Page 75 of The Kissing Booth
I frowned a little. Where was this coming from all of a sudden? ‘Why would I want to do that?’
He shrugged. ‘I get it if you do. You were saying earlier about me being violent, and then there was that stuff Lee said about – about me hitting you, and I just... I get it.’
I kept on frowning.
‘Violence junkieisn’t exactly on anyone’s list of top five qualities in a guy, huh?’ He gave a bitter smile. ‘I’d never do something like what Lee said, though – you know that, right? I’m serious. I’d never hurt you, Elle, I swear.’
I nodded. ‘I know, okay? Iknow.’
‘But I still understand if you don’t want to... keep this up. Whatever we’re doing. If you want to stop—’
‘I don’t. I mean,’ I went on hastily when his face fell, ‘I don’t want to stop.’
He smiled, and gave a breathy chuckle, pulling me forward and resting his forehead on mine. ‘I’m such a bad influence on you. Letting you make stupid decisions like this.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like staying with me.’ He gave me a quick kiss on the lips, then stepped back and said, ‘Go on – before he thinks you’ve pushed me out of the window or something.’
I laughed, and shook my head at him as I walked out. Lee was waiting outside his bedroom – but he wasn’t eavesdropping. Just waiting.
‘What was that about?’
I said something about Noah telling me he wouldn’t hit me, waving a hand around dismissively like it didn’t matter. But my heart was hammering in my chest, waiting for Lee to nod and accept my lie.
‘Is this the part where you tell me my best friend and my big brother are madly in love?’
I snorted, burst out laughing. ‘Lee, you do come up with some trash,’ I told him.
In love? Me, in love with Noah Flynn?
Yeah. Right.
My dad just sighed and told me to be more careful when I told him I’d fallen in the garage at Lee’s.
‘Honestly,’ he said. ‘You’re worse than your mom ever was. You remember that time she tripped on the escalator at the mall? Almost had to have stitches in her foot.’ He shook his head, smiling nostalgically at the memory.
Nobody at school doubted my story that I’d fallen in Lee’s garage either. And why should they? It wasn’t a lie – for once. Lying seemed to go hand in hand with my relationship with Noah, and I hated that.
But I seemed to be getting better and better at it every day. Not that it was something I was proud of.
At lunch I was waiting for Lee and the guys to finish loading their plates when the entire table suddenly filled with the girls.
‘So I was thinking,’ Jaime announced, looking right at me, ‘about Flynn.’
‘Ooh, spill,’ Tamara said eagerly.
‘Is he with anyone?’ she asked me bluntly.
Everyone knew Flynn was single, that he didn’t have girlfriends, just flings. So why did she suddenly think he was ‘with’ someone? Had we slipped up? Had she seen us? Was that why she directed that question at me?
I swallowed, flexing my fingers into my clammy palms. I went for an easy answer. ‘I’m not exactly clued in on what Noah’s doing all the time.’
‘You’re more clued in than any of us,’ Olivia muttered. ‘Lucky bitch.’ But she winked at me with a big smile and I laughed, feeling a little relieved.
‘Why are you asking?’ I said to Jaime.
She shrugged. ‘We just had this theory.’
