“Whatever.”
“Come on! I really want to know!”
I chew on the side of my lip and spare a glance at him. “You can’t tell anyone,” I warn.
He crosses his heart. “I won’t tell a soul!”
“Especially not Dee.”
“Not even Dee!”
Oh my God, am I really going to do this? Before I can over-think it, I blurt, “I made out with Adam.”
Leti stares at me, the tension-filled silence sucking all the oxygen out of the car . . . and then he busts up laughing. “Oh my God, you almost got me!”
“It’s true!”
“Uh-huh.” He grins at me. “Suuure it is.”
“I’m not even kidding you right now!”
He laughs harder. “You are so full of it.”
I shrug. “Fine, don’t believe me.”
Still laughing, he says, “Okay, Roly Poly, I’ll bite. When did it happen?”
“Do you remember Dee told you that I saw Brady cheating on me while I was busy talking to another guy at Mayhem?” Leti nods. “That’s not really true . . . I saw Brady at the bar with that girl. I ran out of the back of the building and started crying on a stoop. Adam came out to smoke a cigarette and saw me. We started talking, he invited me onto his tour bus, we started drinking, and . . . I don’t know, one thing just kind of led to another . . .”
Leti is staring at me like I just sprouted an extra head. “You’re not kidding . . .”
I stare nervously at him, still unable to believe that I actually just spilled my secret to someone.
“Oh . . . my . . . GOD.” He flattens both hands against the dashboard, his fingers splayed like he needs to hold on to something to keep himself grounded. He stares out of the windshield until his head snaps in my direction. “You . . . made out . . . with Adam EVEREST.”
I nod.
“I can’t believe it!” he says. “That’s why you always look at those skanks like you want to snap their twiggy little necks in half!”
“Do I seriously do that?” I worry my bottom lip again.
“Yes!” He laughs. “I mean, so does every other girl in the room, but . . . wow.”
“You can NOT tell Dee about this!”
“I won’t! I swear.” He sucks in a deep breath. “That girl would straight-up kill you for not telling her. She’d go all Rambo in that hot black outfit of hers and flog you with her key chains until you confessed every juicy detail.”
I might have laughed at that if it wasn’t way too easy for me to picture. “I know!” I say.
I feel bad for not telling Dee about Adam but . . . I just can’t. Maybe ten years from now, I’ll tell her and we’ll laugh. But right now, I just don’t need the drama that would ensue. I’ve got enough as it is already.
I turn into the Walmart parking lot and give Leti a “you had better keep this secret or I’m a dead woman walking” look. He twists an imaginary key between his lips and tosses it over his shoulder.
Chapter Eight
TELLING LETI ABOUT Adam has been blissfully freeing. I spend all Sunday feeling like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. But then Monday arrives and he sits down next to me in class with a ridiculously goofy grin on his stupid face. “What are you smiling about?” I ask¸ already knowing the answer.
“Nothing,” he chirps.
“Don’t be stupid,” I say, and he just laughs, his eyes glued to the door. “Seriously,” I warn. “Don’t get weird about this, okay?”
With humor in his tone, he says “okay,” but his eyes don’t budge from the door, and I can already tell this class is going to suck.
When Adam walks in, Leti’s eyes dart from him to me and back again, his smile growing wider and wider. His lips stretch over his pearly whites, making me roll my eyes. I smack him in the arm, and he laughs.
“I said to stop being weird!” I scold.
“I can’t help it! This is too good!”
I groan. And I know I shouldn’t gawk at Adam as his long legs carry him to his seat, but I really can’t help it. He doesn’t wear a backpack or even carry a notebook or a pen. The only thing he brings to class is a pack of cigarettes held loosely in his palm. How does he expect to take notes?
“Why don’t you go talk to him?” Leti asks.
The corner of Adam’s mouth quirks up in a devastatingly sexy smile when one of the girls up front bounces out of her seat, gives him a kiss on the cheek, and hands him a coffee. In well-worn jeans and a bright red T-shirt, he takes a sip and then smoothly slides into the seat next to her.
“What’d be the point?” I ask.
“Uh, do I have to spell it out for you?!” When I don’t respond, Leti adds, “Because I could spell it out if you need me to. It wouldn’t be that hard. Three little letters. S, E—”
Eyes wide, I yank on his shirtsleeve with one hand and shush him with the other. “Be quiet!” I look around to make sure no one else is eavesdropping on our hushed conversation, but all the students within earshot are busy either talking amongst themselves or texting on their phones during the final precious seconds before class starts.
Leti laughs. “I’m just saying!”
“I hear you!” I drop my voice even lower. “But there’s no way in hell that would happen even if I did talk to him.”
“Why not? He obviously thinks you’re hot or he wouldn’t have made out with you.”