Chapter 12
Someone shakes my shoulders, and the sound of shuffling around me awakens me.
“B, let’s go. The bell rang.”
Realizing I dozed off during class, I abruptly sit up and acclimate myself to my surroundings.
Paige leads the way out of the classroom as I grab my backpack.
I must have fallen into a deep sleep. I’m trying to gather my bearings as I walk out of the classroom.
I squint as we walk into the hallway; the lights are brighter out here.
The sounds around me are muffled. I shake my head, trying to wake myself up more.
“Did you sneak out again?”
“Yeah,” I say.
After Kai dropped me off last night, I waited for my mom to fall asleep so I could sneak out and be with him again. This time we couldn’t let each other go, and I didn’t get home until six in the morning, which only gave me an hour to sleep.
My stomach rumbles the closer we get to the cafeteria. I slept through my alarm, leaving me with no time to eat breakfast. My mom had to wake me. When Paige picked me up, I ran out the door so my mom couldn’t see my face. I’m sure I look like I haven’t slept in a week—and I feel like it, too.
“Paige. Can we go out for lunch and eat in your car? I don’t feel like being around all this noise.” My head always throbs from the lack of sleep. My body just isn’t used to it. It’s making it harder for me to deal with the pain.
“Sure. Let’s go to Wendy’s.”
Half an hour later, we’re sitting in the parking lot of a nearby park, eating our chicken nuggets.
“I’m surprised you’re not with Kai for lunch,” she says with her mouth full of food.
“He stayed home to sleep so he wouldn’t be tired for work.” At least Kai can decide whether to go to school or not. If it were up to me, I would still be sleeping too.
“Have you guys been sneaking out every night?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Not so much him, but me. I have to sneak out. Does Kevin even care that he’s out all night? Doubtful.
“Are you guys officially dating now?”
“I don’t know.” Can I assume we are after he told me not to talk to anyone? We definitely took it to a new level at the movies. Later that night, we did the same thing in the park. He didn’t seem to mind the wet spot in his pants when he finished.
“Why don’t you ask him?”
“No!” I exclaim. “I’m not going to ask him to be my boyfriend. He has to ask me.”
“No, ask him if you guys are going to be official eventually.”
“That sounds even dumber.” I take a sip of my Dr. Pepper.
"Plus, he told me he didn’t want me talking to anyone else,” I say with a beaming grin, looking through the window at the sunny day shining toward us.
Having strong feelings for someone makes each day better.
I’m smiling so much now that Kai is in my life.
“He needs to make it official if he doesn’t want you to talk to anyone.”
“I’m sure he will. Plus, we did other stuff, too.”
“What stuff?” she asks, clearly overjoyed.
“We made out and touched each other.”
Her mouth drops open. “Over the clothes or under?”
“Over top of our clothes.”
Her mouth slams shut as she shakes her head. “B, that’s nothing.”
“Maybe for you.” I debated telling her what we did since she always has something like this to say.
It’s not my fault she went and lost her virginity the first chance she had.
Okay, maybe not the first chance, but she picked the totally wrong guy to give her virginity to. At least I’m taking my time.
“Just wait until the good stuff happens.”
“You’re dumb. You act like you know a lot.”
“I know more than you.”
I tilt my head toward her, and my expression drops in annoyance.
“I’m just saying.” She giggles looking at her phone. “Shit, we've got to go.”
“No. I don’t want to go back.” The silence around us sounds nice. There’s hardly anyone at the park. There are just a couple of people are walking around. When I’m tired, every noise irritates me. The school is too loud.
“Fine. But you’re telling me everything that happened with Kai from start to finish.”
I lean my seat back, put my feet on the dashboard, and tell her everything.