Archer walked me to my car and held the door as I got in. "Think maybe you could come back tomorrow?" he asked. "We were really close ... I'd love another chance."
For a split second I stopped breathing. His voice sounded casual, like he was talking about Ping-Pong, but what if he wasn't?
"I'd like that," I said.
I called Claudia the second I was out of eyeshot.
"He was going to kiss you and you stopped to pee?" Claudia shouted.
"What was I supposed to do?"
"I don't know ... hold it in?"
"Like in kindergarten?"
As always, The Incident required a moment of respectful silence.
"Your bladder seriously has it out for you, Cara."
"I know! I totally ruined everything."
"You didn't," Claudia said. "He asked you to come back tomorrow."
"To give him another chance, he said."
"Exactly. Breath mints and lip gloss. And nothing to drink after lunch."
"You really think he's going to try again?"
"He definitely will," Claudia said. "But if he doesn't, do not kiss him."
"If he doesn't, I'll assume it's because he's mortified. There's no way I'd try to kiss him."
"I'm sure he's not mortified. But he would be if you made the first move. It freaks guys out. People pretend that's not true, but it is—I know from my Ladder research. Even if it takes him a while before he tries again, you have to be patient."
"Okay. I can totally be patient."
"Didn't I tell you, Cara? This will be the year everything changes."
It was the same thing she'd said a couple weeks ago ... except this time I believed her.
Chapter Seven
I learned something about myself over the next few weeks.
I am not a patient person.
It was crazy because, seriously, I was still only just getting to know Archer. But once you're sure something good is going to happen, you want it to happen now. It's why waiting for chocolate chip cookies to cool is so brutally painful—and probably why I prefer eating the raw dough.
That next day, despite everything, I was positive Archer would kiss me. He had asked for another chance, right? Of course he was going to kiss me. I wore a cute outfit and armed myself with mass quantities of meltaway breath strips and pomegranate lip balm. I was so excited, I couldn't trust myself to speak to him at school. I said the bare minimum so he wouldn't think anything was up.
That afternoon I followed him home. I knew the way now, so I could stay a few cars back and talk to Claudia. She was sure he'd kiss me, too, but she reminded me to be patient if he didn't. Specifically she reminded me "how poor are they that have not patience." I figured it was Shakespeare, since she pronounced it "pay-shee-ence" so it would scan.
Bina met us at the door with two mugs of Indian tea. It smelled delicious, but there was no chance I was drinking any. I pretended to take a few sips so I wouldn't hurt her feelings.
"Come on," Archer said. "I have a surprise for you."
There was something wicked in his voice. I followed Archer downstairs. Before I'd reached the last step, he leaned in close to my ear and said, "Close your eyes."
My heart started thumping so hard it hurt. Archer took my hand and gently led me down, then a few more steps forward. He gave my hand a little squeeze. It was coming now. The anticipation was brutal. I leaned toward him just a bit, my lips seeking his...
"Behold the Wall of Degradation!" Archer declared.
Huh?
"Open your eyes," he said.
I did. Archer was standing in front of a huge yellow poster board he'd mounted on the wall by the Ping-Pong table. It was indeed labeled THE WALL OF DEGRADATION, and was split into two columns: ARCHER and CARA. My name had two hash marks under it; his had one: our games from the day before. A circle of Velcro held a pen to the sign.
"At the moment it's the wall of my degradation," Archer said, "but you see there's plenty of room for me to redeem myself."
Part of me was still waiting for him to kiss me. It took me a minute to shift into this new reality. I'd be lying if I said I wasn' t disappointed, but there was a plus side: the poster was enormous and 99 percent of it was blank. Archer was clearly expecting me to be here for many weeks of Ping-Pong.
"Let the continued degradation begin." I grinned and grabbed a paddle. Pretty soon I