Page 12 of Kiss Collector
“Kenz—” I start, but she cuts me off with a groan.
“Oh, my gosh, please don’t start with me. My mom made me eat a huge breakfast, so I knew I wouldn’t be hungry at lunch. Okay?”
She doesn’t wait for a response, though. She packs her bag and gets up, leaving us.
“We’ll keep an eye on her,” Monica says, and I nod. It’s been over a year since we had to show Kenz some tough love. We even got her mom and older sister involved, which Kenzie probably still holds against us. Her mom is a workaholic Energizer Bunny who is as naturally thin as Kenzie, but where Kenz is super sweet, her mom can be super severe. Her sister is awesome, though, and was a huge help.
“Did you hear that Lin and John had a fight?”
“Oh, no.” Lin isn’t in this lunch period with the rest of us. “That sucks.”
“Yeah, she was hoping they could hang out more now that cheer is out, but he keeps going to his friend’s house to play basketball after baseball practice instead of coming to see her.”
All I can do is roll my eyes. Relationship drama. They’ve been together two months. It’s doomed.
I take one last sip of my pouched drink and toss my lunch in the trash, then wave bye to Monica.
My next class is Spanish III, my favorite. The second I walk in, Mrs. Hernandez smiles at me, cocks her head, and says,“¿Qué está mal?” What is wrong?Of course she can tell. She’s the best teacher ever.
“Mis padres,” I answer. She gives me a sad nod, and pats my shoulder, not prying further.
When I take my seat, for the first time that day I feel a sense of comfort. Everything outside this room has completely gone to crap, but in here I can get lost in the beauty of the language, knowing there is something I’m good at. Something I can’t screw up beyond repair. Something that won’t hurt me.
Everyone is quiet in the van on the way home, careful, like we’re walking on eggshells. Lin tries to keep the conversation light, attempting to make us laugh. She tells a story about how she got embarrassed at a Chinese restaurant when the hostess spoke to her in Chinese and she had to admit she didn’t understand.
“I feel kind of guilty, you know?” she says.
“We could learn, if you want,” I tell her absently. Seems like a reasonable solution to me. I catch Lin’s look of surprise in the rearview mirror, as if I’m speaking Mandarin right now.
“You know it has different symbols for the alphabet, right? That would besohard. I can barely keep my grade up in Latin!”
I shrug, and the car goes quiet again.
It’s so tense that I’m relieved when I drop them all at their homes and get to drive five minutes by myself.
When I turn into my neighborhood, a crowd of kids stands in a circle at Zebby’s bus stop. Foreboding settles in my stomach, and I swerve toward the curb, throwing the van into park and jumping out. Sure enough, I hear Zeb’s raised voice. As I run closer, he pushes a boy in the chest and the kid shoves him back. Nope. Not happening. I run. The mob of middle schoolers shouts and shuffles closer for better views.
I push my way through them, yelling, “Hey!” and put a hand on each kid’s chest. “I don’t think so, guys.” I look at Zebediah. He’s panting. Red-faced. Enraged.
The other kid is smirking.
Let me guess.“Are you Rob?”
His smirk disappears, replaced by surprise, and he runs a hand through his long, shaggy hair. I swear, the kid bounces his eyebrows, proud that I know his name. “That’s me.”
“Was he talking crap to you again?” I ask Zeb, who says nothing, just continues to glare at the other kid. I take that as a yes.
Rob puts his palms up. “You snitched to your sister, man? I was only messing around.”
Yeah, well, he messed with the wrong kid.
I smile at Rob, Mr. Wannabe Bad Boy, and turn to face him fully with my back to Zeb. The kid tries to mirror my confident smile, but I can see his chest rising and falling quickly with either nervousness or excitement. His gaze tumbles downward to my long legs in tight jeans and back up in awe.
“Tell me, Rob.” I touch the curve at the bottom of his neck with my pointer finger, and let it trail down his T-shirt. Hisbreath hitches and all the kids watch with open amazement. “What exactly would you like to do to me?”
He makes a funny sound in the back of his throat, and I hear kids snickering with shock. I move closer to the boy, talking as sweetly as I can muster. He’s nearly as tall as me.
“Not gonna tell me? Well, let me be clear with you,Rob. You will never touch this.” I motion up and down my body with my hands. “And if I hear that you’ve said another word about me to my brother, or messed with him in any way, I will find you and kick your tiny balls so hard they’ll be in your throat. Choking you.”
