He folded his arms on his chest and looked down his nose at me. “You will not.”
That sounded like a challenge. “Get your camera ready,” I told Harper. I slipped both hands around his upper arm, just where it disappeared under the sleeve of his T-shirt.
Then I paused. I’d known all too well that he was built, but I was surprised at how solid his arm was. I wouldn’t be able to move him. But I’d threatened to, and it obviously bugged the shit out of him, so I had to go through with it. I pulled on him and said, “Drag.” I gave his arm a couple more cursory jerks. “Drag, drag.”
Harper had her camera to her glasses, still clicking away, but she said, “Not enough action. It’s less flirtatious and more mournful and hopeless.”
I laughed, because it was true. That’s exactly how I’d felt about Will all weekend, and it was gratifying that Harper was able to see that through the camera lens. Even Will laughed a little.
In fact, he looked so carefree in that moment, like the Will I’d had fun with in band practice last week, the one I’d lost when we got elected to this stupid title, that I couldn’t resist. With one hand still bracing myself against his rock-hard arm, I stood on my tiptoes and moved in to give him a quick kiss on the corner of his mouth, just where his smile turned up. Harper would get the shot, and Will could sigh with relief and go back to his beloved schoolwork. At least until he had to stand beside me again in band.
Just as my lips were about to reach him, he seemed to realize what I was doing and turned his head slightly. Instead of my lips touching the corner of his mouth, his lips met mine.
I was so confused about whether he’d made the move on purpose or not, and so surprised at the zap of electricity racing through me, that I stood paralyzed for a second. Which I shouldn’t have done. We weren’t even kissing, really. Our lips only pressed together. If I’d stepped away from him and acted embarrassed, we could have laughed off the whole thing like it had been a mistake.
Instead, his lips parted, and so did mine. We were kissing for real. Neither of us had tripped into this one. I wore a sleeveless minidress, so I shouldn’t have gotten overheated, but my skin felt like it was on fire.
As quickly as it had begun, it was over. Will unceremoniously took a step back from me.
He turned to Harper and commanded her, “Delete those pictures. You can’t let Angelica see them.”
A hoot of laughter drifted to us. It didn’t sound loud, but it must have made quite a noise inside the building for us to hear it through the closed windows. I glanced around at the windows and saw boys’ faces pressed against the glass. They’d been watching us the whole time.
“Great,” Will exclaimed. “Now Angelica will find out for sure. Those ass**les will run right back and tell her. Angelica may even be in that class.” He glared at me, then turned and stalked toward the door. Actually, I don’t think he stalked. Stalking was uncool and self-righteous, and Will didn’t move that way. He sauntered toward the door and threw it open like a rock star.
And I stared after him with my mouth open, desperately grasping for something funny to say to lighten his mood. He would stop, turn on the step, and give me a grudging grin. I would know that, even if I’d messed up things between him and old Angelica, at least he didn’t hate me, and we’d be back to normal soon. But without a joke, I was lost.
I turned to Harper. “Think of a joke.”
Harper gaped at Will too. Without taking her eyes off him, she said, “I’ve got nothing. And I don’t think a joke would fix this.”
The door slammed shut. Will was gone.
“Of course a joke would have fixed it!” I squeaked. “Normally you’re hilarious. What kind of friend are you if you can’t think up jokes on cue?”
She looked at me somberly through her glasses. “I’m the kind of friend who will support you during what comes next. If you two Biggest Flirts keep claiming you’re not going to flirt anymore, you’re going to blow each other’s lives wide open.”
***
Angelica did indeed find out about her brand-spanking-new boyfriend kissing the girl he’d sworn off. And then everybody else found out from Angelica. During the break after history, I heard her before I saw her in the crowded hall outside my English class, looking small and dead serious as she pointed her finger in Will’s face and raised her voice at him. I gave them a wide berth and ducked into class without either of them seeing me, I thought—which didn’t change the fact that everybody in the room stared at me as I walked toward the back and plopped down, four rows away from where I’d sat behind Will on Friday.
Will walked in on the bell, mouth set in a grim line, a pink flush crawling up his neck. I wondered if he’d gotten so angry with Angelica that he’d given her the “That’s enough!” line I kept getting from him when I pushed him past his breaking point. He didn’t look angry, though. He looked mortified. Apparently he got angry at a girl giving him heat only when he didn’t deserve it.
Band that afternoon was exactly as awful as I’d suspected. Unlike in the other classes I shared with Will, I couldn’t avoid him. I was stuck right next to him for the whole hour. And he didn’t say a word to me unless he was barking orders to the section. He’d brought two bottles of water for himself so he wouldn’t run out, and he must have spread sunscreen on the back of his neck already. He sat on the grass by himself instead of sharing my towel. It was the first practice we’d had in which Ms. Nakamoto didn’t have to tell him to get off me.
As we rehearsed the halftime show over and over, the hour flew by. But the heat was terrible, even to me, and Sawyer’s antics in the pelican costume weren’t funny. I tried to lose myself in the music and just enjoy it, forgetting Will was there. This was difficult when I was often sliding one stick sideways to play on his drum while Jimmy played on mine. Then we reversed direction, with me playing on Jimmy’s drum and Will’s stick in my personal space.
I fantasized about switching places with Jimmy, so that I stood between him and Travis. Just moving one person down in the drum line would make all the difference. I wouldn’t feel Will beside me constantly, his arm brushing against mine and suddenly pumping my body full of adrenaline. I wouldn’t smell the spicy scent of him that dragged me back, against my wishes, to our hopeless night together. With him finally out of my life, I could spend my spare time floating in the waves at the beach rather than trying to party thoughts of him away.