Page 62 of The Kissing Booth
‘Was it Flynn? Did Patrick really kiss you? He says he didn’t, but you never know. I heard Flynn was really, really mad.’
‘Oh, yeah, he was furious!’ Olivia appeared out of nowhere beside Jaime. ‘I saw the whole thing. He beat Patrick up and everything.’
‘He didn’t kiss me though,’ I said. ‘Patrick, I mean.’
‘So what did Flynn do?’
‘I heard he broke Patrick’s rib.’ Candice turned up out of the blue too, startling me. Jeez, where were these girls coming from?
‘What?’ I exclaimed.
‘I said, what did Flynn do?’ Jaime repeated.
I gaped at Candice. ‘Are you serious? Is Patrick okay?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘He said he thought it was broken and a couple of guys said it was, after he went to hospital.’
‘Oh my God,’ I breathed. Hecouldn’thave broken Patrick’s rib. Not just because Patrick was drunk and was going to kiss me. No way.
‘Hey! Hey – Earth to Elle!’ It wasn’t until Jaime snapped her fingers sharply right in front of my nose that I realized they were still talking to me.
‘Huh?’
‘Did Flynn take you home or what?’ Karen asked. When had she turned up? ‘I saw him drag you off.’
‘Oh, that. Yeah. He took me home and I think he went back to the party?’ I hoped it didn’t sound too much of a lie. I didn’t think I’m too great at lying; until this situation with Noah, I hadn’t ever done much of it.
‘No, I don’t think he did,’ Olivia said thoughtfully. ‘I’m sure he didn’t.’
‘Weird...’ I said with a shrug. ‘I’ll be back in a minute, I need to find out about Patrick.’
I walked off before they could pull me back into another conversation.
I grabbed Joel’s arm, since he was the first guy I saw.
‘Oh, hey,’ he said, smiling. ‘What happened on Saturday? I heard Flynn dragged you home after that thing with Patrick.’
‘Did Patrick really have a broken rib?’ I demanded.
‘Uh... someone told me he might,’ he said. ‘He’s not in hospital, though – he’s coming into school.’
‘That must’ve been some punch Flynn packed.’
‘Glad I wasn’t on the other end of it,’ laughed Cam.
‘Hell yeah,’ Joel agreed.
‘Do you know if he’s here yet?’ I asked.
‘Who, Flynn? No idea,’ Cam told me.
‘No – no...Patrick,’ I clarified, tripping over my words with impatience.
He shrugged. ‘I haven’t seen him.’
‘Okay, thanks.’
‘Wait,’ Joel called. ‘Where’re you going, Elle?’
