Page 100 of The Perfect Spiral
“Get what?” I ask, not following her. I don’t know where she’s going with this.
“He was mean to you... because he liked you! Or he might still like you?”
I snort at her, laughing at her wild assumptions. She glares at me.
“How many times have you kissed?” Sam asks, while they all try to figure out if he likes me or not. Which I know he doesn’t.
“Twice, they’ve kissed twice,” Hannah chimes in. I avoid making eye contact, because she’ll know it’s not twice anymore. It’s four times.
Don’t get me wrong, I love girl talk... when it’s not about me.
“You guys kissed twice, right, Al?” Hannah asks suspiciously, eyeing me. She knows I’m not telling the full truth.
“Uh-huh,” I reply, swirling my drink around in the cup with my straw.
“Alex, you kissed him more than twice!! What! When?! Where?! How?! Oh my god! Spill NOW!”
Damn! Nice job, Alex, now you’ve got to spill. This is what happens when I drink—I can’t lie worth a damn, I get feisty as hell, and I get seriously horny.
“Hey! That rhymed,” I said, trying to divert the conversation.
“Alex, spill it! Is he good?” Zara demanded.
“Um, well... just to be clear, he kissed me first. But... ugh...” I straightened up, preparing to spill the beans. What had I gotten myself into?
“So he kissed me when you were all at the Christmas fair.”
“Was this before or after your cupcake fight?” Sam teased.
“Kind of during, kind of after. The fight led him to do it. Like... it just... happened?” “Did you kiss him back?” Hannah chimed in.
I just shrugged and said, “Kind of... look, it’s been a while, you know?” They all just smirked at me.
“I fucking knew it! I knew he liked you!” Andy exclaimed.
“What? No! He doesn’t like me, what makes you think that?”
“When he called you on the phone, he was worried that you were freaked out about him apologizing to you when we finished ourlast exam and Selena was attacking you. Remember?”
“Well, that’s when I figured out he liked you.”
“Did he say that to you?” I asked her, and she shook her head no. “Then you don’t know if he likes me or not, he never told you. So I’m just going to tell you he doesn’t like me. He never has.”
“Did he tell you that?” Hannah asked, throwing my own words back at me.
“Well, then you don’t know he doesn’t either!” She retorted smugly. Touché, Hannah, touché!
“On a scale of a peck to a make-out, what did the kiss rate as?” Sam finally asked.
“Make-out, like... against the wall make-out,” I admitted, feeling my cheeks heat up.
“OMG! What?!? That’s hot!” I rolled my eyes at her. This was so embarrassing. I just wanted to change the subject.
“Any more make-out sessions that we should know about?” Andy asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
“You guys aren’t going to let this go, are you?” I asked, to which they all shook their heads no.
“Fine... he kissed me yesterday when we put the kids in my bed for a nap. He asked me to forgive him for fighting with Wes and kissed me. There, that’s it! Moving on!”
