Matchmaker (Empire High #4) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,102

said and pulled out the French fries I’d picked up after I’d gotten her ice cream.

“I didn’t mean to.”

“Sure,” I said. But I was pretty sure she’d meant to.

“You’re really drunk.”

“Am not.”

“You’re talking so much louder than you realize,” she said with a laugh. “Oh my God, this reminds me of one night when Brooklyn and I came home drunk. Do you remember that party at Felix’s place?”

“Yeah, I remember.” Brooklyn had looked so beautifully out of place at that party. I hadn’t been able to stay away from her.

“Oh no, wait. Uncle Jim was pissed after that. But not as pissed as he was after the party at your house. Because we came back drunk again. He tried to ground her for life.”

I shook my head.

Kennedy leaned forward and for a second I thought she was going to kiss me. But then she just gently touched my neck, right below my ear. I tried not to orgasmically sigh like she had. I may have groaned though. Just a little.

“Why do you have mud on your neck? Or is that chocolate?”

I scratched the side of my neck where there absolutely was mud. That was going to look great in Poppy’s pictures. Serves her right. I rubbed it off on my sweatpants. “Don’t eat that,” I said and grabbed Kennedy’s hand in case she was about to put her fingers in her mouth. I pulled her hand onto my lap just to ensure she wouldn’t do something crazy. “It’s definitely mud. I have the best story,” I said and started laughing.

Kennedy just shook her head as she smiled back at me. “Aren’t you going to tell me the story?”

“So I went on a terrible blind date a few weeks ago. So bad that the girl actually jumped in a lake to try to avoid me tonight. I helped her out. She must have gotten some lake gunk on me. Oh, but get this…”

“I’m still stuck on the fact that this woman jumped in a lake to avoid you. What the hell happened on your date?”

“She was super late and tried to set my dick on fire.”

Kennedy laughed and somehow her fingers wound up intertwined with mine.

I didn’t pull away. And neither did she.

“Wait, I need more than that,” Kennedy said.

“Right. I was about to tell you more. She was married to Cupcake.”

Kennedy cringed.

I would have missed it if I hadn’t been staring right at her. Fuck. Why had I mentioned Cupcake to Kennedy after everything he’d done to her? That was a sure-fire way to ruin the night. “I’m sorry…”

“It’s fine. Really.”

I held her hand a little tighter as she fidgeted with a strand of hair that had fallen from her bun. “I was actually asking for more details about how this girl set your penis on fire.”

“Almost. She didn’t succeed in her attempts. My dick is fine. But it was crazy. Just picture a candle and some of that oil you dip bread in. It was an accident. I think.”

Kennedy laughed. “Well, phew. Close call, huh?”

“Very close.” And speaking of close, her hand was pretty close to touching my dick right now. Except I was holding it still. And as much as I wanted her hand on my dick, I actually really liked holding it.

“Did she say why they got divorced?”

“Hm?” My mind had been preoccupied with thoughts of Kennedy touching me. “What did you say?”

“The woman you went on a date with. She divorced Cupcake?”

I knew what she was wondering. If he’d hurt Ash too. He had, but not in the same way. At least, I was pretty sure. “He cheated on her.”

“What a dick.”

“What a dick,” I said. “Someone should set him on fire.”

Kennedy laughed and placed her chin in the palm of her hand. And she just stared at me.

It was unnerving. I felt like I needed to get up and run around her small apartment. But I didn’t want to move because I didn’t want to let go of her hand. So I just stared back at her. “What are you thinking about over there?”

She sighed. “Do you ever just feel like you’re stuck?”

It was like she was speaking to my soul. “Every day. Like I’ll never actually leave high school.”

“Being the football coach was an interesting choice then,” Kennedy said.

I looked down at my t-shirt. We’d talked a lot during dinner with her mom last night. I could tell she thought it was an odd decision for me to choose to go back to Empire