Page 116 of The Kissing Booth
Chapter 26
LEE AND Iwere lounging in my back garden; the sun was shining and the weather was too nice to stay inside. We generally spent days like this relaxing around Lee’s pool. His garden was nicer than mine too: we had one of those swinging chairs with a canopy, but it was so old it creaked whenever it moved. And half the grass had died – Dad had been too busy lately to fix it up, and too stubborn to hire a gardener.
I had suggested we go to Lee’s, pointing out that the pool would be great right now. But Lee had wanted to wait a bit.
‘Shelly, my dad said he’d text me when it was safe to go back. Meaning when either Noah’s stormed off or they’re done arguing and telling him off for everything. And I haven’t heard anything yet.’
‘Was it really that bad?’
‘Trust me, you don’t even want to know.’
Just then, his cell phone rang and he fished it out of his pocket. He frowned and didn’t answer straight away, as I’d expected.
‘Who is it?’ I asked, getting up to see the screen.
‘Noah,’ he muttered as I saw the caller ID. ‘What the hell does he want?’
‘Here’s a thought: answer it and find out.’
He gave me a mock glare and clicked to answer. ‘What?’
I heard Noah’s voice on the other end, sounding equally unhappy, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
‘Sure,’ Lee said, then handed the phone to me. ‘Your cell’s still off. He wants to talk to you.’
‘Oh.’ I took the phone, and found I was smiling, even at the prospect of talking to him over the phone. And he hadn’t even said anything yet. What was up with me lately? ‘Hi.’
But I knew exactly why that was. It was the same reason I’d said I’d go to the dance with him – however much I tried to find a reason to prove otherwise.
‘I’ve been trying to get hold of you for ages.’
‘“Ages” being how long exactly?’
‘Um, the last four minutes? I tried youtwice.’
I laughed. ‘Oh yeah, that’s really “ages”, Mr. Impatient. What did you want, anyway?’
‘Listen, Elle...’ Noah sounded kind of weird, like he was finding it hard to speak. I could imagine him tugging at his hair, rubbing a hand over his cheek. I frowned a little, wondering what was up.
Then he said it. Those fatal words.
I knew I should have stopped things with Noah a long time ago – hell, I shouldn’t have even started. But it was too late now. I knew I was in too deep, because the next words he said made me stop breathing for a moment.
He sighed into the phone. ‘We need to talk.’
We were going to meet at the Starbucks on the edge of town. That was all I got out of the conversation. I hadn’t been able to say a word other than stammering out, ‘Okay.’
‘What’s up?’ Lee asked me, looking concerned. ‘You look really freaked out.’
‘I – he – we’re... Starbucks...’
‘What? Shelly, take a breath then tell me what he said. But first of all – are you okay?’
I nodded, then shook my head. ‘Well... I – I don’t know. He... we...’ I took a breath. ‘He said thatwe need to talk.’
Lee winced, sucking in a breath. ‘Ouch. But – wait, are you serious? Are yousurethat’s what he said?’
I nodded. ‘We’re meeting at Starbucks at eight o’clock.’
