Page 57 of Bad Crush
I may not have needed her, but how much easier might my life have been? I may not have needed her, but I wanted her. Janine’s family always made me feel welcome, but they weren’t mine.
“What can I do?” Janine asks. She reaches out and squeezes my arm.
“You can tell Lori to stay out of my life.” I swallow hard and step away from her. “And you can do the same.”
She doesn’t follow me this time. I skip my next class and wait for Adam in the same spot I left him. When he sees me, he grins, and those long legs erase the space between us.
“Have you been waiting here the whole time?” He takes me in his arms, and my heart rate finally starts to even out.
I breathe him in and relax against his chest. “No, I grabbed coffee first. I was thinking maybe we could play hooky.”
“I’m free until one. I can’t miss my lab. What’d you have in mind?”
* * *
“I’ve never beento this place,” Adam says as we walk into the arcade.
“A blind date brought me here once,” I admit.
He cocks a brow. “A date?”
“Yeah. The location was the best part of the date. I always wanted to come back with someone I actually liked.”
I feed dollar bills into the machine. As the coins clatter into the dispenser, Adam kisses me. The place is quiet. I’m surprised they were even open this early, but a few groups of young kids and families are already milling about.
“Gotta keep it G-rated in here. There are small, innocent eyes.”
He laughs against my mouth. “What about PG?”
I smack him playfully on the chest.
“What? Their parents are here.”
I grab our coins and duck under his arm. “Come on, stud.”
Adam and I hit Skee-Ball first, then table hockey. He takes it easy on me, but still wins. I edge out victorious at a basketball shooting game and Dance Dance Revolution. It’s been great, but I still can’t completely shake the awful interaction with Janine. I’m frustrated with her, but I hate that I was so mean to her. We were friends for a long time. Good friends.
“Let’s go in the photo booth,” he suggests as we’re making a second round looking for games to spend our last coins on.
“It’s a total scam. Five dollars for a strip of tiny, blurry photos.”
He inserts money in the slot and pulls me inside. The bench is cold and barely big enough for the two of us. We watch the screen for the countdown.
“Are we going serious or funny?” I ask.
“Serious on the first one. Funny on the second.”
“What about the others?” I ask as the countdown ends.
We press our faces together and smile. After the flash, I stick my tongue out at the camera, and Adam gives me bunny ears. On the next one, he kisses me.
And then I lose track of the flashes. His tongue invades my mouth, and I cling to him desperately, filling the ache, erasing the worry. I don’t need Lori or Janine. I have Dakota, Ginny, Adam, and our friends. They’re enough.
17
Adam
Reaganand I get doughy pizza from the snack bar and take it to one of the kid-sized tables. My legs do not fit underneath, so I’m sitting sideways.
