Page 33 of The Kissing Booth
He shot me a smile though, so I went to join him.
‘Hey,’ I said casually.
‘You know, if you were ill on Friday, you should’ve said,’ he commented.
‘I know, but I felt okay and I didn’t want to cancel.’ I tried not to mumble too much. ‘Sorry about that.’
‘It’s not a problem.’
‘So, uh... Yeah...’ I cleared my throat and Cody laughed nervously.
‘I don’t want to sound too much of a jerk or anything but... I was thinking about it and—’
‘We’re better off as friends?’ I filled in, then regretted it when I realized he might not have been saying that. Oh man, what if I’d just dug myself into a grave?
‘Uh, yeah,’ he said, giving me a nervous smile. ‘No offence. We just didn’t seem to... click.’
‘None taken,’ I said, smiling. ‘I thought exactly the same.’ I hope my relief wasn’t too evident. ‘So did you do the homework? I didn’t get question eight.’
And just like that, my life had snapped back to its (sadly) romance-free ways.
We were working on the banner for the kissing booth. The letters were cut out and Lee had smoothed the edges; we just needed to paint them and then nail them onto the booth itself. We had some decorations back at my house, and the posters were ready too. We also had a couple of boards with the price on.
‘Everybody’s been asking me all week what happened with you and Cody,’ Lee said to me. It was after school on Wednesday afternoon. We needed to hurry our asses up to get everything ready to set the booth up on Friday night.
‘You haven’t said anything too incriminating?’
‘I haven’t told them the truth, no,’ he laughed, dunking his brush into the pink paint again. ‘I don’t know why you said you were sick though.’
‘It was believable,’ I defended myself. ‘First thing I thought of.’
‘Yeah, I guess. But loads of the guys reckon it’s Noah scaring him off.’
‘He did look pretty threatening when I was waiting for Cody,’ I admitted, printing with my lipstick sponge onto one of the already dry letters.
Lee shrugged. It was a little while before he broke the silence again. ‘Shelly...’
‘Yeah?’
‘Does he ever scare you? I mean... I know he’s not quite the Incredible Hulk or anything, but he can lose his temper kinda quickly.’
‘That’s just the way he is. I grew up with him around. He couldn’t scare me – I know that he’s... intimidating...’
‘I guess,’ Lee said, nodding. Suddenly he dropped his paintbrush into the pot, splattering me with pastel-pink paint – my face, my blouse, my tie, my hair...
‘Lee!’ I screamed.
‘Sorry!’
I grabbed a brush and dunked it into the pot of black, totally prepared to flick it over Lee. But something cold and wet landed on my face and neck as he flicked me again, making me jump so much that I dropped my paintbrush, leaving a trail down my front.
Lee spluttered before collapsing into laughter. I scowled at him, waiting for him to stop.
‘It’s not funny, Lee!’
‘Yes it is! You sh-sh-should’ve s-seen your... your face!’ He was holding his side now. I glared and grabbed my bag. ‘W-where you going?’
‘The locker rooms to wash this crap off of my face,’ I snapped. ‘And stop laughing!’
