Chapter 17
“Oh, my God, B! You missed such a fun party.”
So, Paige went out. Nice. “Rub it in.”
“Oh, sorry,” she says, eyeing me.
Paige continues talking as we walk to our class, but I can’t concentrate on her. All I want to do is see Kai. I haven’t seen or talked to him since Friday. It’s been so long.
Where is he?
“Are you listening to me?”
“Ugh, no,” I say. I really don’t want to hear about her weekend when I had to stay home.
“Look, if you’re worried about Kai, he didn’t do anything.”
I actually wasn't, but now that she brought it up, it gives me pause. “What do you mean?”
“I knew you might be worried. So, I kept an eye on him all night. He didn’t do anything. He was with guys all night. I didn’t see one girl talk to him, and I didn’t see him talk to any girls.”
My tension fades. Even though I trust him, I don’t trust other girls.
“He didn’t look like he was having such a great time. He looked more sad.”
Where is Kai? Did he not come to school today? I look over my shoulder and see the halls getting emptier and emptier. When I turn back around, I slam into someone’s chest, and I’m knocked to the ground.
“Are you okay?” Paige says.
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t looking.” The guy I bumped into reaches out a hand to help me up. As I'm getting up, I notice people are staring at me.
This is embarrassing.
“I’m fine. I wasn’t looking either.”
He grabs a book I dropped and hands it to me. “Here, you must have dropped this.”
I smile and take the book. “Thank you.”
He nods and walks away.
“Do you have Kai’s number?” I ask Paige.
“No.”
Great. I don’t remember it. I should have memorized it.
After class, I stumble my way out into the hallway, only to be wrapped up in arms. I don’t need to see who it is to know whose arms these are. Butterflies fill my stomach. My whole body melts into him. He lays a kiss on top of my head. I look up at him and smile so big my cheeks hurt.
“Ew,” Paige says sarcastically.
I shoo her away with my hand and turn back to Kai. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too, B.”
We walk hand in hand toward the stairwell, out of the way of everyone trying to get to class. “I was looking for you all morning.”
“I woke up late and missed first period.”
“Did you party too hard over the weekend?”
“I partied. But not hard. It wasn’t the same without you.” He wraps me in his arms. I rest my cheek against his chest. “This sucks. We went all weekend without talking or seeing each other.”
Sneaking out pops into my mind. Should I tell him I tried it, and my mom didn’t wake up? If my mom didn’t keep me from him, I wouldn’t have to sneak out or have the thought of sneaking out again. The least she could do is let me talk to him on the phone.
“When do you think you’ll get your phone back?”
I laugh. “Probably never. My mom wants to ruin my life.” The bell rings, letting us know we are late for class.
“Do you want to ditch this period?”
I wrap my arms tighter around his midsection. “I thought you’d never ask.”
We book it and run to the nearby park.
“Remember spider?”
I focus my attention on what he’s looking at. A swing sways from the October breeze. Memories of us being together the first night I snuck out come up. “Yeah.” I straddle my legs over Kai, and we both start swinging together.
“What are you going to be for Halloween?”
I narrow my gaze at him.
“Halloween is in a couple of weeks. The parties are going to be epic with everyone dressed up.”
Good thing I can still sneak out. I smile at that thought. I’m not going to miss out on the Halloween parties.
“Why are you smiling so big? Do you think you can sneak out?”
“I know I can sneak out.”
“How?” Kai asks with wide eyes.
We sway our legs even more, getting more momentum in the air. “I tried it again to see if my mom would wake up, and she didn’t.”
“What! You tried it. Where did you go?”
“To my backyard. I wanted to test it to see if my mom was on high alert. I wasn’t caught, so I guess she’s not.”
Both of Kai’s cheeks rise, but then his face falls. “But you don’t have a phone. How are we going to know when to pick you up?”
“My mom is always in bed by eleven. I would leave at midnight, giving her an hour to fall asleep. If we set a time for you to be at my house, we can make it work without a phone.”
“That’s a good idea,” he says, and I finally feel a bit more free again.
We catch up, and just chat about what we did over the weekend. His weekend sounds more fun than mine. Of course, it was. He wasn’t home moping around. I explain a bit more about how I snuck out, and I tell him how I figured out about the creeks on the stairs.
We ended up ditching the rest of our morning classes until he had to go to work. I don’t even care. I’m just so happy to spend time with him. That’s all that matters.
“Hey, can you write me a note to excuse my absences? Me and Kai ditched our morning classes.” I ask Paige as we both walk into our last period.
“I noticed.”
Paige can write in cursive like an adult, so she always writes notes for me to excuse my absences.
It seriously reminds me of an older person’s handwriting.
We used to do this all the time before we got our classes together.
In order for the office not to realize it’s the same handwriting, we would give the office our notes on different days.
We were caught once when we messed up on our times and gave them on the same day.
Somehow, we lied our way out of it. No one has caught us since.
The bell rang, and everyone is still chatting away. The teacher must be late. For once, it’s not me.
“Are you and Kai a thing?” Allison asks me.
Paige and I look up from writing the note.
I furrow my brows. “Yeah. Why?” I’m confused about why she’s asking.
“Just wondering.” She looks down at the note.
Paige covers it with her arm. I’ve never had problems with Allison.
We talk sometimes. Everyone knows she’s the school slut.
A lot of girls keep their boyfriends away from her.
She knows this and still tries to steal them.
I guess it’s my time for her to come after my boyfriend.
“He’s my boyfriend,” I say with a smirk.
“That’s too bad. He’s hot.” She flips her yellowish-blonde hair off her shoulder and walks away.
“Slut,” Paige whispers. We both laugh.
I’m not even going to worry about her. Kai would never go for a girl like that. I doubt he knows who she even is. He’s a busy guy with work and school…and then he spends the rest of the time with me.