Page 120 of The Kissing Booth
He nodded. ‘Yeah.’
‘That’s great – congratulations.’ Except my voice didn’t have the right amount of enthusiasm in it. I tried again. ‘That’s fantastic, Noah.’
‘I know. But...’
There it was again. That horrible, horrible word.
Only this time, a part of me liked hearing it.
‘Whoa, wait, no buts. You can’tnotgo to Harvard.’
‘It’s in Massachusetts. On the other side of the country, Elle. I got into the University of California in San Diego. It’s not that far away, even, and they have a good engineering course—’
‘Noah, why would you even consider giving up Harvard? You can’t do that.’
‘I don’t know,’ he sighed. He sounded so confused and helpless. ‘My parents want me to go, but I don’t know if it’s just because they want to ship me off so they haven’t got to deal with me anymore. I’ve accepted the offer, but I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do.’
‘I’m sure your parents are just happy for you. It’s amazing. It’s a great opportunity. Of course they want you to go.’
‘They were so mad at me,’ he said with a small humorless laugh, watching his finger run around the rim of his mug. ‘Especially over everything with you... They just want me gone.’
‘They don’t want you gone. They’re only worried about you.’
‘Whatever,’ he said, sounding so defeated I didn’t even bother trying to argue.
I ran my index finger around the side of my mug and looked down at the steam rising from my latte, and said, ‘I’m happy for you.’
He reached over and cupped my face in his hand, gently brushing his thumb over my cheek. My heart skipped a beat. ‘There’s this whole thing with you now, and I don’t know what I want to do.’
I gulped. He wasn’t going to say it. Lee was wrong. I was just fooling myself. I was ridiculous to think he’d ever, ever say that to me.
He looked into my eyes for the longest moment, then leaned over and kissed me incredibly softly, sending shivers up and down my spine.
His lips lingered on mine for a long, long time; then he sat back in his chair. I couldn’t quite make out his expression, but there was a deep line creasing his forehead.
‘Elle, I know I – I was a complete asshole, and I said I’d try and make things up to you, but... thing is, I just...’ He sighed, ran a hand back and forth through his hair, making it stick up at all kinds of angles. ‘Elle, I’m going to be going to college in the fall, and I don’t know how things are going to work out and I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want to break up with you, but—’
‘Noah,’ I tried interrupting.
Then he said, ‘No, forget it. It can wait. Look, finish your coffee and we’ll get going. I want to take you someplace.’
‘Where?’
‘I can’t tell you, that’d ruin the surprise. But you’re going to like it, trust me. It’s not far away but we need to go soon if we’re to get there in time.’
I wanted to ask, ‘Get where?’ but I knew he wouldn’t tell me so I stayed silent, sipping my coffee. Noah pretty much downed his, and I wondered at how it didn’t burn his throat.
When I put my mug back down, Noah chuckled.
‘What?’
He reached over and brushed his finger over the tip of my nose before wiping it with a napkin. ‘You had some cream on it.’ My cheeks flamed, but he laughed. ‘It was cute. Now come on...’
‘Okay, okay!’ I laughed. ‘Why are you so impatient today?’
Then I realized something: ‘Oh, God, no, I’m not goinganywherewith you.’
‘What? Why not?’
