Page 34 of The Kissing Booth
‘I can’t help it!’ he gasped, bent double. ‘Yourface!’
I stormed out, slamming the door behind me. I thought I had a spare blouse in my locker. We’d be going for a burger later and I did not want to go out looking like a Picasso.
I always thought the locker rooms at school were really weird: a big communal corridor, with notices and stuff pinned up, which led to the ‘fitness suite’, with its treadmills and weights, and the fields outside. The girls’ were on the far left, the boys’ on the right.
Just as I came into the corridor, the whole football team poured through the door. I’d already yanked off my tie and undone another button; I hadn’t stopped to think I might not be alone.
The boys all slowed down seeing me, and I stopped in my tracks.
And then the laughter broke out, all of them finding me hilarious, apparently.
‘What happened?’ Jason asked, biting his lip hard to try and keep from laughing.
‘We were painting the banner for our booth,’ I said. ‘Lee had a bucket of paint. Do I need to say anything more?’
He shook his head. Most of the boys started trailing into the locker rooms, still laughing and looking at me. I caught a couple of them shamelessly checking out my semi-unbuttoned shirt and put an arm across my chest.
‘Aw, come on,’ I said, doing a twirl and giving them a big grin – I’d rather make a joke out of it than be embarrassed. ‘Do I look that bad?’
‘Well, I’d pay to see you in the art gallery,’ said one of the boys, laughing. I rolled my eyes at him and drifted down the corridor toward the girls’ changing rooms, calling a goodbye over my shoulder.
A hand caught my arm, making me stumble backward, and then steadied me before I fell.
I turned to see who it was. Then the smile on my face dropped. ‘Oh.’
‘What’re you doing?’ hissed Noah. ‘You don’t walk around half dressed, Elle.’
‘I’ll walk around however the hell I want, thanks,’ I snapped back, jerking my arm away. ‘It’s no big deal. It’s not like I’m prancing around in my underwear, for Pete’s sake.’
‘Yeah but still...’ His eyes trailed down me, then he gave me a stern look.
‘Leave me alone already!’ I exclaimed, glaring at him. ‘Honestly, it’s bad enough you’re being so overprotective, but you don’t have to be so... extreme!’
‘So what happened with you and Cody? I know for a fact the whole “being sick” thing was a lie.’
I gaped. Was he blackmailing me? ‘You didn’t tell anybody, did you?’
He smirked, giving me a patronizing look. ‘I don’t gossip. And no, I didn’t tell them. Because I figured you had a good reason. So what went down?’
I shrugged. ‘Nothing.’
‘Something clearly happened – I know you well enough to spot when you’re lying. So what’s the truth?’
I bit the inside of my cheek, debating whether to tell Noah or just ask him to keep his nose out of it. But I thought maybe if I didn’t tell him, he’d jump to the stupid conclusion that Cody had overstepped the line.
While I was debating this, I couldn’t help but notice just how hot Noah looked in his football gear, with the shoulder pads and his helmet tucked under his arm. His hair was a little damp with sweat and he just looked...wow.
Before he noticed I was checking him out, I finally answered him. ‘He was going to kiss me at the end of the night, but I kissed him on the cheek instead. He didn’t try to do anything, it was a totally normal situation, and I made a fool of myself by turning my head. It’s not a big deal. It got blown out of proportion. It’s just embarrassing.’
He studied my face for a moment before saying, ‘That’s it? You’re sure?’
I got the feeling he was trying not to laugh.
I huffed, just about ready to stamp my foot. ‘Yeah. Completely sure. Why are you always so dramatic? It’s not like any guy in this school is going to make me do anything I don’t want to do, anyway.’
He raised an eyebrow, as if to say I was way too naïve. I just shrugged it off.
‘Now can I go wash this freaking paint off, or does the Spanish Inquisition have more pointless questions?’
