Page 38 of A Good Book

“You’re fine. What’s up?”

I tried to organize my thoughts into a coherent story with the events in order, proper punctuation, and delineated dialogue, but it came out as one big word vomit. “Matt had a party and removed my shirt. Then I worried a kiss might be next. So Ben showed me how to kiss on the mouth, which was really nice of him, but then after discovering I’m the most boring person on the planet andDie Hardhas a lot of swear words, Matt leaned forward, and I thought he was going to kiss me, so I turned and pressed my lips to his. But that was all wrong because I don’t think he was planning on that. Then Ben showed up and the next thing I knew he was smearing ice cream on my face with his, and then he licked it off and then we kissed. Like we totally really kissed like licking peanut butter from a spoon. Then the door opened and I ran to my room. But I can’t tell Olivia because she likes Ben. And I like Matt, and I’m sorry if that upsets you, but he was always too good for you anyway, and I’m not trying to be mean. It’s just a fact. At least I thought it was factual, now I don’t know anything because stupid Ben kissed me. And now I don’t know what to say to him because he’s my best friend, but I can’t tell my best friend that I kissed my best friend, and so you need to tell me what to do.”

Silence—sucha long pause.

“Sarah?”

She cleared her throat. “Uh, yeah. Sorry. I’m still here. I’m just processing all of that because it was a lot of information.”

“Sorry.” I turned in several circles to unwrap the phone cord from my body.

“Matt as in Isaac’s brother?”

“Duh. Yes.”

“Okay. Wow! Well, this is unexpected. And frankly, I’m not happy to hear that he removed your shirt.”

“If I wanted a lecture, I’d call Mom. You’re not allowed to judge me. It’s in the Bible, andyouare far from innocent. Besides, it wasn’t how it sounds. I had beer on my shirt.”

“You’re drinking too?”

“No. It wasn’t my beer,” I said with frustration wrapped around each word.

“How did you and Matt even start hanging out?”

“Stop! This isn’t about Matt. Well, it’s a little about him, but mostly it’s about Ben.”

She chuckled. “Gabby, everyone knew you’d end up with Ben.”

“What?” I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it for a few seconds.

“Gabby, Ben looks at you like you’re the second coming of Christ.”

“You haven’t seen Ben in forever.”

“Not true. I saw him at your graduation, and I talked to him at your graduation party. I write songs about guys who look at girls like he looks at you.”

“You have no idea how he looks at me.”

“I do because as we speak, a certain guy is giving me the same look.”

They were totally having sex.

“I like Matt. I like him more than you ever did. And I like him more than his ex-girlfriend,” I said like any of that mattered, like it had something to do with Ben. And I knew Sarah wouldn’t argue with me about Matt while Isaac was in the same room.

“Maybe you like him the same. I liked him, too, but fell in love with his brother. You supposedly like him, but kissed Ben. Perhaps there’s something about Matt that’s not quite the right fit for any Jacobson girl.”

“Or I’m just confused because I’ve been saving myself for him, and in the process I missed out on kissing and hand-holding, and all the stuff everyone else does in high school. So I’m making up for lost time, and right now, Ben’s the only one who’s willing to kiss me.”

“Babe, go make coffee,” Sarah said to Isaac.

Then I heard a smack like they were kissing.

“You’re going to fuck this up,” Sarah said.

I bristled at her profanity.

“Excuse my language, but I don’t know how else to say this to you. Ben’s the one.”

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