Page 8 of One Little Kiss
Leah pounds my back, calling more attention to the fact that I just inhaled my coffee at the sight of my best friend.
So yeah. The whole not noticing thing isn’t working out great for me today.
Noelle tips her head to the side and arches a brow, one hip stuck out. I swear she’s posing on a runway right now. She’s taken her hair out of that messy bun and her shiny locks are falling around her shoulders in dark waves that have that tousled, just-got-out-of-your-bed vibe.
Because shedidjust get out of my bed.
Just…not like that.
I dip my head to take a sip and compose myself.
When I look up again, Noelle’s gaze is narrowed on me. “What’s wrong with you?”
It takes me no time at all to recover. “Just thinking about the scavenger hunt.”
The lie rolls right off my tongue.
“What about it?” She perches on a barstool at the kitchen island in this kitchen which is way too big considering it’s usually just me puttering around this house.
“You said last night it was too easy.”
She pouts, and the expression makes my lips twitch with the urge to smile.
“It’s a lot of money on the line,” I point out. And it is. A few grand would go a long way. I didn’t think anyone was really playingjustfor the money—except maybe Mara, that girl is determined to get money for college and no one blames her.
“So, what? You’re gonna add even more new challenges?” Noelle asks.
“Ooh, fun.” Leah wiggles her eyebrows.
Noelle shoots her an arch look. “You only say that because you’re not competing.”
“True,” Leah concedes.
I told Leah she could compete, but she pointed out that it would be nepotism if she won. I’m still not sure if that’s true, but she and I are having fun creating new tasks and working on the app together, so I’d say she’s not missing out on much.
Leah looks at me eagerly. “What kind of new challenges?”
I don’t look away from Noelle. I can’t, for some reason. Those dark eyes of hers are oddly intense when she stares right at me like this and I’m rarely the one to break eye contact. I think about what she said the night before. Of how she’s been tagging along with all these other teams. Something about that strikes me as…
Notunfair, necessarily.
But not in the spirit of the game, either.
“I’m thinking of adding some challenges that are solo. No teams.”
She blinks at me, and I see her mind working. No one would ever call Noelle dumb. She might not get the best grades like Celia and Mara, but she’s smart in a more worldly streetsmarts sort of way that I admire. Other times, it makes me feel a little sorry for her.
No seventeen-year-old should be so jaded.
She tilts her head to the side, and it’s only a little tick of a muscle near her mouth that lets me know she’s feeling something. “You think I don’t deserve to be winning.”
It’s not a question, and I’m not sure how to answer. It’s not that I don’t think she deserves it, it’s just…
Things come easily to Noelle. I didn’t need Mara to tell me the tale of how they’d gotten into the fire station or who had sweet talked the firemen into letting them wear their clothes.
But I’d bet money that some of the guy-centric teams she joined for the more difficult tasks wouldn’t let her lift a pinky to…say, dig through the dumpster behind the school to find one of the empty cigarette cartons Mrs. Mallonick swears she doesn’t smoke.
I’m sure Noelle pulls her weight. No…I’m sure shewantsto pull her weight. But like it or not, life is not fair, and hot girls like Noelle don’t always have to work for what they get.
