Page 114 of The Kissing Booth
‘If that’s how you’re going to wake me up, I wouldn’t mind spending the night with you more often,’ Noah told me with a gleam in his eyes.
‘Ha-ha,’ I replied sarcastically, but I was smiling. I brushed some hair out of my face. ‘Good morning.’
He kissed the tip of my nose. ‘Good morning to you too.’ He stretched, and then tugged me back against him. Our legs wrapped together.
Immediately, I jerked my right leg away from him.
‘What?’
‘Your feet are really cold,’ I explained, and he laughed, rolling his eyes. Slowly, I eased my leg back to where it had been a moment ago, avoiding Noah’s feet.
We didn’t get up for at least an hour; we stayed wrapped around each other in bed, speaking in soft voices and exchanging kisses.
I couldn’t have been happier.
I got Noah to drop me at my house. I’d stop by to see Lee later. I was desperate to know if he’d finally said ‘I love you’ to Rachel (because even ifhedidn’t realize yet, I knew he was in love).
But he still wasn’t entirely comfortable with me and his big brother being together. And showing up with the remnants of last night’s make-up and my crinkled dress on would just be rubbing his face in it.
I would much rather face my father’s disapproving sigh at how I’d spent my night than face Lee looking like this.
‘Elle?’ Dad called out as I shut the door as silently as possible behind me.
I sighed. I’d have been a terrible rebellious child. I couldn’t sneak in or out of the house if my life depended on it. So I called back, ‘Yeah, it’s me!’
‘How was the dance?’ he asked, and with a sigh I smoothed my dress out and went into the lounge. Brad was hanging upside down, his feet up on the top of the couch, his head brushing the floor. He glanced over from the Nintendo and went back to playing his game.
‘The dance was great,’ I answered. ‘Except there was a bit of drama involving nuts in the vegetarian dish, and one of the guys is allergic to nuts...’
‘Boring,’ Brad said loudly in a sing-song voice, irritating me as only a little brother could.
‘Did you go to the after-party?’ my dad asked.
‘No...’ I said cautiously. ‘We, um – Noah booked us a room for the night...’ My voice faded into a mumble before trailing off completely.
‘Is that so.’ My dad’s words swelled with disapproval.
‘Nothing happened,’ I said quickly, not able to keep my cheeks from burning. Talk about embarrassing...
It was Brad who spoke: ‘Noah and Elle, sitting in a tree, doing things they shouldn’t be...’ he sang mockingly.
‘Whatever,’ was my witty comeback, mimicking his voice. He scowled over the top of his Nintendo and I poked my tongue out at him.
‘Is it too late to take back what I said last night about my little girl being so grown up, Elle?’ Dad laughed, shaking his head at us. I gave him a sheepish smile. ‘So you had a good time at the dance.’
‘Yup. And you know what Noah did? He actually got the band to dedicate a song to me so he could ask me to be his girlfriend in front of everybody. That’s how serious he is about this. About me,’ I amended.
‘Aw, is ickle Ellie-belly inluuurve?’ Brad said in a soppy voice, making kissing sounds and pulling faces at me.
‘No!’ I said quickly. ‘No! Most definitely not.’
Dad could only look at me like he was torn between acceptance and disappointment. I was starting to shrug it off when the doorbell rang.
‘I’ll get it,’ I said quickly, shooting up to open the door.
‘I heard on the grapevine that you were back,’ Lee said, leaning on the porch fence and grinning at me. The smile went out of his eyes for a moment when he saw me – it was blatantly clear what I’d been up to last night – but he recovered quickly.
‘Plus I had to get out of the house,’ he went on. ‘My parents are going crazy at Noah.’
