Page 38 of The Kissing Booth
‘You don’t even want to know.’
Chapter 9
WE JUST ABOUTgot the booth finished in time. On Friday, we had to work through the whole lunch hour, and stay until six putting it together.
Girls at school kept asking if I knew whether Noah would stop by the kissing booth. Every time, I replied the same thing: ‘He said he might, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up.’ And every time, I could see the excitement flash over their face as they got their hopes up.
I hadn’t seen Noah since he’d dropped me off on Wednesday. I had a feeling the next time I saw him I’d end up getting teased for letting slip he was hot. He’d make a big deal of it just to humiliate me, I knew it.
Saturday morning, Lee picked me up bright and early, at eight o’clock.
‘I hate mornings,’ I muttered, climbing out of the car at Starbucks. I was desperate for my half-fat latte with whipped cream. I was still half asleep. I decided to ask for an extra shot of espresso in the hopes of waking myself up.
‘Tell me about it,’ Lee grumbled in agreement. We stumbled up to the counter and he ordered our coffees, handing over the money.
The carnival started at ten, but we needed to be there at nine to make sure everything was ready. We stayed to drink our coffees and eat brownies. Yes, it was first thing in the morning – but I didn’t care. I needed the caffeine and I could definitely do with the sugar rush.
Lee practically inhaled two brownies before I’d even finished my one. We left just in time to be at the school by nine.
‘Nice and early, I see. As always,’ Tyrone laughed, shaking his head when we turned up at two minutes to nine. ‘Your booth is over there, near the cotton candy stand.’
‘Awesome,’ Lee said, and we both headed over.
We set up four stools inside, and put up the crepe paper decorations. We both put up a bunch of posters advertising our kissing booth around the field.
Everything else looked pretty impressive. Some of the games were awesome. There was even a bouncy castle with a ball pit for the little kids. It was all starting to come together, and I had to say, it was surpassing all my expectations.
I headed back to our booth, where Lee was flirting with Rachel, one of the girls in his biology class. She was one of those girls who’re really perky and bright all the time, but not in a bad way. And I knew Lee liked her – he’d barely shut up about her lately. I never saw them together, though – all I could do was hope she liked him back.
That is, until I walked up to the booth. Then I had a pretty good feeling that she did like him back.
‘I see the kissing booth is already hard at work,’ I teased: Rachel was twirling her hair and leaning close to Lee.
She blushed; he rolled his eyes at me.
‘Lee was just asking me to go see a movie, actually,’ Rachel told me.
‘Aw!’ I said, smiling brightly. ‘Well, you kids have fun. When are you going?’
‘Tomorrow night.’
‘Awesome,’ I said. She had this smile on her face that was bordering on goofy, and there was a twinkle in her eye. I glanced at Lee and gave him a barely perceptible nod. Rachel was most definitely into him.
Lee hadn’t had a girlfriend for months. I just hoped that this time, his new girlfriend didn’t get fed up with us being attached at the hip. That’s why they usually broke up: his girlfriend got sick of Lee spending so much time with me, and Lee got sick of her complaining about me, and then –bam– they’re both moving on.
So I left him talking with Rachel, and wandered off to meet the girls and boys who’d showed up now, a quarter of an hour before the carnival was due to start.
‘Hey!’ I said, smiling at Samantha and Lily. Jason and Dave were already waiting, deep in conversation about a Mets game, and then Jon arrived too.
‘Who’re we waiting on?’ Dave asked, seeing me.
‘Karen, Dana and Ash,’ I told him. ‘But they should be here soon.’
‘Shall we head on over?’ Lily asked.
‘Give it a few minutes,’ I said. ‘Lee’s flirting with Rachel and probably putting the booth to good use already.’
They laughed. Samantha said, ‘They’re going out now? At last! Rachel hasn’t shut up about Lee for weeks!’
