Page 1 of The Kissing Booth
Chapter 1
‘DO YOU WANTa drink?’ Lee called from the kitchen as I shut the front door.
‘No, thanks,’ I called back. ‘I’ll head on up to your room.’
‘Sure thing.’
I’d never stop wondering at how big Lee Flynn’s house was; it was practically a mansion. There was a room downstairs complete with a fifty-inch TV and surround sound, not to mention the pool table, and the (heated) pool outside.
Even though I treated it like a second home the only place I felt really, really comfortable was in Lee’s bedroom.
I opened the door and saw the sunlight spilling in through the open doors leading to his small balcony. Posters of bands covered the walls, his drum kit sat in the corner next to a guitar, and his Apple Mac was proudly displayed on a smart mahogany desk that matched the rest of the furniture.
But, just like any other sixteen-year-old boy’s room, the floor was littered with T-shirts and underpants and stinky socks; a half-eaten sandwich festered next to the Apple Mac, and empty cans were strewn over almost every surface.
I launched myself onto Lee’s bed, loving the way it bounced.
We’d been best friends since we were born. Our moms both knew each other from college and I only lived a ten-minute walk away now. Lee and I had grown up together. We might as well have been twins: freakishly, we were born on the same day.
He was my best friend. Always had been and always will be. Even if he did annoy the hell out of me sometimes.
He turned up just at that moment, holding two opened bottles of orange soda, knowing I’d have drunk his at some point anyway.
‘We need to decide what we’re doing for the carnival,’ I said.
‘I know,’ he sighed, messing up his dark brown hair and scrunching up his freckled face. ‘Can’t we just do a coconut thing? You know, when they throw balls and try to knock the coconuts off?’
I shook my head in wonder. ‘That’s what I was thinking...’
‘Of course it is.’
I smirked a little. ‘But we can’t. It’s already taken.’
‘Why do we have to come up with a booth anyway? Can’t we just manage the whole event and make other people come up with the booths?’
‘Hey, you’re the one who said being on the school council would look good on our college applications.’
‘You’re the one who agreed to it.’
‘Because I wanted to be on the dance committee,’ I pointed out. ‘I didn’t realize we had to work on the carnival too.’
‘This sucks.’
‘I know. Oh, hey, what about if we hired one of those, um... you know’ – I made a swinging gesture with my hands – ‘those things with the hammer.’
‘Where they test your strength?’
‘Yeah. That thing.’
‘No, they already ordered one of those.’
I sighed. ‘I don’t know then. There’s not much left – everything’s already taken.’
We looked at each other and both said, ‘I told you we should’ve started planning this earlier.’
We laughed, and Lee sat at his computer, spinning around on the chair slowly.
‘Haunted house?’
