The Kissing Booth (32 page)

It didn’t take too long to set them up, though, and Dixon and Lee pushed all the furniture to the edges of the lounge and the game room, and the kitchen was cleared as much as possible. There was plenty of space for a crazy house party – all we were missing was the guests.

And they arrived thick and fast, right on time.

Soon enough, the Flynn household had music pounding through it, and swarms of teenagers – no, not teenagers: more like a menagerie of movie characters.

There were Disney princesses, fairies, and Candice made an amazing zombie version of Alice in Wonderland. Her boyfriend had turned up as the Mad Hatter, à la Johnny Depp (what was it with everyone dressing up as him? I think there was an Edward Scissorhands somewhere too). Karen embraced her ginger hair and was Ginny from
Harry Potter
.

There were both male and female versions of superheroes, from Spider-Man to Wonder Woman to Captain America. Warren had come as Dumbledore, a tacky beard half hanging off where he hadn’t stuck it on properly.
Harry Potter
characters seemed like the default – I’d thought we’d be swarming with 007s, not half of Hogwarts.

My favorites had to be Tyrone and Jason.

Lee and I had opened the door to Tyrone. He stood there, topless, in a pair of denim cut-offs that looked like they’d been jeans before he hacked at them with scissors. I got who he was straight away – he had the short dark hair and the dark skin to pull off the character.

‘Happy birthday for Sunday, guys,’ he smiled.

‘Thanks. But, uh, what are you meant to be? A Calvin Klein model?’ asked Lee.

‘He’s the werewolf from
Twilight
,’ I told him in a ‘duh’ tone of voice.

On cue, Tyrone turned to show us the tail duct-taped to the butt of his jeans. ‘I cut it off my sister’s old stuffed dog,’ he told us.

‘Right . . .’

Then there was a, ‘Hey guys! Happy birthday!’ and Jason came into the porch, wearing a pale blue shirt – unbuttoned to show his jock’s abs; his light brown hair stood up straight, and he was covered in glitter.

‘Who are you, the Glitter Monster?’ Tyrone jeered at him.

‘You’re one to talk,’ Jason scoffed. ‘I mean, what
are
you?’

‘I’m a werewolf.’

‘Yeah?’ he scoffed. ‘Well, I’m a vampire.
The
vampire.’

‘Dude . . . that costume
sucks
,’ Lee quipped, making the two of us crack up completely.

Tyrone and Jason had come as Edward and Jacob from
Twilight
. Their costumes were pretty good matches, aside from the fact that Jason wasn’t deathly pale – although he put in a pair of plastic fangs.

It was surreal, looking around the party. Ninjas and sailors were playing pool with Count Dracula and Rocky Balboa. Mermaids and fairies were making out with firemen and GI Joes.

I hadn’t seen Noah yet, though. And believe me, if he’d been there, I’d have known.

I did feel a little left out – all the couples were making out, and then people were randomly hooking up in the party spirit.

But I was okay. I was chatting with people and laughing and joking around. A few of the girls asked me where Noah was, but everyone was too busy talking about the costumes to be that bothered about the latest couple to grace the social scene.

I did want to know where he was . . . But honestly? I was having so much fun, I barely gave myself time to wonder why he wasn’t here with me.

‘Doesn’t Faith look so pretty in the Grecian dress? I heard it was her grandma’s.’

‘Oh my God, have you seen that thing Tammy’s wearing? I mean, what’s she even supposed to be? A Victoria’s Secret model?’

‘Joel looks so hot in that sailor outfit, don’t you think? Oh my God – I think he just looked over here. Is he looking? Oh my God, no, don’t look! Not so obviously! Oh God, he just saw me. Quick – pretend to say something funny.’

That kept most of the girls busy, if they weren’t making out or flirting with guys.

And the boys? They certainly didn’t want to hear all about how things were going with Noah and how great a kisser he was.

I wandered out to the back yard and found Dixon hanging out with some of the guys by the pool. He was pretty tipsy and singing, ‘Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me!’ at the top of his lungs.

I laughed. ‘And here I was, wondering where all the rum had got to.’

Then, all of a sudden, arms curled around me from behind and I felt warm breath in my ear. ‘Hey, birthday girl.’

I turned around and pushed up the hat so it didn’t conceal his face. Not that I needed to see his face to know who it was. ‘So you finally decided to show your face, then?’

He chuckled. ‘Yes, ma’am.’

He was wearing a charcoal-gray pinstripe suit with shoulder pads, a white shirt and black tie, extremely shiny shoes that would probably show your reflection, and one of those ivory 1920s hats with a black ribbon sewn around it.

‘Al Capone?’ I smiled. ‘You look—’

He cut me off before I could finish – cut me off by smashing his lips to mine, if only for a brief second. ‘Don’t. Say. That. Word.’

I giggled. I wasn’t even aware that everyone was looking at us. Aside from the end of the Summer Dance, nobody had really seen us together much. But I didn’t even register that practically everybody we knew was here, at our party, looking at me and Noah.

‘It is, though.’

‘Don’t.’

‘Why do you hate it?’

‘I’m the toughest guy in school. I drive a motorbike, I get in fights. And you’re calling me
that
? Of all the adjectives out there, you pick that one?’

‘I’m sorry. But it’s so appropriate!’

He gave a chuckle, and tweaked my nose. I grimaced, but it only made him laugh more.

‘Having fun, then, birthday girl?’

‘Hmm, not just yet.’

He cocked an eyebrow, his head tilting to the side, like a curious dog. I smiled in response to his unspoken question before going up on my toes to whisper in his ear, ‘I haven’t had my birthday kiss yet.’

He just looked at me for a long moment. I felt my pulse pick up; maybe I couldn’t really pull off sexy or seductive. It was a stupid thing to do . . .

He leaned forward a little, his lips barely brushing mine, let alone kissing me.

With his lips like that, he said, ‘What happened to the sweet, naïve, innocent little Elle Evans I thought I had to keep safe from a horde of hormonal teenage guys?’

‘The kissing booth happened?’

He chuckled again; I felt the sound reverberating through his chest where my hand was resting.

‘I guess so.’

‘So do I get my kiss now?’ I asked, pulling away from him to pout. I wasn’t sure if my puppy-dog expression only worked on Lee and my dad, but it seemed worth a shot.

‘You do know it’s not actually your birthday yet?’

‘So? What’s your point?’

He rolled his eyes, but gave me a peck on the cheek before pulling my arms away and starting to walk off. I didn’t move, I didn’t even blink – I was too stunned. A peck on the cheek? That was all?

‘Hey,’ I called after him. For some reason I wanted to laugh, probably because we both knew he was teasing me – but I kept my expression calm, controlled. ‘You think I’m letting you get away with that?’

‘I’m Al Capone,’ he replied, cool as a cucumber. ‘I can get away with anything.’

‘Very funny.’

‘I thought so,’ he said. His mouth curled up in his trademark smirk, yet his eyes were glimmering with amusement.

I couldn’t help what I did next.

I pulled a face at him, even sticking my tongue out, like a little child.

All Noah did then was laugh – a proper laugh; the hearty kind; the kind where your eyes water and your mouth stretches into a smile so wide that your cheeks cramp up and your stomach aches after thirty seconds.

‘God, I love you, Shelly,’ he said quietly, the laughter still in his voice and his eyes and his face.

Maybe it was the way he was holding me, or the look on his face, or the laugh, I don’t know – but whatever it was, I practically swooned. No kidding – I knew what all those cheesy romance books meant when they talked about your knees going weak and feeling like you just wanted to melt. And if Noah hadn’t been holding my shoulders, I was sure my legs would’ve buckled under me.

I felt my own mouth mirror his smile and he said, ‘I’ll catch you in a little bit. Go party, birthday girl.’

‘Wow. Who’d have thought I’d see the day when overprotective, violence-junkie best friend’s brother would tell me to “go party”?’ I teased. ‘And not tell me to watch what I drink or who I talk to, or make a comment about how I’m dressed.’

I expected him to roll his eyes, or laugh at me, or make a witty comment back. But actually, he gave me a sheepish smile, looking kind of . . . guilty.

‘I didn’t mean it in a bad way,’ I told him.

‘I know. Don’t worry. I am sorry for that, though. You know – being all . . .’

‘Overprotective? Controlling? A jerk-face?’

He laughed. ‘Yeah. That. But just for the record . . . You look extremely hot tonight.’

I grinned and blushed all at once, making him smirk.

‘Now go party, Elle, and I’ll find you in a bit.’

‘All right,’ I said brightly, giving him a kiss on the cheek as I breezed past. All of a sudden I could feel dozens of pairs of eyes on me.

So I braced myself and grabbed a can of Coke from the fridge, turning around to face all the swarming girls who were cooing about how cute we were as a couple, and how jealous they felt; how hot Flynn looked, and how lucky I was; and then again how cute a couple we made.

‘I wish I had what you had,’ Tamara told me with a wan smile.

‘What? A hot bad-boy?’ I frowned in confusion.

She laughed. ‘No. A fairy-tale ending.’

Chapter 30

I WISH IT
could’ve been a fairy-tale ending.

The party ended too quickly. The hours blurred by until it was one o’clock and the house was empty, save for me and Noah, Lee and Rachel. The house wasn’t too much of a mess since there hadn’t actually been much drinking. We swept some trash into bags and left them out on the sidewalk, and by two a.m. Rachel was passed out in Lee’s arms on the couch, and his head started drooping too.

I lay on the other couch, my head in Noah’s lap. I wanted to stay awake, spend more time with him. I might’ve been able to keep my eyes open had he not been running his fingers through my hair. It was more soothing than any lullaby.

‘Noah,’ I said, but it came out as a sleepy murmur.

‘Mm.’ He sounded just as half conscious as I felt. Maybe he was. My eyes were shut and I was past the stage where I had the willpower to open them again.

‘What are you thinking about?’

He hesitated before replying. ‘Us. College.’ I waited patiently for him to develop that answer. ‘I don’t—’ He broke off with a yawn, and had to repeat himself. ‘I don’t want you to be hanging around for me to come back for holidays and not having a life. I know that sounds weird coming from me, after I tried protecting you all this time, but . . . I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem – seem fair to you,’ he said, yawning again, ‘to have to wait around on me . . . I’m tired. I’m no good with this stuff anyway.’

I gave a sleepy laugh, a half-smile on my lips. ‘The “emotional crap”, you mean?’

‘Yeah. I don’t know. We’ll give it our best shot and hope for the best. That’s all we can do, right?’

‘I’m going to miss you,’ I said, shrugging, still thinking. He squeezed my arm.

We sat in silence for a few moments. I knew he wasn’t asleep since he carried on running his fingers through my hair. I heard a jerking snore that broke the silence before it petered out into even breathing again. Lee. He was asleep, then.

Noah moved, jostling me around. I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, making a small grumbling noise in protest, but then he was still, lying along the couch beside me and keeping me tucked against him. I smiled. I wanted to roll so I was facing him, but it took a moment to actually do that because I was so sleepy.

‘Elle,’ he said then, in that ominous kind of tone that told me he wanted to actually talk about something serious. I was too tired for talking now . . .

‘What?’ I whispered back drowsily into the darkness.

‘I love you.’ He kissed my forehead. I snuggled closer, burying my head into the crook of his neck as his arms tightened around me.

I was asleep in seconds.

None of us woke up when Lee’s parents got in. None of us woke up when they pottered around the kitchen, making brunch, or cleaning up the rest of the house.

It was almost two in the afternoon when I eventually opened my eyes.

I’d slept most of the day away, and the afternoon was spent playing video games with Lee. Noah had disappeared to a scrap yard somewhere to get parts for his bike. His text hadn’t been clear since there was no part of me that spoke mechanic; I had to guess what he was doing.

And then it was my birthday.

Just like that I’d turned seventeen.

I’d stayed up until midnight to text Lee, but it only really hit me now that I was really wide awake and staring at my ceiling and the shapes the morning sun played on it.

It felt like I’d suddenly grown up in the last year.

And to be totally honest, I kind of hated it.

Mostly, it was the fact that growing up meant making the big decisions. Like college next year. I’d have to think about college. Hell, I didn’t even have a clue what I wanted to do as a career! I just went with the flow. I didn’t think about things like that much. I just
didn’t know
.

Sure, growing up meant all the good things, like having boyfriends and driving and finding out who you were, yadda, yadda, blah-blah-blah.

But was it really so bad that a little part of me wished things could stay the same forever? That I could run home and have my daddy put a Band-Aid on my knee when I tripped, that I could cannonball into Lee’s pool with him and not give a damn about anything else other than making a bigger splash than him.

Then my door burst open.

‘Happy birthday, troll!’

I sat up, throwing a pillow at Brad, but he shut the door on it before it went careering into his face. He opened the door back up and said, ‘Get up already!’