Oh well, what the hell, right. So I did it. I leaned in and kissed him on the lips. Our lips remained closed for a while, pressed into each other’s, but when his parted and I felt a little wet slug begin to emerge and try to wiggle its way into my mouth, I pulled away, laughing.
“Cool! Nice to meet you too!” I looked down at my arm. “I’ll call you sometime.” Klaw blew me a kiss and then slither-walked away. I stared after him for a while until Noah leaned into my field of vision.
“Did you see that? I just kissed a rock star. The lead singer of a band. I just kissed him!”
“I think everyone saw that,” Noah said flatly, and then looked over at the crowd of girls. I looked too and several of them shot me the thumbs-up. “Besides, I wouldn’t exactly call him a singer, and I’m not sure that three people screaming on stage makes a band. But hey, that’s just me.”
I totally ignored Noah. He wasn’t going to rain on my rockstar-kissing parade. “I, Zoe, am the kisser of rock stars. I am the cool kisser of rock stars.”
“Yeah, yeah, we know.” Noah sounded even flatter now.
“Hey, we’re, like, kicking it. We’re going to this beach party now. You wanna come?” one of the Hoodies asked as all three of them came sauntering up to us.
“Oooh. I’ve never been to a beach party before,” I said excitedly. “Where is it?”
“It’s on the main beach, by the pier.”
“Cool, see you there,” I said, and turned.
“Uh, actually . . .” Hoodie Two stopped me. “You’re kind of our lift there!”
“Oh! Of course. Let’s go then.” I started walking towards the exit and stopped when I realized Noah wasn’t behind me. “Noah, aren’t you coming?” I asked.
He looked at me blankly for a while, as if a little sullen and put out. “Sure, I’ll come commune.” He pushed himself off the bar and walked reluctantly after us.
And that is how we found ourselves back in the car for the second time that night on our way to a party with our travel companions, as well as three more. The white-eyed girl, the one wearing the mirror jacket and someone else who was wearing a purple cloak, so it was hard to tell anything about them.
CHAPTER 54
“I can’t believe you kissed Klaw,” the girl with the white eyes, whose name was Zamantha, with a “Z,” said as we drove.
“Wait! You kissed Klaw? Lead singer of Worm Sheep Head and only the hottest guy on the planet?” Mirror Jacket, whose name was Lila, almost launched herself out of the back seat at this news.
“She has his phone number on her arm! On her arm!” Zamantha grabbed my arm and showed it to Lila, who was now giddy. She reminded me of the girl who looked like she had gotten high from sniffing Klaw’s Sharpie lid.
“Well, it was more a long kiss on the lips than an actual real kiss,” I said.
“From where I was standing, it kind of looked like a real kiss,” Zamantha added.
“Me too.” Noah spoke for the first time since we’d gotten in the car and started driving.
“Definitely! I saw tongue!” Zamantha said.
“Tongue!” Noah whipped his head around and looked at me.
“There was very little tongue, I assure you. It was just a teeny bit of tongue,” I said, and burst out laughing.
“Teeny tongue, not big tongue!” Zamantha said, and also laughed.
“I would take a teeny bit of tongue from Klaw any day of the week,” Lila said, and sighed.
“Me too,” one of the Hoodies said, also on a sigh.
“Do you think we can stop talking about Klaw’s tongue.” Noah looked around the car pointedly.
“Oooh, someone sounds jealous,” Zamantha almost sang that.
“I doubt that,” I said back to her, thinking about the kiss that actually hadn’t happened today. No way was Noah jealous, otherwise he would have kissed me back. At least Klaw had kissed me back. I touched my lips when I realized something.
“Oh God, I can still taste him a little.”
“I’ll just pretend I didn’t hear that,” Noah mumbled, and tapped the steering wheel.
“Really?” Lila leaned forward. “Can I taste?”
“What?” Noah and I both said at the same time.
And then, without asking, Lila leaned forward and kissed me. It was gentle and, I must admit, once the initial shock wore off, it was rather nice. Her lips were so soft and silky and, without