by Shana Norris
The Stolen Kiss Collection
Shana Norris
The Boyfriend Thief
The Secrets Between You and Me
The Truth About Boys
Stolen Kiss Short Stories
Holiday Madness
One Week
ONE WEEK
Originally published in Love, Me: An Anthology of Short Stories 2012
Text © 2012, 2016 Shana Norris
Cover photograph © 2016
Author photo © Valarie Montgomery
Cover design © 2016 Paper Lantern Lit
Cover design by Isabela Montalvo
Interior design by McLin Publishing
eBook files by Pronoun
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, distributed, stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, without the permission of the publisher. To do so constitutes unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for brief passages for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]
Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Paper Lantern Lit, LLC
The Studio
Brooklyn, New York
www.paperlanternlit.com
First e-book edition: January 2016
ISBN 978-1-518-303814
Table of Contents
One Week: A Stolen Kiss Short Story
Tuesday
Wednesday
Friday
Tuesday
Read a special excerpt of The Secrets Between You and Me
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
The Truth About Boys
Praise for The Boyfriend Thief
About the Author
Check out all The Studio E-Books!
Tuesday
“Can you please be a grown up for five seconds and stop hiding behind a polka-dotted elephant?” my best friend Avery James asked.
I peeked over the top of Peanuts, the fiberglass elephant mascot that stood in the front lobby of Peanut Gallery Arcade. “Not while he’s here.”
Avery rolled her eyes. “Molly, don’t you think you’re being ridiculous? He dumped you. So what?”
Easy for her to say, seeing as how she wasn’t the one who had been dumped. All of his friends weren’t suddenly avoiding her at school. People weren’t whispering behind her back.
“I just had my heart broken,” I said. “Have some pity.”
“You barely dated the guy three weeks. I doubt it was true love.”
“It could have been. What if Dave Chumski is the one guy in the entire world that I’m supposed to be with, only he doesn’t know it, and now we’re doomed to spend the rest of our lives alone and miserable?”
“Alone doesn’t equal miserable,” Avery said. “I don’t date.”
I raised an eyebrow without comment.
“I am not miserable,” Avery snapped. “I’m perfectly happy not dating. I prefer not to act stupid just because some guy I barely know decided he doesn’t want to take me to the movies anymore. I can take myself to the movies, thank you.”
“You can’t kiss yourself, unless you have some kind of hidden talent.”
“I’m not going to date a bunch of random guys just so I can kiss them.”
Avery and I always had this argument. She was firmly against the idea of soul mates, true love, and all the other things that made dating so much fun. She was cynical about romance, but I couldn’t really blame her. Her mom walking out on her family four years ago granted her a little cynicism about love.
We had come to Peanut Gallery for a monster laser tag marathon, but as soon as we’d paid for our admission tickets I spotted Dave near the air hockey tables. With a girl. A tall, willowy girl in skinny jeans and a Super Mario Brothers shirt that was just small enough to show off a band of tanned skin above the waistline of her pants. She so didn’t even look like his type. Dave was a hipster and was dressed in skinny jeans and a striped cardigan that matched the one I wore, which I had bought only two weeks ago.
“Well, I like kissing,” I said. “And I liked kissing Dave.”
I had thought Dave and I had a good thing going. I thought everything was fine.
Until he sent me that text three days ago.
I think we should break up.
He wrote that I was condescending, arrogant, and sarcastic. I hadn’t been able to do anything except stare at the phone in my hands. Not a condescending, arrogant, sarcastic thing in my head to text back.
Who dumped a person with a text?
“There will be other Daves,” Avery told me, her tone softening. “If he can’t see what a great person you are, he’s not the one.”
I sank back into my hiding place.
She waited a moment, then sighed. “If you don’t come out in ten seconds, I’m leaving and pretending I don’t know you.”
“Is he still there?” I asked.
Avery turned to scan the room. “He’s by the climbing wall.”
“Then I’m staying here until he leaves.”
Avery huffed in frustration. “Fine. Sit here and pout all night. I’m going to find a ten-year-old I can beat at air hockey.”
“Avery!” But she kept walking without looking back.
My best friend had ditched me in my time of need. Left me sitting behind a stupid pink and yellow elephant with a broken tail and graffiti on the side that proclaimed Jerry’s undying love for someone named Coco. Yeah, sure, Jerry. You loved Coco until someone else came along and then suddenly you were all, “Coco who?”
Maybe Avery was right. Maybe I was an idiot to keep opening myself up to these breakups. Why was it that all the guys I thought were right kept ending up being so wrong?
I examined my current situation. I was sitting in a pile of dirt and hairballs in order to hide from my ex. Sadly, it wasn’t the most embarrassing thing I’d ever done.
Dave had dumped me last Saturday afternoon, three days before I found myself hiding behind Peanuts at the arcade. The worst part of a breakup was figuring out territory afterward. Of the places we used to hang out, which ones were now mine to use without fear of running into him?
I’d spent Sunday hiding out at home. On Monday, I had been too bored and miserable to sit at home. Avery was working at Diggity Dog House that day, where she usually dressed up as Bob the giant hot dog mascot. I’d spent the last three weeks with Dave whenever I wasn’t with Avery and now it was like I’d forgotten how to entertain myself.
Normally, I hated going to ValuMart, but there weren’t a lot of options in Willowbrook for places where I could avoid Dave.
“Welcome to ValuMart!” a peppy girl at a register called as I walked through the sliding doors. I glared at her as I passed. It was wrong for her to be so smiley when I was stuck in that miserable post-breakup stage.
In the electronics department, I paused in front of a cardboard cutout advertising the newest GoblinQuest expansion pack. I liked GoblinQuest, a fantasy roleplaying computer game with elves, orcs, wizards and, of course, goblins. I would stay up late most nights playing it.
Except
while I was going out with Dave. He thought it was stupid.
But you’re not with Dave anymore, I reminded myself. Who cared what he thought? The display advertised the new expansion pack, which was being released in one week.
“I’ll be here at midnight to buy the first copy,” I promised the ferocious-looking troll that snarled at me from the display.
Just as I turned to leave, I heard a laugh. A too familiar laugh that sent a sickening jolt through my stomach. I’d spent three weeks listening to that laugh.
Dave Chumski was in ValuMart.
My gaze darted around, trying to spot him before he spotted me. There, over by the X-Box games with some people I didn’t know. I ducked behind the display quickly.
What was he doing here? Was it too much to ask that I have one place safe where I could mope in peace?
Dave’s voice drew closer. I had to get out of the area before he saw me. I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled past the photo counter toward the printers and scanners. ValuMart’s janitorial department had obviously been slacking on their sweeping duties lately, I noted as I moved through layers of dust and dirt.
I crawled around a corner and crashed headfirst into a solid form.
“What are you—Molly Pinski? Is that you?”
I craned my neck, turning my head to look up at Elliott Reiser, who stared back at me like I’d lost my mind. Which was a fair assumption.
“Hi,” I said. “I’m just….” I glanced around the floor and spotted an old Popsicle stick among the dust bunnies and hairballs. “I was looking for this!” I held it up proudly as I scrambled to my feet.
Elliott raised an eyebrow. “You were looking for a used Popsicle stick?”
“It’s a very important Popsicle stick,” I assured him.
Behind me, the sound of Dave’s voice grew louder. I glanced over my shoulder. Any moment now, he would come around the corner and spot me standing there with dirt caked on the knees of my jeans, sweating from my crawl, and clutching a disgusting Popsicle stick in one hand.
Elliott’s gaze moved from me to the end of the aisle where we could hear Dave and his friends. My muscles tensed, set to dash away at any second. Molly Pinski Class Freak, Aisle Seven.
Elliott held out one hand toward me. “Come on.”
Elliott and I had a few classes together at school, but we’d never really spoken much. He was a total prep—khakis, polos, and brown loafers with a matching belt. He played on Willowbrook High’s basketball team, which was about all that I knew about him. Avery couldn’t stand the guy and had warned me to stay far, far away.
But at the moment, it was either trust him or make my own escape and hope he didn’t blab about my escapades to Dave.
So I took a leap of faith and clutched his hand.
Elliott was fast, probably from all that time he spent on the basketball court. He moved between shoppers, dashing around carts and displays with ease. I followed, marveling at his grace and speed. Within seconds, we’d left Dave far behind.
I breathed a sigh of relief when we dashed through the front doors of the store.
“Thanks,” I said. “I, um, wasn’t really in the mood to see him right now.”
Elliott nodded. “I get it.”
It took a moment before I realized we were still holding hands. I let go, ducking my head to hide my embarrassment.
Elliott cleared his throat. “You can probably throw that away. You know, unless it really is that important.” He pointed toward my hand.
I still clutched the dirty Popsicle stick in my fist. I let it go, shuddering when I saw the sticky streak left on my palm.
“He’s not even supposed to be here.” I scrubbed my hand across the leg of my jeans. “When you dump a person, you’re supposed to be courteous and not go wherever the other person will probably be, right? Aren’t there rules for break ups?”
“The dumpee gets rights to shared public locations,” Elliott agreed. “He’s not following the rules at all.”
A glance at Elliott let me know that he was just humoring me. He grinned, his cheeks pink in the cool early spring air. “Thanks for helping me out,” I mumbled. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”
I started to walk away, but Elliott called out to me.
“Yeah?” I asked when I looked back at him.
He opened his mouth, then closed it. He shuffled one foot along the pavement, then said, “If you ask me, Dave Chumski is the one who should be crawling around on the dirty floor to avoid you, not the other way around. Don’t let him make you feel inferior.”
Elliott’s words had stuck with me that night. Why was I letting Dave make me feel inferior to him? It wasn’t the first time a guy had broken up with me, though usually I saw these things coming before they happened. I’d had no warning with Dave. I thought everything was great between us. I was already planning how we’d spend this summer after junior year ended.
Then suddenly, break up text. The truth about how he really felt about me, how condescending and arrogant he thought I was.
I’d given Dave the last three weeks of my life. I drank all those caramel lattes until I was hooked on them. I’d listened to him read that stupid poetry and didn’t even fall asleep. And had he ever, even once, done the things I wanted to do? I wanted to go to Peanut Gallery and play laser tag, but he never wanted to. And now here he was, with some new girl in a Mario shirt.
I softly banged my head against the wall behind me as I crouched in my hiding place behind Peanuts the elephant. I was pathetic. This was not the strong, independent woman I claimed to be. I was a new Molly, single and free to do whatever I wanted. New Molly did not hide. New Molly was not ashamed to be seen by Dave, even if he was at my arcade with his new girlfriend.
New Molly was fierce!
New Molly was confident!
New Molly was stuck.
The space between the elephant and the wall wasn’t very big. Getting back there had been a lot easier than getting out was proving to be. I managed to get to my feet, but my thighs were pinned behind the elephant’s side, so I couldn’t get free.
I leaned over the elephant, trying to grab onto something on the other side to give me some leverage. But there was nothing. I couldn’t quite reach the other ear and the side was smooth.
A group of middle school kids walked in the front door. They broke out into giggles when they saw me, but none of them bothered to help.
“I hope high school is especially evil to all of you,” I muttered.
The cashier that was usually at the counter had disappeared. For the moment, I was helpless.
The front door opened again and shoes squeaked on the linoleum floor as the person stopped suddenly.
“Molly?”
I turned toward the voice, cringing inwardly as I forced a smile at Elliott Reiser, who looked back at me with a look of amusement and confusion. I hadn’t talked to him since he’d rescued me from Dave at ValuMart the day before.
“Hi,” I said, trying to sound peppy and not at all as humiliated as I felt. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m behind a giant elephant. I was, you know, hanging out with old Peanuts.” I slapped the elephant’s backside and a deep thud resounded inside.
Elliott looked me up and down, raising his eyebrows. “If you’re done hanging out, would you like some help?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” I reached toward Elliott as if he were a life preserver. He had me wrap my arms around his neck while he grabbed my waist and pulled me up and toward him. It took a few moments for him to lift me high enough that my thighs were freed. His warm breath tickled my neck as he worked to get me out, sending a shiver down my spine.
“You okay?” he asked once I was free.
Our arms were still around each other and I was leaning my head back to look into his sparkling eyes.
“I’m fine,” I
told him.
My head felt fuzzy, like there was a swarm of bees buzzing around inside it and I couldn’t focus on anything except the feel of Elliott’s arms around me.
He swallowed, then said, “Molly—”
“What is going on here?”
We jumped apart and a rush of heat spread up my neck. Avery stood with her hands on her hips, her glare flickering between the two of us.
“Elliott helped me out,” I said. “I got stuck.”
“Well, thanks,” Avery snapped at him. She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward her side, shooting him a dark look. “You got her out, so you can go now.”
Elliott looked at me, then back at Avery, and shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’ll see you around.” He met my gaze again and smiled.
I watched him disappear into the crowd. “You didn’t have to be so rude.”
Avery huffed. “He’s a jerk.”
I shrugged. “He doesn’t seem that bad to me.”
“Oh, no. Don’t even think about it.”
“Think about what?” I asked.
She shot me a stern look. “You know what I’m talking about.”
“I have no idea,” I said. “And neither do you. Let’s just go play laser tag before you say something stupid.”
Wednesday
“Back again?” My usual hairdresser, Brayden, eyed me as I slid into the lime green vinyl chair.
“I’m back.” I brushed back the wispy black bangs that had fallen into my face and studied myself in the mirror.
“What’s it going to be this time?” Brayden played with the strands of my long hair, which he had died black only three weeks ago to match Dave’s hipster style. I liked fitting in with the guys I dated, like I belonged in their crowd.
As Brayden fastened the cloak over me, I looked hard at my reflection in the mirror. Before Hipster Molly, there had been Chess Chic Molly. Baseball Molly didn’t even last four days. Skater Girl Molly almost resulted in a broken arm.
I had been so many other Mollys in the past year that I wasn’t sure which one was real. New Molly deserved a look all her own.
A smile spread across my face. “I’m thinking pink.”
