Chapter 25 – Knight in Shining Armor
Thursday
The kiss thief hadn’t texted me back last night or today. I wanted to think of something clever or funny to text him. Or somehow trick him into admitting he was Jacob.
I glanced at the time. It was well after dinner and I still hadn’t heard from Axel. I’d cancelled my plans with Jacob tonight so that Axel and I could work on our project. And each minute that ticked by made me feel like an idiot.
Axel wasn’t coming.
He’d just wanted me to cancel my date. He’d had no intention of ever coming over.
I sighed and changed into a pair of pajama shorts and a tank top. There was no reason not to be comfortable while I spent the night alone in my room. I brought up the varsity roster list Sophie and I had sorted through, and stared at the names of the 13 guys that we thought could be my kiss thief.
If it was Jacob, the list meant nothing. But if it somehow wasn’t him? I shook my head.
This was stupid. It was definitely Jacob. And just because we hadn’t had a date tonight didn’t mean I couldn’t try to kiss him before Saturday. Well, kiss him again. Because I was pretty sure I’d kissed him yesterday in the janitor’s closet. I just needed to kiss him while being able to see his face.
I pictured Gigi plopping down on Axel’s lap in the cafeteria and planting a kiss on his lips.
Yeah, no. I definitely wasn’t doing that to Jacob. I wasn’t a psychopath.
I looked back at the list and tried to think if it could really be one of these guys. Yes, I had classes with all of them. But there were a few I had never even really spoken to. Like August Ward. He sat on the opposite side of class in entrepreneurial studies. And Zach Fisher. I’d definitely never spoken to him. I didn’t think we’d ever even made eye contact before.
I knew Sophie would say that just because we hadn’t spoken didn’t mean it wasn’t one of those guys. And that my kiss thief was technically a stalker, so it kind of fit. But did August or Zach seem like stalkers? If so they were very good at it. Because I never noticed them staring.
My eyes kept scanning down the list. This was impossible. I needed a break. And ice cream. Yeah, ice cream helped everything.
I wandered downstairs and into the kitchen. I pulled out the pint of Chunky Monkey and then just stared at it.
I was supposed to be on a date tonight with Jacob. Having fun. And instead I was alone eating ice cream. But I knew one way to not feel alone. I opened the gallery on my phone and looked at the pictures Sophie had taken of me. The kiss thief would definitely respond to one of these. I clicked on one of the modest ones of me in a bathing suit again and hit send. “Your turn,” I texted. I wanted to play 21 questions again. This time I’d be focused. This time I’d get information.
I waited for him to respond.
And waited.
But he didn’t take the bait. I was getting used to talking to him every day. And I felt off-kilter from his silence. Especially after that kiss yesterday.
I sighed. Alone tonight with ice cream seemed to be my fate. Maybe I didn’t just need ice cream though. I grabbed two bowls, scooped in some ice cream, and headed to my mom’s office.
“Mom?” I knocked on the door of her office.
“Come in!” she called.
I opened the door and walked in. It was more of a library than an office, really. The shelves were lined with books she’d written and books she and my dad loved. And she had a desk in the center of the room.
She looked up from her computer and smiled. “What’s this?”
“Figured you could use some writing fuel.” I handed her one of the bowls.
“Thanks, sweetie.”
I walked over to one of the bookshelves.
“You used to love climbing on that ladder and being pushed along the bookshelf.”
I smiled. “I remember.” I put my hand on one of the rungs of the ladder. I used to make Axel push me on it too.
“Is everything alright?”
I turned around. “Remember when you told me you kissed a guy after your first kiss with dad?”
“Um...yes. I did say that.”
“Did you like that guy?”
She took the slowest bite of ice cream ever and then shrugged. “Yes.”
“So you liked two guys at the same time?” I felt all twisted up inside about liking Jacob, my kiss thief, and Axel. I didn’t want to admit to my mom that I might actually like three guys at the same time. I was still hoping Jacob was my kiss thief. But if my mom liked two guys at the same time and everything had worked out okay for her...then maybe it would work out okay for me too.
“Scarlett, where is this coming from?”
“I just need to know, Mom. Please. You liked two guys at the same time?”
She nodded.
“And which book did you write about that in again?”
She pointed to the shelf behind me. “The Hunted series.”
“Can I read it now?”
“Absolutely not.”
“But, Mom.”
“Scarlett, like I’ve told you your whole life. If you’d like to read it, you can read it when you’re 18.”
But I needed to read it right now. I needed to know how everything worked out for her so I’d have some peace of mind that it would work out for me too. “I’m practically 18.”
“Practically isn’t the same.”
I sighed. “What kind of weird stuff is in it that I can’t read until I’m five months older?” My birthday was in February. This was ridiculous.
“Is there something bothering you?” she asked, ignoring my question. “Is this about your first kiss the other night? Because you’ve left me dying to know who it was with.”
“Maybe I’ll write a book about it and let you read it in a year.”
She laughed. “Touché.”
“I should probably get back to my homework.”
“Alright. But I’m here if you want to talk about liking two guys at the same time.” She smiled and started typing on her computer again.
And I had the oddest feeling that she was writing about me. I stared at her happily typing in horror. She better not be. That would seriously be the most embarrassing thing in the world. I took my ice cream and went back upstairs.
I was looking down at my phone, hoping to get a text from my kiss thief. Come on, take the bait. Text me back.
I walked into my room and collided, bowl first, with something hard. I went to scream, but someone clamped their hand over my mouth.
“Shhh,” Axel said. “It’s just me.” His other hand landed on my waist.
I looked up at Axel as the ice cream smushed onto his shirt and the bowl fell to the floor. The ice cream had melted quite a bit during my conversation with my mom and it just went everywhere.
My heart was beating so fast that I could feel it in my throat. He’d scared the shit out of me. And I was having a hard time calming down when his hands were on me. I tried to step back, but for just a second, his fingers tightened on my hip.
“Did you just throw pudding at me?” Axel asked with a laugh and removed his hand from my mouth. His other hand slowly fell from my waist. “You’ve been spending too much time at Sophie’s.”
He had no idea. “No, it was ice cream. I...” Why was I explaining myself to him? He should have been explaining himself to me. “What the heck are you doing here?” I was having a hard time catching my breath.
“We had plans to meet up.”
“Hours ago, Axel.” I wasn’t an idiot. Liam had gotten home from practice before dinner. And what the heck? Had my dad or Liam let him in? And if so...why hadn’t they called for me? “And how did you even get in here?”
“I snuck in through the hole in the floor.”
What?! “Axel, what were you thinking?! Use the front door next time.”
“I remember you specifically asking me on Friday to sneak in through the secret entrance.”
I opened my mouth and closed it again. “Someone could have seen you. We haven’t fixed the hole yet and I don’t want to be grounded again.”
“I was careful. I don’t want you to be grounded either. Because if you remember our conversation about you asking me to come hang out with you by sneaking through your new getaway door, you’ll also remember that I said I wanted you at my first game of the season.”
I glared at him. He seemed to remember so much about that conversation. Except for the important thing. When I’d told him I saved my first kiss for him and he didn’t have any reaction.
Axel picked up the bowl of ice cream off the floor. He leaned down to grab my phone next, but I quickly got to it first.
The last thing I needed was for him to see the text I’d just sent. I held my phone to my chest.
“What?” he asked. “Something on there you don’t want me to see?”
I laughed awkwardly. “No.”
He smiled. “If you say so.” And then he started to pull his ruined shirt off.
I watched as his abs were exposed. It was like the video footage of the locker room I’d watched yesterday. And yeah, today too, sue me. But he looked even better in real life. His long lean muscles were tan from his time at the beach this summer. I didn’t think he’d ever looked better.
He walked over to my computer and put his hand on the back of my chair. His varsity jacket was draped there. I thought he was going to say something about it, but instead he leaned down to look at my computer screen. “Why do you have a copy of the varsity football roster?”
What? Crap! Why had I left that open?
Axel grabbed the mouse. “And why is it sorted based on height?”
“It’s for a...research project.”
“What research project?”
“Something with Sophie.”
“For which class?”
“None of your business.” It was the only thing I could think of to say.
“As team captain, it kind of is my business. You have all their phone numbers too? Why do you have all this personal information?”
I folded my arms across my chest. “You’re acting like we stole the list or something. Obviously we didn’t do that. We got it legally.”
“Legally?”
“Yes.”
He looked back at the list. “Why are the 13 guys at the bottom in a different color?”
God, why had I highlighted my baker’s dozen? I slammed the lid of the laptop closed. “Axel, you’re already here late. Can we please just focus on our project instead of something I’m doing for another class?”
“Sure. Ready to brainstorm?” He sat down on my bed like he used to do when we were still kids. My dad had made a rule several years ago about no boys upstairs. But Axel had sat exactly there a million times before we became teenagers. Never without a shirt looking like that though.
I swallowed hard.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I quickly said and sat down next to him.
He moved one of my pillows and leaned so that his back was propped up against the wall. “So what concept were you thinking?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought much about it. I’ve never really wanted to make a videogame. They’re not really my thing.”
“We used to play videogames all the time when we were little.”
“Yeah, like a million years ago.”
He smiled. “Not that long ago.”
It felt like a lifetime ago. He used to come over after school with Sophie and Jacob. But that had pretty much stopped since he started football. Even when it wasn’t football season. I assumed Axel always hung out with his girlfriends after school during the off-season.
Axel put his hands behind his head and just stared at me.
I awkwardly tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
And he just kept staring.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
He smiled. “I was just thinking about how you use to make me play Pretty Pretty Princess with you all the time.”
I laughed. “That was my favorite.” But probably not for the reason he thought. I enjoyed the game. But I was never dead-set on winning. I actually preferred to lose. Because then Axel would always tell me I was still the prettiest princess he’d ever seen.
I looked away from him. We weren’t kids anymore. Feelings changed. At least, his did. I looked down at my phone.
“We could do something with a princess then,” he said.
“Like a Prince Charming or knight in shining armor kind of thing?”
“If you’d like.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Aren’t there plenty of games like that already? Besides, knights in shining armor don’t really exist.” I glanced at my phone again. The closest I’d ever gotten to a knight in shining armor was a kiss thief. A kiss thief that ignored me half the time. And that hardly seemed knightly.
“Why do you keep looking at your phone?”
“I’m not.”
Axel laughed. “You are.”
I pushed it to the side. “I’m not.”
“Are you waiting for a text from Jacob?”
“No.”
“Someone else then?” He raised his eyebrow.
I’d already said too much. “No. You have my undivided attention.” I forced myself to keep my eyes glued to his face instead of his abs.
“Good,” he said. He leaned toward me.
My heart started racing. Was he about to kiss me? He kept leaning forward. And then he reached around me and grabbed one of the framed photos off my nightstand.
I forced my heart to calm down.
“Did you cut Sarah out of this?” He held it up and laughed.
“Who?”
“The girl I was dating that summer.” He pointed to where I’d cut the photo.
I grabbed the frame from him. “This was a forever kind of photo. And she wasn’t a forever kind of person.”
“Of course she wasn’t. It was just a summer fling.”
He said it so casually. Like it was normal to have them. Like it meant nothing. But it had meant a lot to me. I’d cried so much that summer. I put the photo back.
I cleared my throat. “Actually, let’s do the princess idea for the game.”
“Yeah?”
I nodded.
“Great. It’ll be fun. We can figure out a way to make it unique.”
Maybe we could make it about a knight that only kissed the princess in dark closets. That would be more realistic and definitely unique. But I kept my mouth shut.
“When was the last time we had a sleepover?” Axel asked.
My heart started racing again. Was he asking to sleep over right now? “I don’t know...since we were like ten or something?”
“It feels like forever since I’ve seen you in pajamas.”
I looked down at the tank top and pajama bottoms I’d changed into. And I realized that my old top was practically see through. Had Axel been looking at my top?
“I remember your pjs being...baggier.”
I quickly folded my arms across my chest. I was practically as exposed as he was. And even though he hadn’t said it, it seemed like maybe he preferred when my pjs were baggier. Like how he suddenly preferred when I wore glasses. “It’s late and you need to get out of here before my dad catches you in here...” my voice trailed off when there was a knock on the door.
“Pumpkin?” my dad said.
God, what were the odds?!
Axel sighed. “I think it’s too late for that.” He sounded so casual. Why was he not freaking out?
Because I was definitely freaking out. I’d only just gotten ungrounded. “Hide!” I hissed.
“There’s nowhere to hide...”
And it didn’t matter.
Because my dad was already opening the door. He took one look at Axel and the smile on my dad’s face fell. “What is going on in here?”
“We were just working on our project,” I said and quickly got off my bed.
“You know there’s no boys allowed in your room. And Axel, what happened to your shirt?”
Axel slid off my bed. “Ice cream accident. Sorry, Uncle James. We had to work up here because we needed the computer. Since it’s the coding project.”
“What are you talking about?” my dad asked. “I didn’t announce the coding project yet.”
I stared at him. I did think it seemed odd that he hadn’t talked about the big project in class at all today. But I figured it was because we already had our task of picking out a concept by Friday.
“Mr. Halifax announced it on Wednesday,” I said.
My dad sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “That was supposed to be on next week’s lesson plan. And I already had the teams picked out. The two of you aren’t paired up.”
Yeah, that made sense. I’d suspected as much.
“But we already came up with a concept,” Axel said. “And I bet a lot of the other students have too. Mr. Halifax said the concept was due tomorrow.”
“He said what?” My dad sighed again. “Okay. Fine. But no working on it up here again. You can bring the laptop downstairs.”
“Yes, sir,” Axel said. “I guess I’ll get going.” He walked toward the door but stopped at my desk. I thought he was going to grab his varsity jacket, but instead he reached out and touched my old glasses that were sitting there. He looked back at me over his shoulder.
My eyes locked with his. But I had no idea what he was thinking.
“Great, grab your jacket,” my dad said, apparently thinking that’s what Axel was about to do too.
“Nah, I’m good,” Axel said. “That belongs to Scarlett.”
I just stared at him, remembering the words he’d whispered the day he’d given his jacket to me. It looks better on you than it does on me.
And then he strolled out of the room all nonchalant like we hadn’t just been caught in my bed together.
My dad turned back to me. It looked like his head was about to explode. “I better not catch Axel up here again. Or you’ll be grounded for twice as long as last time.”
“I’m sorry. We really were just talking about the project.”
“And what are you wearing?”
I crossed my arms over my chest again. “Nothing.”
“It looks like nothing. Put on a robe or something. Now.”
I grabbed a hoodie and pulled it on.
It finally looked like he was able to breathe again. “I’ll let your mom know that the two of you need to go shopping for new pajamas.”
I shrugged.
He took another deep breath. “Are you sure you don’t want to switch partners? I had you paired up with Soph.”
I figured that. And I thought I’d jump at the chance to change. But...it was Axel. And he’d snuck into my room. And taken off his shirt. And sat with me in bed. And it had kind of felt like old times for a few minutes there.
No, he wasn’t supposed to be part of my fresh start. But I’d been dreaming of that exact scenario for years. And a stupid little piece of my heart wanted it to happen again. Even if I would be grounded for two weeks.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I’m partnered with Sophie for like every other project.”
“Okay. Well...downstairs only.”
I nodded. “Got it.”
“Goodnight, pumpkin.” He sighed again like I was exhausting him, and walked back out of my room.
I sunk down on my bed. Which now smelled like Axel’s cologne. How was I supposed to fall asleep now? Having Axel’s jacket was bad enough. But now he was...everywhere.
I sighed and grabbed my phone. It was blinking with a new text from my kiss thief. I bolted upright. When had that come in? Was it while Axel was still here? I clicked on it.
The message read: “You’re gorgeous.” And it was time stamped from ten minutes ago.
But I wasn’t sure how long I’d been talking to my dad. I didn’t think it had been that long... Was it possible that Axel had sent this? Or not possible at all? God. I could ask RJ to hack our security cameras again but I didn’t want to owe him another favor. One was plenty.
I looked back down at the kiss thief’s text.
“You’re gorgeous.”
I smiled and shook my head. I texted: “You’re supposed to send me a picture back.”
“I wouldn’t look good in a bikini. Too many feathers.”
I laughed. He was ridiculous.
Wait. You’re gorgeous. Jacob had told me that before. When he saw me in my sparkly dress at the party. It was him. It had to be.
My phone buzzed with another text: “Have fun dreaming about me stealing third base next time, baby.”
But Jacob had never called me that. Or spoken to me that way at all really.
My stomach churned. Surveillance of the men’s locker room so far was a bust. I didn’t know how to initiate a kiss with Jacob before the game. And I didn’t want to feel all torn up about this anymore.
Sophie was right. About everything. It was time to solve this once and for all. Operation Kissing Booth was a go.