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Twenty-Seven

The next day, Holden catches me after school in the parking lot. Corrine didn’t answer my calls or texts all yesterday, and she didn’t come to school today despite there being a fundraiser during lunch for one of her clubs. Kayla and Juniper didn’t think anything of it, but by the end of the period, they were questioning my silence. I told them I wasn’t feeling well, and when I saw Holden across the cafeteria with Taj, I wasn’t even lying. I was so wrapped up in what happened with Corrine, I hadn’t even thought of Holden’s tense exit.

“Hey,” he says, pulling me toward the minivan. “You didn’t text or anything. How did things go with you and Corrine?”

“They didn’t really go... at all. Areweokay?” I ask.

“As long as I’m not some dirty little secret, yeah.” He pauses. “Am I?”

“She knows what happened, but not that we...”Not that what? We’re... what?

His fingers brush away a dark strand of my hair that fliesacross my vision. “She’ll cool down and then you guys can talk. She’s probably feeling a lot of unpleasant things, and we know how she feels about... feeling feelings.”

I can’t help but smile a little.

He leans down, his fingers tangling into my hair behind my ear, and plants a soft kiss right at the corner of my mouth. He freezes and glances around, but it’s just us and the minivan. “Is this okay?”

“I said you’re not a secret.” I prop myself up on tiptoes to kiss him, but he pulls away.

“So Kayla and Juniper know? Your mom?”

I drop back down. “Well, no—I’m not sure what there is to know, if you know what I mean.”

He nods. “Yeah. We should discuss that.”

“I want to talk to Corrine first.” I grab his collar and pull him in for a kiss, soft and silent against his lips. “I messed up by not doing that the first time... and the second time.”

When his brows knit together, I add, “The first time being when we decided to work together and the second time being when she asked if I had feelings for you and I lied.”

He smirks. “How long have you liked me?”

I debate playing this cool, but Holden knows me. He knows I’mnotcool. “Since your twelfth birthday party. Not kissing me was the ultimate neg.” It almost doesn’t even sting to joke about this.

“It wasn’t a neg!” His cheeks go bright red. “I liked you and I didn’t want our first kiss to be with an audience of Cheeto-stained idiots.”

“Excuse me?” I take a step back to see him fully. “I hated you for years because of that; why wouldn’t you have just said?”

He slides open the minivan door and coaxes me inside until I’m on my back in the space between the front and middle seats. “Why didn’tyousay you liked me?” He shuts us in and kisses me sweetly, one arm propping himself above me and the other bringing goose bumps to life on the skin under my shirt. “We could have been doing this,” he says with his mouth against my neck.

“As fun as this is,” I say, pushing him away with a smile, “we’re in the school parking lot, these windows aren’t tinted, and my mom needs the car.”

He groans in Teenage Boy Angst, but lets me out. He walks me to my car, his hand in mine subtly at our sides, and kisses me before opening my car door.

“Interview tomorrow. My place. After school. Please bring my camera and my jacket.”

“Got it, but sorry, the jacket’s mine now. It smells like you.”

“Fine, you can keep it, but I’m picking you up tomorrow morning for school. Then we can go together to my house after.” He kisses me and I can feel the smirk on his lips when he does. “Reintroduce you to my bedroom before the interview—”

I grin. “Do you remember when I said I had to go home?”

“Do you remember when I said you’re my favorite person in the world?”

“Idon’t, actually. When did you say that?”

“Oh. Huh. I meant to. Guess I got distracted.” He tries to plant another kiss on my neck, his thumb drawing lazy circleson my thigh, but I duck under his arm and into my car.

“See you tomorrow.” I shut the door before he has the chance to delay me further. I can’t help but feel guilty when I think about how I started the day miserable and ended it in pure bliss, essentially for the same reason: because I can’t keep myself away from Holden Michaels.