Page 53 of Kiss Me Now
I slipped into the classroom and leaned against the door.
“Noah?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think you and I are going to be friends?”
“Sure, I think so,” he said in his easy way.
“Um, I’m going to take advantage of that.”
His eyebrow went up. “How so?”
“I’m going to turn around, and I need you to tell me if there’s anything about my appearance from the back that would cause a hallway full of high schoolers to laugh.”
“All right,” he said slowly.
I turned. “Well?”
“Uh.”
It was all he needed to say. “What is it?” I plucked at the back of my shirt then ran my hand over the seat of my skirt, not feeling anything suspicious.
“Your skirt. Um.”
I leaned my head against the door, not wanting to face him now. “My skirt what?”
“Is sort of tucked? In?”
“No.” It was more of a whisper, the last gasp of denial. I swept my hand over the back of my skirt again, this time sweeping lower. My butt was safely covered but when I got below that...
I turned back around to face him. “My butt is not hanging out.”
“No.”
“But it’s barely covered.”
“Yeah, that about covers it. Er, I mean sums it up.” He pretended to study his fingernails. “I’m going to stop talking now.”
I reached up and worked at the back of my hemline as discreetly as I could. The end of my skirt was, in fact, tucked into my underwear. I unstuck it and my skirt drifted into place. “It was nice knowing you, but when I leave campus today, I’m never coming back.”
“Don’t do that,” he said. “Who else will I have to share in my humiliation over teaching half of second period with my fly down?”
I stared at him suspiciously. “Are you making that up to make me feel better?”
He shrugged. “Oh, it happened. Just not second period today. My second year of teaching. There’s really not a good time for that experience. And yet I’m still here.”
“What do I do?”
“Maybe walk right back out there again with your skirt straightened out and get a drink from the water fountain like nothing is wrong? It’ll be less interesting for them if they think it was no big deal to you.”
“Good plan but I’d rather die.”
“You might. They may actually chew you up and spit you out in glee if they know this got to you.”
“That’s fine. Can you call the office and tell them I no longer work here?”
He smiled. “No. You got this. Get back in the game, Spencer.” He pointed to the hallway.
