Page 7 of Going the Distance
“It was the single most humiliating experience ever,” I groaned, blushing over it. The guys were busy laughing at me. I had only vague memories of the night, and I hadn’t had more than a few sips of beer at a party since. Although, the nighthadended with Noah totally coming to my rescue, so it hadn’t been a total disaster. And I’d seen him in his underwear—Superman boxers, which I’d teased him endlessly over.
“Aw, come on, Shelly,” Lee said with a wicked gleam in his blue eyes, taking my mind off the image of Noah in his boxers. “I can think of far more embarrassing things you’ve done.”
“Shelly?” Levi asked.
“Short for Rochelle,” I explained.
“You should call her Shelly,” Warren told him. “She totally loves it.”
“Donotcall me Shelly.”
“But—” Looking lost and helpless, Levi glanced at Lee.
I might let Lee and Noah get away with calling me Shelly, but it wasn’t exactly a nickname I loved. I narrowed my eyes now at Lee, who was shaking with silent laughter.
I pointed my fork at him, a french fry dangling off the end. “You dare bring anything else up, and I will personally rummage through the photo albums in your attic to find those photos of you dressed up as Elvis to show Rachel. Or the Halloween we went as Sonny and Cher.”
Lee sobered up at that and mimed zipping his lips shut. Then he stole the fry off the end of my fork and ate it, ignoring the mock-glare I gave him.
“Speaking of parties…,” Dixon started, playing peacemaker as usual, and then went on to ask who we thought would be most likely to host the first party of the year, and then tried persuading Lee or Warren to host, but they both seemed apprehensive.
I looked over at Lee again, who was holding hands with Rachel on top of the table and talking to her in a low voice, looking at her like she lit up his entire world. Noah looked at me like that sometimes.
It sent a pang through my stomach. Not just because I missed Noah, but because seeing Lee so wrapped up in his girlfriend made me worry again a little that I might lose him. I mean, of course I wanted my best friend to be happy, and I was thrilled that he was so in love with Rachel. But now that Noah wasn’t around, I was starting to notice how little time Lee and I spent just the two of us, since he had Rachel. Not that I was jealous.
All right, so maybe I was alittlejealous. Just a teeny tiny bit.
I glanced over at Levi again. Levi, who wanted to fit in and make friends. Sure, the other guys seemed to like him well enough, and they’d hang out with him—but without Lee attached to my hip, maybe hanging out with the new kid wouldn’t be so bad after all.
