Page 87 of The Kissing Booth
‘Just leave me alone,’ I told him. My voice sounded defeated, but didn’t even begin to reflect how bad I felt inside. Noah didn’t try to follow me. I headed back to school, alone.
I couldn’t concentrate on any of my classes for the rest of the day. Lee didn’t show up; when people asked me, I said he’d gone home sick. I avoided Noah, and tried to act as though nothing was wrong.
I got Dixon to give me a ride home, after ignoring Noah’s texts and voicemails.
‘You sure everything’s okay, Elle? You look like you’re going to throw up,’ Cam said.
Dixon slammed on the brakes. ‘If you’re going to upchuck, please do so outside the car.’
I shook my head, attempting to laugh it off. ‘I’m not going to throw up, don’t worry. I just... I think I must’ve caught whatever Lee’s got.’
‘Big surprise there,’ Cam laughed. ‘You two can’t even get sick alone, huh?’
‘Guess not,’ I mumbled.
When I got home, Dad’s car was on the drive already. I’d forgotten that Brad’s soccer practise had been cancelled today – the one day I could’ve done with being at home alone, I thought with a sigh as I opened the front door.
‘Elle? That you?’ Dad called from the kitchen.
‘Yeah, hi.’ I wandered in to see him, and smiled. ‘Busy?’
He nodded. ‘The whole team’s trying to get a deal closed by Wednesday, so it’s pretty stressful. I have a conference call later, at five thirty. It should take about an hour or so. Will you fix Brad’s dinner? There’s lasagna in the freezer.’
‘Sure,’ I told him. ‘No problem.’
I made us both coffee and took mine into the lounge, leaving my dad to get on with work. Brad was splayed over the floor, surrounded by papers and his math book. But there was the faint, tinny sound of the Super Mario Bros. theme, and he jumped when I entered the room.
‘Hand it over,’ I instructed.
‘Hand what over? My math homework? Here, help yourself. We’re working on angles.’
I laughed sarcastically. ‘Funny. Hand over the console.’
My brother glared stubbornly at me. I could see the red plastic of his Nintendo DS console in the crook of his arm.
‘Well,’ I said airily, ‘I guess I’ll just have to do some extra vegetables with your dinner. Broccoli, I’m thinking.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘You wouldn’t dare.’
‘Try me.’
‘Ugh, fine! God, Elle, you’re so annoying!’ He slid the console across the floor to me, going back to his math homework – which I noticed he hadn’t even started yet. I settled down on the couch with the poetry book we were currently working on in English Lit, drinking my coffee and trying very hard not to worry about Lee and Noah.
Trying to analyze Larkin didn’t help stop my mind wandering, though. What would happen when Noah got home? Would he and Lee have a fight?
I didn’t want to talk to Noah. All I needed was Lee, and he wouldn’t even pick up the phone if I called him. So I had no way of knowing what was going on with the Flynn brothers. I badly wanted to go over to their house, but the rain outside was torrential; there was no way Dad would let me walk over there in this weather, and if Lee wouldn’t let me in to talk to him, I’d have to tell my dad everything.
It wasn’t that I thought he wouldn’t understand, exactly... I just didn’t even know where to start. It wasn’t like I could just swan into the kitchen and announce that, ‘Hey, did you know I’ve been sneaking around with Noah Flynn, and now Lee knows and he hates me? Oh, and would you like another coffee while I’m here?’
Yeah, right.
That’d go down a treat.
It wasn’t until about eight o’clock that evening when the phone rang that I knew anything.
‘Hello?’ Dad answered. ‘Oh, hi, June, how are you?’
I could tell that she was almost hysterical, but I couldn’t quite hear what she was saying. Dad looked at Brad and me before taking the conversation out into the hall, where we couldn’t hear.
