The Way to Game the Walk of Shame(80)



Evan bent over to peer at my phone. His blond, spiky hair tickled my nose. “What’s wrong?”

“Carly called and texted me a couple of times.” Blink. Blink. “Okay, more than a couple.” My fingers fumbled on the tiny screen as I tried to text back that I was fine. Why was it so hard? The buttons were tiny! Autocorrect kept putting in funny words and commas, making me erase the entire thing and start over. Concentrate, Taylor. You can do this.

When I was on my tenth try, Evan’s hand reached out and grabbed the phone from me. “Oh god, let me do it.”

“It’s not my fault my autocorrect is stupid.” I tried to grab it back, but he held it straight over his head as he typed. All I succeeded in doing was smacking the top of my boob into his shoulder. Owww. “Make sure you use correct grammar! I hate incorrect texts.”

“Okay, Grammar Nazi. Done.” He stuck the phone into his pocket and reached for my hand. “Let’s go.”

My happy grin turned into a grimace. There was a weird buildup in my chest that made me sick. “I think I’m going to hurl.”

His eyes widened, and he pulled back. With both hands on my shoulders, Evan ushered me off the street and toward a bush on the edge of someone’s curb. I held my hair back from my face and threw up. Or at least tried to. The only thing that came up was some really bitter liquid. Once I started, though, it was like I couldn’t stop. Shuddering from the taste, I kept trying and trying, but nothing else came up. Evan rubbed my back the whole time.

Finally, when it was clear that I was done, he handed me a napkin. I finished wiping before realizing that it wasn’t a napkin at all. It was the edge of his blue T-shirt. And now it was stained a darkish color. “Ew, you’re dirty now.”

“Because of you,” he said with a snort. “You’re welcome, by the way.” He grabbed my hand and tugged me along the street again. A little slower. His other arm wrapped around my shoulders.

After a while, I started to feel a little better. Letting go of him, I twirled in the street. Once. Twice. My arms stretched over my head like a ballerina’s. Evan grinned and did the moonwalk toward me. Even his arms moved up and down as he hummed a funny, upbeat tune.

I don’t know how long we danced in the street, but I swear I just blinked and we were standing in his room. Like we had apparated.

The first thing I did was rush into his bathroom to brush my teeth and get the icky taste out of my mouth. When I came out, Evan was still standing, scratching the top of his head like he didn’t know where he was. Like a cute, confused monkey.

I snorted. “So much for being good at drinking.”

Evan leaned his back against the wall and slid down to the ground. “Tonight’s not my best moment. But do you want to see what else I’m good at?”

Humming to myself, I stumbled over to his desk. “Not cleaning, that’s for sure. Look at all this stuff.” There was a pile of junk scattered on top. Magazines, comic books, keys, pens, and wires. With one hand, I shoved some of the boring stuff onto the floor.

“Gee, that’s not helping. And watch out for that Spider-Man comic!” he complained with a yelp as he unsteadily climbed to his feet. “That’s the one with the Human Torch appearance. It’s probably worth about seventeen grand in mint condition.”

I eyed the tattered copy in my hands. “This isn’t mint condition.”

“Well, no, that’s a pretty bad one, but it’s still worth about fifty bucks.”

Boys. I’ll never understand them. Still, I set the comic book back on the desk. Ahh, this looked interesting. I picked up a stack of pictures and shuffled through them. “Oh, she’s pretty. I like her hair. It’s really shiny and curly. Do you know what kind of conditioner she uses?”

“Sorry, we didn’t do much talking that day,” he said with a devilish grin as he crossed his arms. “But I’ll ask her the next time I see her.”

I snorted. “I doubt you even remember who she is.” Before he could respond, I got distracted by the slightly dull turquoise surfboard propped against the side of the desk.

Dropping the pictures on the ground, I slid my fingers over the edge of the board, curving around the tip. Pretty. Was this the legendary board? So many nicks and scratches on the surface. There was no way he’d hooked up with this many girls. I didn’t even know if there were this many girls in Wilmington.

I’d always wanted to try surfing. Well, there was a lot of stuff I’d always wanted to try. Like people say, there’s no time like the present! I propped the surfboard on the ground and hopped on.

Well, I tried to. The darn thing was slippery or something. I couldn’t stand straight.

Evan chuckled and reached out to steady me. His left hand curved around my waist until I wasn’t going to fall over anymore. My arms flung out on either side of me like I was on a tightrope.

He grinned. “Remind me to take you to the beach someday.”

“Because I look like I’m a natural surfer?”

“No, because I want to see the look on your face when you wipe out and get dumped into the ocean by the first wave you catch.”

I scowled at him, but his grin only grew wider. What did he know? I never fail at anything. Never, never, never.

God, my feet hurt. Stupid fancy shoes. I hopped off the board, yanked them off, and chucked them into the small space beneath his desk. They smacked against the wall with a satisfying clunk. “Two points!”

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