The Way to Game the Walk of Shame(76)

There was a bit of shouting on the other side of the cafeteria. His head jerked up, and the familiar frown crossed his face as he excused himself.

Grateful as I was for his compliment, I let out an inward sigh of relief when he walked off. He was nice (sort of) and all, but with all the stress of the past couple of weeks, I definitely wasn’t going to be missing him when high school was over.

Ms. Nguyen took a few steps closer to me. “So I heard that you’ll be heading to Columbia next fall.”

I stared at her. “I just found out this past weekend. How did you know that?”

Her index finger rose to her lips, and she winked. “You’re not the only one who’s good at research.”

I just blinked. This would have been a perfect time to show off my wit and charm, but nothing came to mind. At all. “You look a lot younger than I thought you would,” I blurted out, inwardly wincing. Yeah, maybe I should have just stayed quiet.

“It’s the genes. People thought I was twenty-one all through law school. It was annoying back then when I couldn’t get into clubs, but now it’s not so bad.”

Okay, she just kept getting more and more awesome. Any type of small talk that I had planned evaporated with each second that I spent with her. Thank god the cafeteria lights started flickering on and off, signaling the beginning of the presentation, before I had asked her about her dog or something and she figured out I was a stalker and a complete idiot.

She smoothed at the nonexistent wrinkles in her dress. “Are you ready?”

“Of course! I…” A familiar greenish-gray car zoomed right by the window in front of us, momentarily distracting me.

Rudy.

My feet automatically raced forward, and I leaned out the window just in time to see Rudy park right outside the auditorium entrance down the street. I could sort of see Evan’s shadowy form inside the car, but he didn’t move. He just kept sitting there, drumming his hands against the steering wheel.

Why wasn’t he moving?

A light hand touched my shoulder, bringing me back to reality. “Is everything okay?”

I nodded but couldn’t help peering out the window again in case he disappeared. My heart leaped at the sight of that rusty old car. And the person inside it.

Ms. Nguyen glanced toward the window and gave me a small smile, like she understood. “You can go if you have something to do.”

“But your introduction—”

“Someone else can do it. Heck, even I can do it. Who knows me better than me? And, well, you,” she joked with a wave of her hand. “Go.”

With a grateful smile, I stacked all the papers and notecards together. My stomach was bouncing with a different type of anticipation now. Looking around, I spotted Lin standing on the side with a scowl as she peered at everyone walking around. “Here, Lin, you can do the speech.”

Her mouth dropped, and she stared down at the pile in her hands like it was a ticking time bomb. “What are you—I can’t—I’m not ready…”

“Look, the slideshow is already loaded and set. Just click Play and read off the notecards.” My hands waved in wide circles as I explained, already backing away toward the stairs. A twinge of regret and disappointment hit me for missing the presentation and for all my wasted work, but I shoved it deep down. It wasn’t as important. There was somewhere else I needed to be. Someone I needed to be with. “Give the speech and take all the credit. You know you want to.” Before she could respond, I spun on my heels and left her sputtering.

Mr. Peters’s mouth dropped open as I ran past him. “Taylor! Where do you think you’re going? You need to start the presentation! You can’t just leave before it even starts!”

His stern words made me want to pause. Especially because he was so loud that everyone turned to stare at me. But I forced myself to just think of Evan and run even faster. The pointing and whispering followed me out the door and down the hall, but for once I didn’t care, because I knew that Evan was just outside, and he was the only one who mattered right now.

I ran down the sidewalk toward him just as he got of the car. I skidded to a halt behind him, barely able to stop before I smacked into his butt as he bent over the backseat to get something.

My eyes widened as I soaked in the sight of him. When I spotted him through the window, I couldn’t actually see him that well. He was standing on the sidewalk next to Rudy in a handsome suit. I repeat, in a suit. Black suit. White shirt. Black tie. Simple and classic.

Oh. My. God. My heart started slamming in my chest, and the suit was only part of the reason. I’d been waiting, yearning, to see him for days, and now that he was finally here, I barely knew what to say. I wanted to apologize. I wanted to congratulate him. I wanted tell him how proud I was of him, but only three words kept running over and over through my mind.

I loved him.





30

-Evan-

I shoved the heart-shaped balloons down in Rudy’s backseat just as Taylor showed up. Even if I hadn’t heard her heaving and panting down the stairs, I felt her presence. Like the Force. Or Patrick Swayze in that old movie Taylor made me watch with her.

She skidded to a stop a few feet away, bent over at the waist. Her face was red, and her damp ponytail stuck to the back of her neck.

“What are you doing?”

Taylor waved her hand in the air while the other rested on her stomach. Her blue blouse scrunched together beneath her fingers. I’d never seen her look so disheveled. Taylor let out a loud whoosh of air and straightened. “I was in the cafeteria, and I saw you.” Pant. Pant. “I had to jump over a lot of people to get out here. I might have accidentally kicked a couple kids, too, but I had to see you.” Large inhalation of breath. “So you’re leaving?”