’ I protested. I knew he’d do this, but it was the way he just
expected
me to accept what he said that made me mad.

‘Elle—’

‘I’ll go to the dance with whomsoever I choose –
got that
? Whether or not they ask me to go as a friend.’

Noah slid back out, setting down his spanner. ‘Listen, Elle. I’m trying to look out for you here and you’re not making it easy. It’s a dance – guys are bound to try something. I mean, look what happened at that party. And if it’s a masquerade, and there’s a chance they won’t get caught stealing a kiss, then they’ll try it.’

Alright, maybe he had a good point about the masquerade bit. So what?

‘Not everybody’s a jerk like that, Noah.’

‘A hell of a lot of guys are.’

‘Maybe I don’t care,’ I snapped. I
did
care, really, but I wasn’t going to agree with Noah without putting up a fight first. Even if he was right about it. ‘Maybe I want some guy to kiss me during the slow dance.’

‘
I
sure as hell care,’ he told me firmly, but he wasn’t shouting or anything. He stood towering over me. I hated being so much smaller than him when I was trying to stare him down.

‘Why? Why do you even care?’ I snapped, narrowing my eyes. I had a feeling I knew the answer, but I didn’t care. I was mad at him.

‘Because I want that slow dance with you all to myself,’ he retorted.

He probably thought that cheesy line would soften me up – with me being such a romantic at heart – and it kind of did. Because when he kissed me then, I kissed him back, my heart racing, sparks dancing through me.

‘I hate you,’ I mumbled against his lips, smiling.

‘I know,’ he said, and I felt him smile back.

The sneaking around with Noah, the thrill that we might get caught together, made the whole thing so exhilarating. I knew we couldn’t keep it up forever, but I’d sure as hell enjoy it while it lasted.

‘Did you really mean that?’ I asked, slightly breathless, after a few minutes. ‘About having that slow dance?’

He nodded. ‘Yeah, I did. In fact, I want the whole night.’

‘Oh, do you, now?’

‘Yep.’ He kissed my lips again quickly.

‘Is that you asking me to the dance?’

‘Not quite,’ he chuckled, kissing me again. ‘But almost.’

‘I’ll take what I can get.’

He gave me another kiss before moving away to carry on fixing his car. In the shiny hood of the car I could see that there were oil smudges on my face and neck now. I’d have to try and clean those off before I got home.

‘This is it,’ I said quietly, a smile spreading across my face. ‘This is the one.’

‘You said that about the last five dresses,’ Lee complained. He sounded a lot like Brad when he was given vegetables with his dinner.