The Kissing Booth #2

by Beth Reekles

  When they were done, Lee started toward me in the bleachers rather than following the rest of the guys to the locker room. I hopped down a few rows, grinning at him, but Coach Pearson got to him first, clapping him on the shoulder.

  “You did good, Little Flynn. Maybe you’ll live up to your name yet.”

  “I made the team?”

  “I’ll post the sheet tomorrow morning, but it’s looking good. Your brother help you with some of those passes?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “He did a damn fine job. Now go on—hit the showers. You can celebrate with your girlfriend later.”

  “Oh, no, she’s not—”

  Coach Pearson was already gone.

  I’d made my way down the rest of the bleachers and did a little dance. “You did it! You did it! You made the team!”

  Lee stared at me blankly for a second before breaking out into a grin and throwing his arms around me before I could protest. I gagged. “Did you even put deodorant on?”

  “Why? Can’t handle my manly man stink?”

  He wrestled my head into his armpit before I squirmed away, shoving him back.

  “I’m so proud of you, Lee. This is awesome.”

  “Guess I’ve just gotta be as good as Noah now,” he mumbled. “Keep up the Flynn reputation.”

  “Oh, come on. Don’t worry about that. Pearson’s a jackass sometimes. That was a stupid thing to say. Now go shower before I actually vomit from your manly man stink.”

  Lee saluted me before practically skipping off to the locker room. I cheered after him, whooping, and it turned to giggles as I watched him jump up, clicking his heels together and throwing his arms out.

  Sitting back down to wait for Lee, I got my phone out to video-call Noah.

  It was only after he picked up that I realized this was something Lee would probably want to tell his brother himself.

  “Hey, one sec,” Noah yelled at the phone, holding it half against his chest as he walked. There was a lot of background noise. It sounded kind of like a party. I saw blurred figures in the background as he moved around, saying “excuse me” and then, finally, “Right. Hi. I’m back.” He grinned at me, showing off the dimple in his left cheek. His cheeks were flushed and his long, dark hair stuck to his forehead a little.

  My heart stuttered to see him, and I found myself smiling back.

  “Where are you?”

  “The library, can’t you tell?” He laughed. “I’m at a party. Well, outside the party now. We started early. So, what’s up? Or did you just call ’cause you miss me?” He winked, then looked more closely at the video. “Are you on the football field? Oh shit! Trials! How did Lee do?”

  As I stammered, “He, uh, I probably shouldn’t…” Noah whooped, punching the air and jostling the camera around. I sighed at him when he focused his phone back on himself. “You so didn’t hear that from me, though.”

  “Hear what, Shelly?”

  “Right answer.” I tucked a piece of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail behind my ear. “Ugh, today could not have been over soon enough. Do you know how much homework I have after just one day? It’s crazy. And all those résumés I handed out the last couple of weeks for part-time work? None of them have got back to me. Please, please tell me senior year isn’t all like this.”

  Noah raised an eyebrow at me. “You don’t even wanna know how many chapters my professors recommended I read this week. I have zero sympathy right now.”

  “Speaking of, I wasn’t sure if you’d answer. I thought you’d be studying.”

  Noah shrugged, scratching behind his ear, eyes drifting away from the screen. “I was, and now I’m at a frat house. Steve scored us invites. I swear to God, he knows everyone here, and I don’t even know how.”

  “That’s cool. So how is college going? The classes, I mean. Obviously the parties are great.”

  Obviously they were, because he’d been to a bunch since the semester had started.

  I just kind of wished he’d tell me less about the parties and all his new friends and tell me how the rest of college was going.

  “You know, it’s just class. It’s fine. So, get this, this guy just now was doing a keg stand, and—”

  “Noah…” I couldn’t hide the look on my face, but he was doing a pretty good job of trying to look upbeat and change the subject.

  “What’s up?”

  “How’d that assignment you had go?”

  “I, uh, I don’t get a grade back on that for a while. Anyway, so—”

  He cut off when someone shouted for him in the background, calling something else I couldn’t quite make out. Noah shouted back, “One sec,” leaning away from the phone before bringing it back in front of his face. He bit his lip—looking utterly cute and annoyingly apologetic. My stomach sank.

  “Listen, Elle, is it cool if I call you later? I’m sorry, I really wanna talk. This is just…”

  Do you? I thought, because he seemed to be doing a really great job of avoiding talking.

  But it was no big deal. All the parties and stuff, it was just…part of the experience, right? When he started college, he’d sounded so excited about his classes. But the last few days…he hadn’t even mentioned them once.

  So I smiled and said, “Don’t even worry about it. We can talk tomorrow. Have a fun night.”

  “I love you,” he told me, blowing a loud kiss down the phone at me to make me laugh.

  “Love you too.”

  I didn’t have long to dwell on whether or not Noah was avoiding talking to me or if I was just overthinking it, because Lee was out of the locker room soon enough. He waved his phone at me, a big smile on his face as he told me how the drama club would be doing Les Mis this year and that Rachel was planning to audition for Fantine.

  Back at the parking lot, I caught his arm before we got into his Mustang. “Hey, listen. I’m really proud of you for making the team, you know that?”

  “This is our year, Elle. This is our year.”

  Chapter 4

  “What do you mean, you’re bailing on me? You knew I was babysitting Brad tonight while my dad’s upstate on a conference. You promised you’d stay over!”

  Lee sighed into the phone, and I knew he was tugging at his hair. “I know, Shelly. I’m sorry. I am a pathetic excuse for a best friend.”

  “Oh, come on, Lee, please? Rachel will survive without you for one evening.”

  I knew I sounded whiny and bratty, but it really felt like ages since Lee and I had properly spent any time together, just the two of us hanging out. We were only a week into school, but between Rachel and his new spot on the football team (and actual school work, too, of course) I felt like he was slowly drifting away from me.

  I was trying hard not to be mad at him about it. He was totally head over heels in love with Rachel. He was busy. I understood that. I was happy for him.

  But still—what about me?

  Lee hadn’t replied. He was feeling bad, and I knew he was probably trying to figure out a way to say “I’d rather spend my evening with my girlfriend than you” without sounding like a jackass.

  “I just miss you,” I said, my voice sounding small. I cringed; I sounded so pathetic. Honestly, how crazy did I sound? I miss you. I saw him practically every day. “We just don’t hang out so much anymore.”

  “I know, Shelly. I’m sorry.”

  “Can’t you come over at least for a little while?”

  “I can’t.”

  I sighed.

  “I’ll make it up to you, I promise. We’ll go shopping tomorrow. Shoe shopping. I’m buying lunch.”

  “Hmm…”

  It didn’t make up for it at all, but I knew how hard he was trying. I felt myself caving quickly. I always did, when it came to Lee.

  “And I’ll find you a repl
acement co-babysitter?” he offered.

  “Is dessert included in this lunch?”

  “Dessert or a starter. Not both.”

  “Sold.”

  He laughed, but then said quietly, “I’m really sorry. It’s just…You know?”

  “I get it. It’s okay.” It wasn’t, but it had to be. “Have fun. Say hi to Rachel for me.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow. Thanks, Elle! You’re the best.”

  Hanging up, I fell back onto my bed. Brad would be home from soccer practice in about twenty minutes, so I decided to relish the peace and quiet while it lasted.

  Soon enough, I heard Brad yell goodbye to the boys piled into the back of the minivan dropping him off and him running toward the house. I went down to meet him.

  “I scored a goal!”

  I ruffled his hair. “Awesome!” Then I pushed him away at arm’s length before he stepped inside. “Okay, little guy. Cleats off. Straight in the shower. Try not to get mud everywhere.”

  “But—”

  “Cleats, shower. Go, go, go!”

  I knocked the dried mud off his shoes before following the trail of muddy laundry up to the bathroom door. On the other side, Brad was belting out some rap song I kind of recognized from the radio, but with most of the lyrics wrong. (I was sure that whatever the words were, they didn’t mention grilled cheese.)

  I was right by the front door, at the bottom of the staircase, holding the filthy bundle of Brad’s laundry, when the doorbell rang.

  It was probably Cam or Dixon, sent in Lee’s stead to make my evening of babysitting more bearable. It was definitely too late for Girl Scout Cookies. I fumbled at the latch with my shoulder, pressing my elbow down on the door handle, and once it was unlocked, I nudged the door open with my foot.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Levi raised his eyebrows. “Nice to see you, too.”

  I blushed. “Sorry, I just…I wasn’t expecting you.”

  “Lee called me and said you wanted some company babysitting your brother. So here I am. I did text you to say I was heading over?”

  “Oh. Sorry, I didn’t hear my phone.”

  A couple of seconds passed in silence. Levi took in the bundle of muddy clothes in my arms, then looked back at me expectantly. He was wearing a thin, waterproof coat with the collar turned up against the fine drizzle that was falling. His hair was damp, the curls flat. It was a cute look on him.

  Noah always managed to look hot whenever he got caught in the rain. I, however, usually looked like a frizzy mess.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Oh, right! Yes…of…of course. Sure.” I stepped aside, making way for him. He brushed his sneakers off on the welcome mat before coming inside. I gestured with Brad’s soccer clothes. “I’ll be right back—I just need to sort these out. The living room is just there. Make yourself at home.”

  “Thanks.”

  It was amazing how Levi had integrated into our group so easily. He shared a lot of the same interests and had the same kind of sense of humor as the rest of us—it really didn’t feel like we’d only known him a week.

  Levi was charismatic. He was even getting to be kind of popular. But we still didn’t know that much about him. His social media was pretty void of information, so most of what people had to say about him seemed more like rumor than fact—which only made people talk about him even more. He didn’t talk about himself too much, either. The mystery only seemed to add to the novelty of him being a new kid at school. (And an attractive one, too. Objectively speaking.)

  But he was easy to hang out with, and he made for a decent study partner when Lee ditched me for Rachel.

  When I got back from the laundry room, Levi was stretched across the couch, flipping through TV channels.

  “We’ve got ravioli for dinner,” I told him.

  “Sounds good.”

  I put dinner on and fetched us both drinks. I found Levi had settled on The Lego Movie. I put our drinks down on the coffee table and sat at the other end of the couch.

  Brad came downstairs soon after and did a double take upon seeing some strange guy there. He looked at me uncertainly, and I pulled a face at him to warn him to be nice.

  “Uh, hi.”

  Levi turned to look at my younger brother hovering in the doorway and smiled easily. “Hey. You must be Brad.”

  “Yeah. You aren’t Lee, though.”

  “Brad! That’s not polite.”

  Levi was laughing. “I’m Levi.”

  “The new guy?”

  “I may have mentioned you a couple times,” I said by way of explanation to Levi. “Lee couldn’t make it tonight, Brad. Sorry, bud, I know you were looking forward to seeing him.”

  “What about the other guys? Like Cam. Or Warren. Warren’s fun. He taught me how to swear in French. Merde. See?”

  “Brad!”

  “What? I’m just asking.” Brad started to take a seat and then realized we were watching a movie. He scowled at me. “You promised me this morning I could play video games.”

  “I know, but now we’re watching a movie. C’mon, you like this movie. You know, with Batman and stuff. ‘It’s really awesome,’ ” I sang.

  “Those aren’t the lyrics, Elle.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “This is so unfair. You promised.”

  He sounded just like I had earlier, whining to Lee on the phone. I only felt a little guilty, though. I mean, Levi didn’t want to sit here watching my brother play games; at least a movie was better entertainment. Or so I thought.

  “What video games?” Levi asked my brother.

  Brad’s face lit up, and I could see him wondering if he could win Levi over to his side. “My dad says I’m not ‘mature enough’ for any of the games with guns and stuff, you know, like Grand Theft Auto, but I’ve got some really cool racing games.” He started naming some of his favorites, meaning: the ones he was best at. “And Zelda. I have Zelda.”

  “I don’t mind playing with you. As…as long as your sister says that’s okay?” Levi turned to me, waiting for approval, eyebrows knitted together. “I mean, if you’ve got homework to do…”

  “You honestly don’t have to,” I muttered quietly so Brad wouldn’t hear.

  “Better than painting nails,” he said. “My sister loves giving me a manicure.”

  “Elle, can we play? Please?”

  My eyebrows shot up; I couldn’t help it. If Brad was saying please to me, his big sister, then he must’ve taken a liking to Levi. I made a mental note that he would always be my new babysitting buddy from now on if Lee wasn’t free.

  “Uh, well, I…I don’t see why not. Good luck trying to beat my high score, though. Even Lee hasn’t managed that.”

  So, while Brad set up his console and loaded a game, I left them to it, deciding to finish redrafting my essay on the Cold War that was due on Monday. I opened the Word document titled “College Application Essay”—but after staring at the blank page for a few minutes and not being able to think of something to fill it, I closed it back down. College was all anyone seemed to talk about at school, and even though I knew I wanted to go, I had no idea what I wanted to major in or what I really wanted to do after college. Everyone else seemed to know, which wasn’t really helping me deal with the stress of not knowing. But I felt sure that once I’d written my essay, everything else would fall into place. I’d figure it out. It’d be fine. It had to be.

  But this evening I gave up on my essay, too distracted by listening to Levi cracking jokes and Brad getting competitive. Levi glanced over his shoulder at one point to flash a grin at me—and I found myself thinking how unlike Noah’s crooked smile it was. There was something less daring, less exciting in Levi’s smile. It was more like…like he knew a secret, and I knew it, too. I’d heard girls at
school talking about his smile. It was pretty charming, I guess.

  Even if my brother had been looking forward to hanging out with Lee, he quickly became a fan of Levi, just like the rest of us had. Brad didn’t even complain when I snuck some vegetables onto his plate with his ravioli; he was too busy chatting with Levi about soccer and asking him about lacrosse.

  He even went to bed more or less on time—after ten minutes spent arguing with me to stay up longer because Dad wasn’t home yet and it wasn’t even a school night.

  “I’ve already let you stay up half an hour longer than Dad would’ve!” I exclaimed for the billionth time.

  “Dad won’t be home for another hour, though! Come on, Elle, don’t be so uptight!”

  “Lee taught you that word, didn’t he?”

  “This is so unfair. Tell her, Levi. Tell her to stop being so uptight,” he said, trying to rope his new best friend to his side.

  “Sorry, but I’m with your sister on this one.”

  Brad scowled but grumbled in defeat. “Fine. Thanks for playing video games with me,” he added, then mumbled good night and stomped up the stairs to bed.

  “Don’t forget to floss,” I called after him, even though I knew he wouldn’t. Then I sank back down onto the couch next to Levi. “Thanks for that. For all of tonight. I really appreciate the help.”

  “I thought you said he was a total nightmare when you were talking about him in school. Let me tell you—you haven’t even seen nightmare children. Do you want to see my sister when she’s hungry and tired? She gets so shrill and it’s totally insufferable, I’m telling you. I’d switch any day.”

  “Wait till her PMS kicks in, too. But you’ll be in college by then, right?”

  “Right,” he mumbled.

  “Thanks, though. Really. The only people Brad really listens to are Lee and Noah, and that’s only because he completely idolizes them from growing up with them around.”

  Levi nodded, and after a pause said, “So…you and Noah. Were you guys friends before dating? I know you and Lee are close.”

  I scrunched my face up. “Not…exactly. I mean, kind of. We were when we were all little kids, but then we drifted apart when he went to middle school.”