The Kissing Booth #2

by Beth Reekles

  Levi’s dad had been in and out of hospital appointments for the last month. But he was getting better, Levi kept telling me—some days were good, some days not so good. He was going to be fine. And that was the important thing.

  “Something smells good,” his voice boomed again, and Becca jumped down from her seat to go and hug her dad.

  Mr. Monroe was tall, and he had the look of someone who used to be pretty well-built but had lost a lot of weight and muscle in a short span of time. His face was thin, and so was his hair. He was just wearing jeans and a plain blue T-shirt, and when he smiled he looked like Levi.

  “Hey, sweetie pie,” he said, hugging Becca back. He stood up, smiling at us. “All right, Levi? Elle? How was school?”

  “Oh, sure,” Levi deadpanned. “Best days of our lives, you know?”

  Becca came back over to sit next to me, taking the cookie cutter back out of my hands. “Elle’s helping us bake.”

  “Well, I’m not doing much actual baking,” I said. “I’m a disaster in the kitchen.”

  “She really is,” Levi said. I knew he was thinking about the time I’d tried to cook lasagna, a few weeks back, just after Thanksgiving, and the result had been inedible mush that probably would’ve given us food poisoning if we’d eaten it. My dad had ordered takeout instead. Noah had laughed for five minutes solid when I’d FaceTimed him to show off the disaster of my cooking.

  Mr. Monroe picked up one of the gingerbread men from an open Tupperware box. The cookie snapped as he bit the head off.

  “Mmm,” he said, mouth full. Swallowing, he went on. “Don’t suppose you kids could make me some of these for my support group?” To me, he said, “My doctor and wife insist I go to these support groups for people in remission. Waste of a Monday evening if you ask me. I keep telling them I don’t need to go.”

  “Oh. Right. But…some Christmas cookies should make it a bit better, though, right?”

  He smiled again. “Christmas cookies make everything better.”

  “Sure, what’s a few dozen more?” Levi sighed melodramatically, and then the oven timer went off, for the sixth or seventh time that afternoon.

  I just laughed.

  And Becca ate another cookie when she thought none of us were looking.

  “I’m sorry about my dad,” Levi said later when we were playing video games in his room. We both had studying to do, which we’d said we would do after we’d baked the cookies, but neither of us felt like memorizing facts. “If he made things awkward or anything. I think his support group has this thing about not making cancer taboo, so they can all talk about it more.”

  “It’s okay. Really. It wasn’t awkward.” Levi’s relief was palpable. “You still haven’t told the other guys, have you?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

  “I just don’t see the point.”

  “Maybe you need to go to these support groups,” I said, but not in a mean way. “None of the guys are going to look at you differently or anything. I swear. They’d understand. Like when Dixon came out, you know? Everyone just kind of…acknowledged it and carried on. It doesn’t change anything.”

  He mumbled in response, so I didn’t push the issue, but a couple minutes later, Levi sighed, paused the game, and said to me in a taut and kind of angry voice, “I just find it kind of hard to deal with. So, like, the fewer people asking me how he is all the time, the better I cope. It used to be like that in my old school, and it just pissed me off.”

  I shrugged. “It’s your choice. But even if you don’t want to tell the other guys, you know you can talk to me about it, right? If it’s ever, like, getting you down or whatever.”

  “Yeah,” he said softly. “Yeah, I know.”

  We carried on playing the video game and didn’t bring it up again.

  But he did say, “Elle? I’m glad we’re still friends. Even after…”

  “After I used you to try to get over my boyfriend?” We caught each other’s eye and Levi grinned. I was so damn glad he wasn’t holding it against me. “At least I’ve stopped getting nasty looks in the hallways from the girls who have a crush on you, now that I’m back with Noah.”

  He looked way too pleased with himself, hearing about girls having crushes on him, but I just rolled my eyes and unpaused the game.

  The next day at school, Levi told the guys about his dad.

  And, just like I’d predicted, they didn’t look at him any differently. Just told him that if he ever needed to take his mind off things, they were always up for a few beers and pizza, or a game of football in the park.

  “See,” I said to Levi, smiling smugly. “I told you.”

  “Now who’s the Ravenclaw?” he shot back in such a haughty, teasing tone, I had to laugh. “If only you could predict what questions will come up in the biology final, that’d be great.”

  “I bet they’ll ask us what mitochondria are.” Our bio teacher had been relentlessly embedding the definition into our heads for the last few months. I swore I’d still know it when I was fifty.

  “Remind me?”

  I rolled my eyes, laughing, and Levi cracked up, too.

  Maybe he would’ve been the kind of guy I would’ve dated, if things had ended up different between me and Noah, if Noah hadn’t been so determined to see me and fix things. Maybe if Thanksgiving had gone differently, I would have been with Levi.

  I don’t imagine we would have ever lasted long as a couple.

  I needed that spark, that passion that I had with Noah. It just wasn’t there with Levi.

  We were way better off as friends; I was just grateful that he seemed to be on the same page.

  And then I started thinking: even with finals looming over my head, and the ever-present wait for a response to my college applications, the rest of the school year would be okay. I’d hit my rock bottom. The only way I was going was up.

  Chapter 26

  EPILOGUE

  The sun blazed overhead. There were even birds singing somewhere. The sky was as blue as his eyes and there wasn’t a cloud in sight, and I felt lighter than I had in months, like I hadn’t known just how much was weighing on my shoulders until now.

  Lee and I had our arms wrapped around each other, both of us jumping up and down, out of sync for once, my head knocking against his chin and shoulders.

  It kind of hurt, but I didn’t care.

  I was delirious.

  People were calling out, laughing, crying, trying to talk to everyone and anyone.

  “WE DID IT!” a voice screamed, and then Cam threw himself on top of us. “We’re done! We’re going to college!”

  “College!” Lee yelled back.

  “College!” I yelled.

  “COLLEGE!” Cam yelled again. There was a lot of yelling. And we weren’t the only ones.

  Lee and I let go of each other—Cam had already run off, probably to yell “COLLEGE!” at more people—and, just when I thought the hugging was done, Lee slung an arm around my shoulder and kissed the top of my head with a loud smacking noise.

  “This is it. The beginning of a glorious, golden summer, the kind they make indie teen movies out of, and then we’re thrown into the soul-sucking pit of college.”

  “College so won’t be soul-sucking.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Well, how do you know it will be?”

  Lee just laughed. “You’re right. It’s going to be so great. It really is.”

  “Don’t jinx it. I don’t want to end up with some awful roommate. What if my roommate is someone like you? Oh, God, just kill me now.”

  Lee laughed again; he sounded as delirious as I felt. It was beautiful. Everything was so beautiful.

  Right now, I felt high on life, and I didn’t ever want this feeling to end.

  I got into Berkeley. So did Lee.


  He didn’t get into Brown.

  I looked around for Noah. I’d heard him cheering so loudly for me when my name got called—and when Lee’s name was called. (He’d also sent a balloon bouquet to me at school when I got my SAT results, the big softy.) I hadn’t seen him since before the graduation ceremony started, though, getting lost in the crowd of graduation gowns.

  Just as I was thinking about him, Noah slid up behind me, putting his arms around me and turning me to face him, his touch sending a thrill through me. He kissed me firmly on the lips before saying, “Congrats, Shelly. Officially a high school graduate!” Then he glanced up and smoothed down my hair. I’d taken the time to straighten it to sleek perfection this morning, but I bet I had some hat hair going on after wearing the graduation cap.

  “Thanks!”

  The last six months hadn’t exactly been easy. Not that we’d had any more arguments, but I just missed him so damn much—and I knew how much he missed me, too. He’d surprised me with a visit home for Valentine’s Day so we could celebrate together, even bringing me a giant teddy bear in a Harvard sweatshirt and cap.

  But we’d done it. We’d managed the long-distance thing since Thanksgiving, and it was all completely worth it now that we were standing here, the sun warm on my cheeks and my fingertips playing with the ends of Noah’s hair, and his lips were on mine.

  “All right, you two, break it up,” said my dad. I heard June laughing and buried my face in Noah’s shoulder for a second before turning to our parents. “Come on, we want more photos. I’d rather not have to get my daughter’s graduation photo from a selfie on her Twitter feed.”

  Noah stepped aside, and I fixed my hair before holding up my crisp high school diploma and smiling for the camera. My dad had barely snapped the photo when a blur in graduation robes barreled toward us, stopping short when he noticed the camera, arms spinning for balance and almost falling flat on his face.

  “Sorry! Sorry! Did I ruin the photo?”

  “No, we’re good,” my dad said, checking the camera. “Hey, well done, Levi.”

  “Thanks.” He grinned, then turned to me, and when I thought he was about to say congrats to me, he opened his mouth and screamed.

  Not even words. Just one long “AAAAAAHHH!”

  So I screamed back.

  And then we were both laughing and hugging and he was saying, “I’m so visiting you at college next year. I don’t mind sleeping on the floor. I’ll bring a sleeping bag.”

  “You’d better.”

  We grinned at each other. Levi had been working at a 7-Eleven for the last month or so, just a couple hours a week, and he’d be working there more now that we were done with school. He also had a job as a busboy in a diner at the mall, which he was due to start next week.

  He still hadn’t decided what he wanted to do. So, he said, he was just going to work until he made up his mind. His mom had told me when I was over at their place for dinner a few days ago that she’d hoped he’d change his mind and that he’d applied to college like most of us, but she sighed resignedly. “I suppose I can’t force him to go, though.”

  Someone yelled, “Hey, Monroe! Get your skinny ass over here!” and we both looked to see a group of guys waiting to take a photo—the baseball team. Levi had joined up at the start of the season.

  He ducked away, skirting through the crowds to be part of the photo, and then Noah was back beside me, holding my hand. I caught him looking after Levi—they’d met a couple times and had been polite enough, but there was always something stiff and forced about it. Right now, Noah’s eyes narrowed slightly. I squeezed his hand and he turned back to me, his expression relaxing. The sun behind his head gave the edges of his dark hair an almost golden glow, and his eyes crinkled at the corners with the beaming smile that took over his face as he looked at me.

  I wrapped my free hand around his bicep (because, boy, that bicep) and grinned back. Before I could pull him down for another kiss, Lee jumped at my back. I knew it was Lee without having to look around; the elated laugh in my ear gave him away.

  The Flynn brothers started chatting over my head about a party we were all going to later tonight to celebrate graduation, and Lee mentioned that he’d heard a rumor about a kissing booth being set up there. I was only half listening.

  I felt kind of detached. Dreamy. My eyes drifted between families embracing, friends taking selfies and trying to fit everyone in the photo, people running to try to talk to each other in case they never saw these people again after today, and my two favorite guys in the world right beside me.

  Levi caught my eye from where he was talking with his parents. His dad looked so much better lately—his face not so skinny and his skin not so gray. I saw Dixon chatting to a group of people—not with Danny, though; they broke up back in January. Rachel was crying, hugging her mom. She’d got into Brown, of course, on early admission. And I knew she and Lee had talked a lot; after they’d seen how turbulent things had been for me and Noah, they both knew how much they had to commit to staying together through college.

  And as for Noah and me?

  We’d already gone through the worst of it. I was sure we had what it took to go the distance, whatever came next.

  Noah kissed the side of my head and Lee held my arm, talking excitedly about something.

  I kept hearing about how high school was supposed to be the best years of your life—and then how it really wasn’t. And I decided that if this wasn’t the best time of my life, the rest of it couldn’t get much better than it was right now.

  Acknowledgments

  There are so many people I need to thank for this book. It’s been about seven years in the making. That it’s finally made it to this point—being published—feels so strange. It’s been a long time since I first sat in my room and decided to start The Kissing Booth, and honestly, I’m just so excited for how much more there is to come.

  First, thanks to my utterly incredible agent, Clare, for being so patient and helpful throughout this whole process. Thanks to my editors, Naomi and Kelsey, for all your hard work in making this book the best it could be.

  When I was editing an earlier draft of this in 2017 and was stuck on my characters, the crowd in Cape Town were a huge inspiration. Joey, Joel, Jacob, and everyone else—you brought my characters to life, and helped spur me on when I was feeling drained. Vince, Andrew, and Ed, you gave me a renewed passion for my story.

  “Thanks” doesn’t even begin to cover it, but…thanks.

  Thanks to my friends and all our group chats, for putting up with me when I’m having a crisis or when I’m spamming you with my latest news because I can’t post it on Twitter yet. You guys always know how to lift me right back up when I need it. So thanks to: Lauren and Jen; Katie and Amy; Emily and Jack and my lab buddy Harrison (special thanks to you for all the memes); and Ellie and Hannah, without whom Levi would still be Kevin.

  The journey to this point has been wild. From the idea of the scene at Thanksgiving, to several rounds of edits, to an unexpectedly popular Netflix movie and more, so much has gone into this book, and my family have been a rock throughout it all. (Especially while I’ve been juggling two jobs, a few moves around the country, and then some.)

  A special thanks to my sister, Kat, because one of us has to be the cool one in the family when I’m out here glued to my laptop and phone. Thanks for loving my book and keeping me grounded.

  Thank you to my parents, my auntie and uncle, and my granddad. (I’m sorry sometimes you get my latest news from Twitter first. But in my defense, it’s usually something you knew about, like, a year before I announced it.)

  Finally, thank you to you, my readers. Whether you only discovered Elle’s story after the first Netflix film, in May 2018, or you’ve been with her since the very first chapters on Wattpad in 2011, your support and love has meant so much to me—and I honestly don’t think
this second book would have been possible without you all. Honestly: you have changed my life.

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