Kissing the Shy Guy - Stephanie Street Page 0,62

down.

“Everything okay?” Her eyes darted to the practice room door.

“Yeah, fine. What are you doing here?”

She held up a slip of paper. “I got a pass. I owe a fine or I can’t go on a field trip next week. Mom thought you might have some cash I could borrow. I sent you a text, but you didn’t answer. I have to have it next period.”

“I, uh, yeah. Sure.” Still feeling off-balance from the sudden spike in adrenaline, I dug in my pocket for my wallet. “How much?”

“Twenty. Do you have it? Mom said she’d pay you back.”

“It’s not a big deal.” I handed her a twenty, all the money I had in my wallet.

“Thanks.” She tucked it into the front pocket of her jeans.

“Whatever.” I wasn’t trying to be rude, but I couldn’t get past that scene in the practice room. I hated to let anyone down, and now I was in an impossible situation. No matter what I did, someone would be pissed. “I’ll see you later.”

25

Jenna

Something was off. Adam wasn’t himself. As far as rehearsal went, I didn’t really care. Like I said, we knew what we had to do, but I hated to see him so distracted a week before our performance.

“Hey,” I said. He sat on a stool, his guitar draped over his lap. I stood in front of him and set my hand on his knee. We’d been working on the middle part of the song, just before Adam as Tony set aside his guitar and the recorded music took over. “What’s wrong?”

His eyes focused on me for what seemed the first time since we’d started. He forced a smile. “What? Nothing.”

A chill raced down my spine. He was lying. I could tell. But why? Was he having second thoughts about the performance? About us?

“Nothing? It doesn’t seem like nothing.” My stomach sank down to my toes. I couldn’t do this again. Not with Adam.

He must have heard the panic in my voice because he stood up and gripped my shoulders. “Jenna, I mean it. It’s nothing. Just a crap day. Don’t worry about it.”

A crap day. all right. “Why was it a crap day?” We’d been so focused on me and the performance, I realized I’d been selfish. I hadn’t asked him about Breakout in days. Maybe he was upset about something with the band. So I asked him. “Did something happen with the band?”

Adam’s brows shot up. “Why do you ask that?”

He still held me by my arms. I slipped my hands between us, up his torso to his shoulders. I was still getting used to our new status and what that meant. I loved being able to touch him and kiss him. Adam held my hand now when he walked me outside and kissed me for several long minutes before letting me leave. We texted sometimes. We’d talked on the phone twice.

Was he my boyfriend? Maybe. But things were still kind of unsettled between us. We were still getting to know each other.

What we needed was some time outside of rehearsals. The competition might be a week away, but we were ready. I’d simplified the program significantly from what Josh and I were doing. Incredibly enough, it had turned out amazing. I couldn’t wait to perform on stage with him. Josh had a lot of theater experience, but this shy guy who I’d never paid attention to before had presence from all the times he’d been on stage with Breakout.

Lifting onto my toes, I brought my body full-length against his, brushing my mouth over his lips once. Twice. “Let’s get out of here,” I whispered. “We’ll go watch a movie at my house. Or yours, if you want.

His eyes closed. His jaw twitched, and his nostrils flared as his arm settled around my back. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” It was exactly what we needed. Hadn’t that been Josh’s complaint? That I’d forgotten about the part where we were a couple? The idea of losing this new thing with Adam or missing out on what it could become had me trembling.

Adam frowned. “Hey, what’s wrong? I promise I’m good. There’s nothing to worry about.”

I nodded, wanting desperately to believe him. I told him I trusted him, but was it true? I wanted to trust him. I believed he wouldn’t do anything to hurt me on purpose, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t. Or that I would never hurt him, no matter how hard I tried. That was just life. At least, that’s what I told