Page 12 of The Kissing Booth
‘Right. Hungover, much?’
I grimaced in response, making Noah chuckle. ‘You have no idea. I didn’t know I’d drunk so much.’
‘You had a load of vodka, I know that,’ he said, sitting on the end of the bed. My heart went wild. Couldn’t he have grabbed a shirt or some jeans before stopping to talk to me?
‘What do you mean? You know that? When didyousee me?’
‘When you were about to strip off on the pool table in front of a bunch of the guys and then go skinny dipping,’ he said casually, looking sideways at me with those bright blue eyes.
I wondered if he could hear my heart racing. Probably. I hoped I wasn’t blushing anymore, at least. That would just be peachy.
My jaw dropped when his words sank in. ‘Oh, God. Tell me I didn’t.’
‘No, you didn’t. I had to carry you out.’
I gaped, my cheeks flaming, and covered my face with my hands, looking through my fingers at him. ‘I can’t believe I did that.’
‘Yeah, well...’
‘Thanks though. For stopping me. That would’ve been embarrassing this morning.’
‘You don’t say,’ he said sarcastically, but he smiled. ‘You threw up, too. Just FYI.’
‘What, in front of people?’
Oh, God, this just gets worse!I thought, mortified.
‘No,’ he said, shaking his head and flicking water over me. ‘In my bathroom. I was trying to make sure you didn’t make an idiot of yourself or get hurt.’
I groaned, humiliated. ‘Sorry about that. I’m really sorry, Noah, I didn’t mean for you to miss the party or anything...’
He shrugged. ‘It’s okay. I didn’t mind.’
I scoffed. ‘Sure. Whatever. I think we both know it wasn’t exactly the highlight of your night having to take care of me.’
‘It wasn’t all that bad,’ he said after a moment, and smiled again. It wasn’t a smirk. It was a real, genuine smile that showed the dimple in his left cheek and made his eyes crease a little at the corners. It was infectious; I had to smile back at him.
‘Well, thanks, Noah.’ I couldn’t help but put a taunting emphasis on his name.
‘Anytime, Shelly.’
He reached over to ruffle my hair, and when I went to push him away I somehow ended up tumbling off the bed and pulling him down with me.
Noah was really heavy. He didn’t have a spare half-pound of fat on him, but he was a hell of a lot of muscle. And he was crushing me.
But I was caught by his bright eyes. He didn’t budge, either – just looked back at me.
Before it turned into too much of a staring match, I found my voice again. ‘Noah...’ I breathed.
‘Yeah?’ he said in just as hushed a voice.
‘You’re crushing me.’
He blinked a couple of times, like he was jerking himself back to reality. Then he said, ‘Oh, right. Shit. Sorry.’
He got to his feet, holding the towel around him – I don’t know what I would’ve done if he’d dropped the towel.
No, Elle! Don’t even go down that road! Shut up! Stop thinking!
