Page 121 of We Shouldn't Be Together
I lower my hand to her shoulder, halting her rushing words. “My friends won’t accept you hanging out with girls who bully you. End of sentence.”
She blows out a braver breath.
I nudge my head over her shoulder and toward the front of the store. “Maybe we should check out the arcade? Seeing as you suggested it for my birthday.”
There’s a giddiness as she clasps my hand. “Okay.”
24
KaiFreakingNelsonkissedme.
My first kiss.
Oh my gosh, what does this mean?
Are we together,together?
Are we on the road to that? A real relationship?
He said he wanted to tell his friends about me. How the heck do I tell my friends about Kai? Do I even want to tell them?
Oh boy, am I dizzy.
At least the arcade has a cloakroom where we can stash our backpacks. The last thing I need is to be weighed down when I should be floating.
A kiss
A real kiss.
“Tabby?” His voice is soft as he calls me back to consciousness. “You okay?”
I smile in a dreamlike state. “I love when you call me that.”
A breathy laugh patters out of him. “What? Your name?”
My smile grows bigger as I stare into the meld of green and brown in his eyes. “Yeah. I love hearing it come from you.”
Kai wears a cheesy grin as he gestures around the arcade. “So, come here often?”
The cheesiness works, causing tingles under my skin. “A few times. My little brother likes it. When it’s his turn to pick what we do for family night, he chooses this place if he doesn’t like a movie playing at the multiplex.”
“Family night sounds fun,” Kai comments in an upbeat tone. “How often does that happen?”
There’s a twinge of pain squirming between my shoulder blades. “Less often as we all get older. Drew makes any excuse to skip out, and Freddy’s always got an invitation to something better. The thought of it being only me, Mom, Dad, and Corbin is off-putting. I told them, I won’t go unless it’s all six of us.”
“Well, I get that. Mom used to put a lot more effort into our birthdays when we were little.” Kai stops by a car racing simulator and rests his forearms against it. “The only thing that stays the same is our grandparents visiting. For the past few years, Milo and I do the obligatory cake and then go our separate ways.”
I lean against the other side of the two-person arcade game. “Do you miss doing more stuff together?”
He shrugs. “I dunno. Milo’s pretty judgy, so it’s better if we don’t spend too much time together.”
It surprises me. “What does he judge?”
“My actions, my choices,” Kai says with a defeated laugh. He slouches and then slides into one of the bucket seats. “He judges my friends, too. We just aren’t similar.”
I gingerly take the seat next to him. “It sounds like you’re being too hard on yourself.”
“You do know who Milo is, don’t you?”
