Page 43 of The Facade

“Sorry,” I said, bending over as I tried to stop laughing. “I just wasn’t expecting that.”

“Yeah, neither was Ben.”

And when she said that, I couldn’t keep another round of giggles from bursting out of me.

She turned on her heel and started walking away. “I’m never going to live this down.”

“Stop trying to run away.” I chased after her and tugged on her arm to stop her before she could climb up the ladder that led to the top level of the playground equipment. “I’m sure it will be fine.”

“He’s going to tell everyone.”

“Maybe not,” I said. “I mean, he’s probably still here. You could go find him again and ask for a re-do.”

“He’s not going to want a re-do,” she said, glaring at me like I was an idiot for suggesting such a thing. “And even if he didn’t run when he saw me, who’s to say I wouldn’t just do the same thing again?”

“You won’t.” I took both of her shoulders in my hands and drew in a deep breath, hoping she’d follow suit so she could calm down and realize this wasn’t the end of the world.

She took a few breaths with me, and for a second, I thought it was working. But then she squeezed her eyes shut, leaned her head back, and said, “This is a nightmare.” She straightened and met my gaze. “The hottest guy at school just kissed me and I basically gagged over it.”

“I don’t know if I’d say he’s the hottest guy at school,” I said, unable to let her remark go without comment.

“This is not the time to get into a debate about how you think you’re hotter than Ben.” She glared at me. “I’m seriously going to have to go home and convince my parents to let me do homeschool.”

“You’re going to let one embarrassing moment keep you from attending school?” I asked. “Come on, I embarrass myself in front of people all the time. It’s not the end of the world.”

“You didn’t see Ben’s face.” She looked at me seriously. “He one-hundred-percent thinks I’m crazy.”

“So just go back and explain what happened and ask for that re-do.”

“Sorry, but I can’t face him again.” She shook her head. “It was too horrifying.”

“So you’re just going to skip out on the rest of your junior year? What about the Halloween dance tomorrow?” I asked, knowing how much she’d been looking forward to it. “You’ve been planning to surprise everyone with your costume, haven’t you? Are you really going to miss out on all the fun things in high school just because of a bad kiss?”

At my mention of the Halloween dance, something sparked in Cambrielle’s eyes. Then she whispered, “That’s it. I can still go to the Halloween dance.” Her whole countenance brightened, and before I knew it, she was hugging me and saying, “You’re a genius, Mack. Thank you!”

13

Cambrielle

“So,um, how exactly am I a genius?” Mack asked when I pulled away from my impromptu hug.

“You just reminded me about my plans for the dance tomorrow and, um…” I tucked some hair behind my ear. “And I think everything might be okay.”

I’d originally planned to use my Kelana costume to be brave and talk to Ben at the party. But things had changed a little since I’d made those original plans—I’d actually talked to Ben a couple of times and gotten on his radar.

But sadly for me, things were not any better than they’d been before I’d gotten up the nerve to talk to him.

In fact, they were worse. So much worse because he knew exactly who I was, and at my first chance to really make something happen, I’d blown it.

Blown it to smithereens,as my grandpa Hastings would say.

When Ben had first pulled me into a storage closet on the second floor, my heart had been beating so fast because I could feel something was going to happen. And when he told me he’d had a crush on me for a while and had just been too nervous to talk to me, my heart had nearly leapt out of my chest because I couldn’t believe that Ben actually liked me back.

I hadn’t expected him to kiss me, since we were in a creepy closet standing next to a fake corpse—not my idea of a romantic atmosphere. But when he slipped his hand to the nape of my neck and slowly bent closer to kiss me, I tried to ignore our surroundings and focus on what Ben was doing.

I’d managed to stay in the moment and tried to kiss him back in the way I’d seen people kiss in the movies, but that was the funny thing with movies. You didn’t always see everything that went on, the camera lens only caught so much. And so when he slipped his tongue inside my mouth, I’d been so surprised by it that I’d done what I always do when something gross gets in my mouth. I completely ruined everything.

I could still see the look on his face when I wiped my hand off on him. His shocked eyes. The look of horror.

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