“C’mere,” Oliver said, and then he was kissing me while still holding me up. I kissed him back, dizzy from happiness and adrenaline and the spinning. Eventually, we made it back to his bed and I collapsed into the sheets, still kissing him, not letting him go anywhere.
Oliver had no problem with that.
“Good thing you’re a better kisser than a surfer,” I teased him in between kisses, moving his hair back so that it wouldn’t get in the way.
“Well, college girls turn me on,” he replied, then leaned in again as I started to giggle. He kissed my jaw instead, then right below my ear, and I instinctively turned toward him.
That’s when we heard the garage door start to mechanically grind open.
“Shit!” I cried, and we sprang apart. I slammed the laptop shut and grabbed my car keys while Oliver straightened the bed and then his shirt. We were both breathing hard, both flushed, and even though I was a minute away from being busted by Oliver’s mom and two prima ballerinas, I couldn’t stop smiling.
“Hurry,” he said. “Use the back door again.”
“Okay,” I said, then grinned at him.
“Are you trying to get us both grounded?” he hissed, but he had a pretty dopey smile on his face, too. “Go! Get out of here! Go research dorm rooms or something.”
I grabbed his hand and kissed it one last time, then disappeared down the stairs and out the back door just as the laundry room door started to open. “I’M SO COLD—” I could hear Nora start to say as I slid the door shut behind me, and I turned and went past a row of sago palms, tall enough to hide me from the windows.
“I’m going to college,” I whispered to myself once I was back in the car, and when I adjusted the rearview mirror, I didn’t recognize the girl in the reflection.
But I liked what I saw.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
I managed not to text either Drew or Caro that night, and at dinner my mom said, “Why do you have a funny little smile on your face?”
“Oh, just happy,” I said, shoving around some rigatoni on my plate. Did they have rigatoni in the campus cafeterias? Maybe I should try being a vegetarian. “No big deal.”
My mom eyed me, but said nothing more. I could tell she thought my smile was Oliver related, and I decided that that was probably safer than her realizing the truth. I was going to have to tell my parents at some point, but I was hoping it could be in the future. Like, the way future. Possibly once I was a grandmother.
By lunchtime the next day, though, I couldn’t keep it in anymore. “Caro!” I said when I saw her in the hallway. “Caro! Best friend for life! I have to tell you something!”
She stopped in her tracks and pulled out her earbuds so I could hear the tinny music blasting. How she doesn’t go deaf is beyond me. “Well, you can tell Drew, too,” she said, gesturing over my shoulder to our friend as he came walking over.
“Hallway meeting!” he said, flinging his arm around my shoulder. “I’m thinking of inviting Kevin to my grandmother’s big seventy-fifth birthday party extravaganza. What do you think?”
“Snore alert,” Caro said.
“Can’t you just take him to a nice dinner instead?” I asked. “And yeah, what Caro said.”
“Duh, we’ve already been to dinner, like, three times. I don’t know how much more unlimited salad and bread sticks I can handle.”
“I love the bread sticks,” Caro said dreamily. “God, I’m starving.”
“I just want my family to meet Kevin,” Drew said, and underneath the eagerness of his voice, I could hear everything he didn’t dare say out loud: I want my family to want to meet Kevin. “And everyone will be there at the restaurant and Kane will be there, so it’s not like I’m going in alone and . . .” He stopped and took a breath. I realized that he was wringing his hands in front of him.
“Drew,” I said, putting my hand on his arm. “You should invite Kevin. If everyone else is bringing a guest, you should be able to, too.”
“Oh, I’m not worried about that,” Drew said, waving my words away. “I’m just worried that Kevin doesn’t want to meet my family.”
“Well, he’s already met Kane,” Caro pointed out. “That’s about as exciting as it’ll get.”
“True,” Drew said. “And there will be alcohol.”
“Tell him it’s like a booze cruise, only no boat and your grandmother will be there,” I suggested. “That’s a good sell.”
“And cake!” Caro added. “Who doesn’t love cake? Oh my God, seriously, can we go eat lunch now?” She looked pained.
“Wait, I still have news!” I said.
“Let’s walk and talk,” Drew said. “I have to head over to yearbook.”
“Can you ask them to cut back on all the picture taking, by the way?” Caro asked as we started to make our way through the hall and toward the quad. “Not every aspect of high school life needs to be commemorated.”
“Not every student hates school the way you do, Caro,” I told her, linking arms with her. “Some of us might want to remember it.”
“If Caro had her way, the yearbook would be a pamphlet,” Drew added.
“On my island,” Caro muttered. “Okay, Emmy, hit it. The big news.”
I stopped walking and turned to face them. Caro looked pained that we weren’t heading in the direction of food anymore.