Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55667 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55667 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
I message Violet next to let her know I’m in the driveway.
Thirty seconds later she comes tripping down the front steps. She basically throws herself into the passenger seat. Michael is standing at the front window, waving.
“Everything okay?”
“Yup. Everything’s fine.” Her voice is high and reedy.
“Are you sure?”
“I did something stupid, and we need to leave, so I don’t have to keep looking at my mistake. I might have to quit Mathletes.”
I back out of the driveway and head for home.
“Can we stop at McDonalds? I need a milkshake and fries,” Violet says while wringing her hands.
“Uh oh, you’re willing to risk a case of the moops? Whatever happened must have been bad.”
“Michael kissed me.”
“With or without your permission?”
“With. Sort of. Ugh.” She bangs her head against the seat. “So stupid.”
“He sort of had your permission? What does that mean?” I point to the glove compartment. “The lactose pills are in there. Take two, so tomorrow isn’t another day of mistakes and regrets.”
She pops the glove compartment open and rummages around until she finds the bottle, then does some rummaging around in her backpack for her water bottle. She downs two pills, spills water down her chest and huffs dramatically. “Ali, Kiernan and Toby left half an hour ago because Ali finally got his license, and he offered to drive me home too, but Toby ate a pile of raw onions at dinner and I think Kiernan forgot his deodorant this morning and there was no way I was sitting in the car with two stinky boys, plus you were coming to get me and I wanted to hear all about your date, which I still want to hear about. How did that go?”
“Deflector deflecting. Tell me what happened, Violet.”
She huffs again and pushes her glasses up her nose. “Michael has a date with Abby Hobbersmith next week and he’s had a crush on her for like, forever, and he’s never kissed a girl and he was sort of freaking out about it and I don’t know what I was thinking, but I told him I could give him some pointers if he wanted them, because I went out with Jordan last year for like, two months, and I got some decent kissing experience from that. But the pointers turned into actual kissing, which surprisingly wasn’t terrible. I mean, it’s clear he’s new at the whole concept, but he’s a quick learner and he dialed back on the slobbery tongue real quick.” She closes her eyes and shakes her head. “You don’t need those details.”
“It’s fine. You’re fifteen. Making out with boys isn’t unexpected.”
“Anyway, everything was fine, and he was catching on, but his younger sister came downstairs and saw us and then she went and told Michael’s mom. She lectured us about not having sex before marriage because she clearly still believes that it’s 1950 and now she thinks we’re dating!” Violet throws her hands in the air. “And I like Michael, but I don’t like, like him. Like, I don’t want to be his girlfriend. He’s not even remotely my type. I just closed my eyes and pretended he was Tom Welling from Smallville. Michael’s obsessed with Star Wars and he’s on my Mathlete team and I can never go to his house again ever. What if he tells the rest of the guys that he kissed me? What the hell am I going to do?”
The Golden Arches appear, and I pull into the drive-thru. There are three cars ahead of us.
“I’m taking it you haven’t discussed this with Michael.”
“Nope. His sister caught us, ran upstairs, and tattled, and then we got a twenty-minute lecture on inappropriate behavior and then she wanted us to pray for our sins. We kissed! It wasn’t like we were humping each other on her rec room furniture! I mean, then maybe we’d deserve the lecture. But our hands were all in PG places and you could have fit an entire extra human between our bodies. The only parts of us that were touching were our lips. And tongues.”
Violet stops freaking out while I order her a small vanilla shake and a medium fry. Even with the lactose pills, she’ll probably regret this tomorrow, but she’s had a hell of a night.
“It was just supposed to be pointers, not a freaking live tutorial. What’s wrong with me?”
I pat her hand and wait until I’ve paid for her snack before I respond. “There’s nothing wrong with you, honey. You’re a teenage girl and you’ve been hanging out with these guys for the past two years. That this is the first time you’ve kissed one of them is pretty amazing, if I’m honest. Every single one of those boys has a crush on you.”
“They do not!”
I arch a brow and pull up to the next window.