Page 68 of The Kissing Booth
I screamed out, laughing helplessly. ‘Don’t!’
Too late – they’d already launched me.
I landed with a huge splash in the middle of the pool, hearing everybody laughing as I smacked down through the surface. I felt more than heard it when the boys bombed in after me.
The water was freezing! I broke the surface gasping for air, my hair plastered to my face and neck. My teeth chattered slightly. ‘I hate you guys!’ I yelled, but I was laughing.
They laughed, and I looked at the girls, who were both giggling helplessly.
‘It won’t be so funny when they throw you in next,’ I told them, and they laughed even harder.
I made to swim for the ladder so I could get out again.
‘No! You just got in – you can’t get out already!’ Warren protested, and dived at me, trying to pull me away from the ladder. I laughed and scrambled to get out, but it was like trying to run through treacle: I felt Warren pulling me back again.
‘What’s all the screaming?’
I yanked myself up the ladder just as Warren made a grab at me. My bikini top came away in his hand, and everyone was silent as Noah looked at me with a disapproving frown.
I threw my arms around my bare chest, cheeks burning.
Oh, God.
How humiliating was this!
My cheeks were burning, even though the rest of my body trembled with cold.
Then I heard someone spluttering with laughter. Lee. I recognized that laugh all too well. And once he had broken the awkward and embarrassing silence, everyone else started laughing too.
‘Warren, I officiallyhateyou!’ I said, turning to glare at him when I’d made sure I was completely covered.
He grinned sheepishly, then said, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to grab it... I wasn’t intending to pull it off.’
‘You complete idiot,’ I giggled.
‘Do you want it back, or...? I mean, I’m not complaining if you don’t,’ he teased, and I laughed sarcastically.
‘I haven’t exactly got any hands free to get it back,’ I told him flatly.
‘Oh yeah.’ He laughed again and tossed my bikini top at me; with a wet slap, it landed on the ground. Oliver swam over and dunked the unsuspecting Warren, keeping him under for a few seconds before letting him back up for air.
I laughed along with everyone else. ‘Got him for ya!’ Oliver told me proudly with a thumbs-up.
‘Just wait till I get my hands on him, then he’ll be sorry,’ I threatened, but I was still laughing too much for anybody to take me seriously.
‘Wait till Flynn gets his hands on him, more like,’ I heard Dixon mutter, and when I turned around, I saw Noah looking at us with a frown on his face.
I sighed.Here we go...
‘Don’t,’ I hissed at him sharply, stalking past him and into the house. Luckily, Lee’s parents had gone out for dinner since Lee had invited us all over, and they still weren’t back. If they’d been here, it would’ve been just plain embarrassing to go in to find one of Lee’s T-shirts with my arms wrapped around me to cover my bare chest. I had clothes by the pool, of course, but I had no free hands to collect them.
I rummaged through Lee’s drawers, and found a T-shirt from a concert we’d been to a couple of years ago, then tugged it on awkwardly over my damp body. It was a little big for me, but not by too much.
I heard a throat being cleared behind me. The noise made me jump a mile; I hadn’t even heard anybody come up.
Noah was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest, and a look on his face that made my palms turn a little clammy. His expression was pretty neutral, but it was the shadow in his bright eyes that made me anxious.
‘What, did you nearly break Warren’s rib too?’ I snapped at him, covering my nervousness with irritation.
