Read Online If We Kiss by Rachel Vail - Free Book Online Page B

toward me. “Kiss George next week at Kevin’s party.”
    “Tess . . .”
    “Come on,” Tess prodded. “I’ll kiss Kevin and you kiss George. Let’s make a pact.”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “I think I’m just not that into kissing, maybe.”
    “You are crazy,” Tess said, grabbing me by the shoulders. Her face was maybe three millimeters from mine. “Listen to me. Kissing is the best thing ever invented.”
    She had a look of total seriousness on her face. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do. I stayed very still.
    She clonked her forehead against mine and cracked a smile. “With the possible exception of gummy bears,” she added.
    She scrunched her nose, then flipped over and snuggled down into her pillow. “So it’s a pact then. We kiss them on Halloween. No backing out.”
    She closed her eyes. In a minute I heard her breathing slow into sleep. I stared at the ceiling and thought about her boyfriend again, despite my recent and sacred personal vow not to.

thirteen
    TESS WANTED ME to go as half a banana and she’d be the other half, so together we’d be, obviously, a banana—split. But I’d already had another idea so she did the banana thing with Jennifer. I went as a lawn: green turtleneck, green cords, and a pink flamingo Beanie Baby pinned to my shoulder. We loved ourselves, how witty we were. Darlene wanted to come over before the party, too, so I said sure, despite dreading that she’d be dressed, as usual, as a prostitute. But no, she pulled through. She had on a whole roll of tinfoil, poufed out over her miniskirt, and a beret with a long white paper coming out the top that said “La Hershey La Hershey” on it.
    “I give up,” I said.
    “I’m a French kiss!”
    Even Jennifer had to admit that was pretty good.
    My mom came down in the witch’s hat that she wears every Halloween, and a new black sweater with her black jeans and boots.
    “Is that new?” I asked.
    “Yes,” Mom said, running her hand over her stomach. “Thanks for noticing.”
    I hadn’t intended it as a compliment, though the sweater did make her look good. Curvy. My father’s wife, Suzie, wears blouses and floral prints that hang nowhere near her body. I used to like it that my mom was less inhibited than Suzie.
    “Can we just go?” I asked.
    Tess smirked at me. “Getting psyched, huh?”
    I ignored that. She had mentioned our kissing pact a couple of times and though I tried to point out that I hadn’t officially agreed, Tess was, like, have your lawyer call me, you’re not getting out of the pact, you wimp, so you’d better practice puckering.
    We piled into the car. I sat in front. Mom put on Bruce Springsteen, who was moaning “If you love me tonight I promise I’ll love you forever.” More pacts. I closed my eyes.
    “Mom?”
    She said nothing but turned down the music a bit.
    “You’re not staying, are you? At the party?”
    “I thought I might,” she answered. “It’s a family party, adults as well as kids. That’s what I heard. All ages welcome.”
    Tess and Darlene groaned in the backseat.
    “No, Mom, it’s not.”
    “But . . .”
    “Mom, we’re in ninth grade!”
    “Yes, Charlotte, I am aware of that, but . . .”
    “Forget it.” I kept my eyes closed and concentrated on the sound of the saxophone. I played saxophone in middle school and it never sounded remotely like that.
    “Is that okay?” my mother asked me quietly. “If I stay?”
    No. Obviously, not.
    But I said nothing. What more could I say? She obviously didn’t care when I said it was NOT a party for her, it was for me, us, the kids.
    I didn’t open my eyes until she stopped the car and put it into park. My friends were already spilling out the back doors.
    “Your costume is great,” Mom whispered.
    “Thanks,” I grumbled.
    “Do I look okay?” she asked.
    I opened my door and turned away from her.
    “I mean I know it’s hackneyed,” she said. “But I was thinking that was kind of the fun of