The Way to Game the Walk of Shame(33)

Evan’s breath tickled my left ear. “Are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine.” I was barely able to pay attention to anything but the feel of his arms wrapped around me. But somehow, I pulled away enough to peer over his shoulder. Through the chattering crowd, I could see a slim figure dart through. Her curly red hair swung back and forth in its upswept ponytail.

Lauren.

Evan followed my gaze. “That’s weird.”

“What is?”

“That Lauren shoved us.” He laughed and shook his head. “If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought she was jealous or something, but that’s impossible.”

Noticing the familiar way he talked about her, the hazy feeling of the kiss vanished. “Are you—did you two used to date?”

“Well, yeah, but it’s been over for ages. Now we just hook up every once in a while.”

His casual admission hurt. It reminded me that he would have never been so honest if we were really dating, which we weren’t.

For a moment, I had forgotten that we were pretending. I had forgotten about everything but us. That kiss was incredible, and now it felt tainted and dirty and wrong. I shoved him away, wanting to get as far away from him as I could. “That’s great. Real great. Look, I have to get to class.” I barely registered the surprised look on his face before striding away.

It didn’t take him long to catch up to me. Damn my short legs. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Wait.” He smacked his hand against his forehead and sighed. “I know what it is.”

My heart stopped, and everything grew blurry. He couldn’t have figured it out. I barely understood what was wrong. “You do?” I gnawed on my lower lip.

“Yeah, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You should just admit it.”

“What?”

“Admit that you were swept away by the kiss just now, like I said you would be.” Seriously, his grin couldn’t be any bigger than it was now.

My eyes lowered to the ground, and I laughed it off, knowing that it sounded pretty weak. Even to my ears. “Please.” I started to walk faster, but he easily followed.

“Please kiss you again?” Evan laughed and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, pulling me into a half hug, half headlock. “Come on, just admit it. Come on. Come on.”

“All right, all right!” I laughed and pulled away from him. “You were … satisfactory, I guess.”

“I’ll take that. Too bad you weren’t.”

I looked up at him, expecting to see a smile. To my surprise, he had a serious expression on his face. To make things worse, he caught my gaze and shook his head disappointingly. A bright blush climbed up my cheeks. “Well, it’s not like I have your experience or anything, but—”

“That’s definitely obvious. I mean, there was just too much tongue. Way too much.”

The dimple in his right cheek popped up before he could turn his head away. I shoved him so he would be on the other side of the hall. “God, you’re annoying.”

“But you still like me.” Evan ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up even more than I had, and adjusted the straps of his bag over his broad shoulders. “I was joking. You’re a great kisser. Perfect even. And that kiss? Wow. I mean, it was just … sublime. Magical. I really think I saw stars for a moment, and that’s not because of brain damage from your abuse.”

“Shh!” I could see people turning around to stare at us as we walked by. I fumbled to cover his mouth. “Do you have to be so loud?”

“Why would I worry about a few people hearing about our lurve,” Evan dragged out the last word as though he were singing. He ducked at the exact moment I reached out to smack him again. Instead, he grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to his side. “I’ll be quiet if you walk me to civics.”

I bit back the grin that crept up my face. “Fine.”

His hand tightened around mine. “Well, come on. You don’t want me to be late, right?”

Our arms swung between us, and I was surprised by how comfortable this was now. How nice it was to just laugh and not have to worry about who was watching. And to just do what we wanted.

Still … I couldn’t help wondering if he was enjoying the moment as much as I was, or if it was just all in my head.





11

{Taylor}


“Thanks for getting the snacks for me,” I said over my shoulder to Brian. My eyes were glued to the computer screen as I finished typing up the checklist for Career Day to send to Mr. Peters. “I know I was supposed to prep for the meeting, but I have so much catching up to do for this event.”

“It’s fine. You know I don’t mind helping.”

“Yeah, I can always count on you. That’s why I take advantage of you so much.”

Brian chuckled and leaned against the edge of the table. “Gee, thanks for letting me know.”

I gave him a cheeky grin. “No problem.”

We were quiet for the next couple of minutes, but it was a comfortable silence as we both worked. Finally I clicked the Send button and swung around in my seat, stretching my hands over my head in triumph. “So, do you need me to do anything else?”