The Kissing Booth: Road Trip! Read online

  The roof was down and the wind whipped around us, tangling my hair and blowing Lee’s into a total mess. The sun was a little hot, but I didn’t mind at all, and the sky was the kind of bright blue that’s never as nice in a photo, no matter how much you play with the filter. The road stretched out ahead. Palm trees had been replaced by scrubland, and brown-grey mountains lined patches of the horizon.

  The sun and wind were in my face, Lee was hooting with laughter beside me, and there was the promise of the trip still to come. I’d never felt so free.

  CHAPTER 3

  We stopped for burgers for dinner, then I took over the driving. Lee had eaten so much at the diner that he fell asleep after maybe ten minutes, so I switched our playlist to a podcast instead. We’d sung so much during the first part of the drive that my throat was actually kind of sore. (It was so worth it, but I needed to rest my voice before the next epic singalong.)

  The roof of the car was back up, and I put my window down a little. The night air was cold and refreshing. Without the lights of the city, the sky was inky black and scattered with stars winking silver and white.

  Sometime around midnight, my phone rang. I pressed the Bluetooth button on the stereo and answered the call.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘I can’t believe you guys are driving all the way from California to Boston,’ said a deep, smooth voice that made my heart skip a beat. My face melted into a smile.

  ‘Noah. Hi.’

  ‘You know, if you guys had just got on a plane to Boston and given up on the road trip, you’d be here already.’ Noah gave a soft sigh. It was even later for him. I guessed maybe he’d been at a party or something. I pictured him lying on his bed, one arm propped behind his head as he stretched out, a slow, slanted smile on his face that showed off the dimple in his left cheek. I imagined his eyes half-closed, how easily I could slot in beside him and kiss his neck.

  I kind of wished I was there already.

  ‘You’re on speaker,’ I told him.

  ‘Hi, Lee.’

  ‘He’s asleep right now,’ I said after a beat. ‘But, you know. He might wake up. Or, knowing him, he’ll be pretending to be asleep so he can eavesdrop and use this conversation to tease me for the next few days while I’ve got no escape. So don’t say anything that’ll embarrass me too much or be too soppy.’

  Noah laughed. ‘How’s it going so far?’

  ‘Pretty great! We’ve even got leftover snacks from today. Honestly, I thought we’d eat through the entire trip’s worth before we even got out of the state. And we’ve only almost crashed once.’

  ‘What?’

  I waved a hand dismissively, frowning with irritation as I remembered. ‘Some guy swerved across our lane to take an exit off the interstate at the last second. There were a lot of cars honking. We didn’t tell your mom that part when we called her from the diner.’

  ‘Probably for the best.’

  ‘How come you’re up, anyway? It’s, what, two in the morning for you?’

  ‘There was some late-night bowling thing. I tried to bail before the karaoke started.’

  I sat up straighter, grinning. ‘Please tell me you did karaoke. There had better be videos.’ I could not imagine my badass motorcycle-riding boyfriend doing karaoke. ‘Tell me you got roped into singing something totally corny, like, like, I don’t know, “Blue Suede Shoes”.’

  There was a home video from when we were kids of Noah and Lee’s mom singing along to ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ on the radio. Noah was in it too, at maybe eight or nine years old, dancing along and imitating all of Elvis’ classic moves and singing half the words wrong. His parents had found the video a couple of weeks ago and Lee had saved it to his phone in case he ever needed to blackmail Noah.

  ‘What’s wrong with “Blue Suede Shoes”?’

  ‘Are you telling me you sang “Blue Suede Shoes”?’ I teased, grinning.

  ‘I definitely did not do karaoke,’ he told me gravely. ‘But I did definitely get videos of the other guys doing it. Great blackmail material.’

  Noah and Lee were scarily alike sometimes, for all their differences.

  ‘So, are the other guys … um …’ My fingers drummed on the steering wheel. I gulped. ‘Are they doing anything for spring break?’

  ‘A bunch of people went down to Florida.’ I could practically hear his eye roll that went along with that statement. He perked up a little when he added, ‘Including Steve.’

  Well, that was welcome news. Up until a couple of days ago, Noah’s room-mate still hadn’t decided how to spend spring break. I was relieved we’d have the room to ourselves.

  ‘A few people went home, but a lot are still around. Some of the football guys, a few people from my class …’ Noah cleared his throat. ‘And, uh, Amanda’s sticking around, too.’

  I digested that news for a moment. I could understand why he sounded so awkward and stiff: Amanda was part of the reason we’d broken up for a while last year. A picture of Amanda kissing Noah’s cheek at a party, her arms wrapped round him, showed up online. I found out Noah was hiding a secret from me that she was in on, and I became convinced he was cheating on me. I’d broken up with him, breaking my own heart in the process.

  And then he brought her home for Thanksgiving.

  Obviously, we worked things out. Noah wasn’t cheating, but he had been hiding that he was struggling with a lot of his college classes from me. He and Amanda were just friends.

  Sometimes I still had to work on being cool about it and not overreacting. They were close. Amanda was an affectionate person. But, I’d remind myself, Lee and I were close too, and there was definitely nothing romantic between us. I had to trust Noah when he said that his friendship with Amanda was similar. He gave me space to let that sink in, too, which I appreciated.

  I’d seen Amanda a couple of times when I’d been on FaceTime to Noah. We followed each other on Instagram. And she was so darn nice that it was impossible to hate her even if I’d wanted to. (I’ll admit, sometimes I did want to. I was jealous that Amanda got to spend so much time with Noah, and that she had a connection with him I’d never have.)

  I guessed this was how Rachel felt about me and Lee, though. I swallowed my pride and jealousy, and said, ‘That’s great! We’ll have to all grab dinner together. It’ll be nice to see her again.’

  Noah didn’t do a good job of hiding how relieved he was by my reaction. His sigh whistled down the phone, and he said quietly, ‘Thanks, Elle. She’s really excited to see you again too, you know.’

  ‘She didn’t feel like going home for the holidays?’

  Amanda was British and her parents lived somewhere in England, which was why Noah had invited her to the Flynns’ house to celebrate Thanksgiving. (Although, at the time, I didn’t know that. I’d believed they were in a relationship.)

  ‘She’s signed up for some volunteering project throughout spring break. You know, to boost her résumé for when she starts applying for internships. Besides, her folks are off on some cruise round Europe. She said she didn’t fancy being stuck on a ship with them for two weeks straight.’ He laughed at some joke I clearly didn’t get.

  ‘Ha-ha. Right. Well, hey, if there’s another bowling-and-karaoke night, we should go. I bet me and Amanda can drag you up on stage.’

  ‘You wish,’ he chuckled. ‘Ugh, I can’t wait to see you. Can’t you just pull in at the nearest airport and take a flight?’

  ‘It’s only a couple more days. We’re making great time, you know. We’re already in New Mexico. Besides, do you really want me to give up the spring break of a lifetime, driving cross-country with my bestie, just so I can spend more time making out with you?’

  He didn’t even hesitate. ‘Absolutely.’

  I laughed. ‘Shut up.’

  ‘I’m serious. You know what, when you do get here, forget about seeing Boston. Uber Eats exists. We don’t even have to leave the room. We’ll spend the whole time together.’

  I flushed, then shot a quick look at Lee. His head was tipped back and he was drooling with his mouth wide open.

  ‘I guess I’d better let you go,’ Noah said, yawning and mumbling his words. ‘Don’t wanna distract you too much.’

  I rolled my eyes, grinning. ‘Oh, please. Just admit you’re sleepy.’

  ‘Could stay up all night talking to you, babe.’

  ‘You want me to take you up on that?’

  ‘Goodnight, Elle,’ he said. ‘I love you. Get here soon, okay? Drive safe.’

  ‘Love you, too. Now get some sleep, you big goofball.’

  Noah hung up and the stereo switched back to my podcast. I felt the ache in my chest I got when I really missed him. It felt like forever since I’d last seen him, even if we talked every day. Knowing I was only a couple of days (and a few thousand miles) away from seeing him somehow made the ache worse than ever. Being apart so much was so difficult. And, after spring break, I wasn’t sure when we’d next see each other.

  I squared my shoulders and adjusted my hands on the steering wheel. No. It was no good thinking like that. I didn’t want to waste any of the next few days moping over how much I’d miss him afterward.

  Right now, I was on the road trip of a lifetime with my best friend. I wasn’t going to let what-ifs about Noah get me down. I was going to make this the best spring break ever.

  CHAPTER 4

  We traveled through the cities that lined the I-44 in Oklahoma, watching the landscape turn greener, thicker and lusher. By the time we made it to Missouri, Lee was getting cabin fever.

  So far, we’d only made one stop that wasn’t for food or gas: Miami, Oklahoma.

  As we’d entered the town, Lee told me, ‘Come on, Shelly, we’ve gotta do something on this trip that’s not just driving to Boston! This is the dream! This is the best time of our lives! And, hey, now we can tell everyone we went to Miami for spring break.’

  ‘You know we’ve gotta show people, right?’

  He caught my eye and grinned. We took a quick bathroom break at a diner to change into our swimsuits, then got someone to take a photo of us jumping in the air in front of a sign reading MIAMI. Lee even found an inflatable flamingo pool float at a convenience store (which was now sticking up from the back of the car, too big to fit in the trunk). We got plenty of weird looks from the locals, but the photo also got plenty of likes on Instagram from our friends, jealous at how much fun we were having on our road trip.

  That brief stop-off had been a couple of hours ago, and it had only made Lee more determined to get off the road for a while and do something.

  Lee tore his phone out of its holder on the dash and tossed it into my lap so he didn’t have to follow Google Maps any more. He leaned forward with grim determination, his eyebrows furrowed together and his mouth pressed into a thin line.

  ‘What the hell, Lee?’

  He didn’t respond.

  ‘You want a snack?’

  Still nothing.

  ‘Here, have some –’

  ‘I don’t need a snack,’ he snapped. ‘I need to get out of this car. We’re in Missouri, Elle! There must be things to see and do in Missouri! Come on, look something up.’

  He turned to me now with bulging eyes and a twitching smile.

  ‘You think you’ve maybe had too much sugar, Lee?’ I asked, but I obligingly looked on the map to see what we were near. ‘Eyes back on the road, buddy.’

  He sighed, slumping down. ‘Sorry, it’s just … This is a lot of driving, you know? And we’re not even halfway there yet.’

  ‘We’re basically halfway there. Give or take a couple hours.’

  But I got his point. Our carefully curated playlist and a few podcasts had helped keep us entertained, but we were just … driving. There were only so many BuzzFeed articles and tweets we could read aloud, and while one of us drove, the other one usually napped anyway.

  It turned out road trips weren’t exactly glamorous.

  Our little impromptu photoshoot in Oklahoma had given me a taste for spontaneity and adventure, too. Nobody was around to tell us what to do. We made our own rules. Noah could wait a few extra hours. What was a few more hours when we hadn’t seen each other in months?

  And besides, right now those few hours felt like the most exciting and important thing Lee and I could indulge in.

  ‘Okay, got it!’ I exclaimed after a few minutes of research on my phone. ‘We’re coming up on the Mark Twain National Forest …’

  Lee groaned. Beaches were his thing. The woods? Not so much.

  ‘Hey, you’re the one who said you were sick of looking at roads, mister. We’re gonna go see some trees and eat our lunch there.’ I reprogrammed the destination on Google Maps and wrestled his phone back into the holder. ‘It’ll be cute. We’ll have a picnic. Send your mom some photos. Maybe see a deer.’

  ‘As if we’re going to see a deer.’ He thought about it. ‘Ten bucks we see a bear.’

  ‘Do they even have bears in Missouri?’

  ‘Ten bucks.’

  I shrugged and took the bet, thinking I’d much rather have my lunch interrupted by Bambi than a bear. I texted the family WhatsApp – which consisted of me, Lee, Noah and our parents – to let them know about our change of plans. My dad and June were both nervous about Lee and me driving across the country and they liked regular updates.

  Lee turned up the music, now singing with gusto as he bounced his head and drummed his fingers along to the song. Having a new destination in mind that wasn’t just the next gas station seemed to have cheered him up.

  Honestly, I was kind of looking forward to the break, too. One more unscheduled stop wouldn’t hurt, right? We had plenty of time.

  We sat on top of a rock just off the start of a hiking trail in Mark Twain National Forest, hidden away from the rest of the world in a cute spot by a stream surrounded by trees. We dug into the sandwiches we’d bought at a place called Bixby’s, which was recommended on both TripAdvisor and a YouTube channel I’d found. We got a pie there, too. Mostly because I couldn’t resist the delicious aroma, but also because Lee argued that we’d had pie in every state so far, and now we had to find out which state had the best pie.

  (He had been updating his Instagram with lengthy reviews of each state’s pie. I kind of couldn’t wait to see what he had to say about Missouri’s, and whether or not it would beat out the weird-but-somehow-wonderful combo of mint and cherry we’d had in New Mexico.)

  ‘See, this is the life.’ Lee sighed, tearing off another mouthful of sandwich, then using the sandwich to gesture out in front of us. The sunlight filtered through the trees above us, casting him in a green glow. ‘Isn’t this the life, Shelly?’

  ‘If you ask me that one more time, I’m throwing your sandwich in the stream.’

  ‘Hey. Didn’t you see the signs? No littering.’

  ‘I’ll keep the wrapper. Just toss the sandwich. A racoon’ll eat it.’

  ‘A racoon would never appreciate this bacon the way I do,’ he told me gravely. He looked me in the eye as he took another slow, deliberate bite of the sandwich, then rolled his eyes back in his head as he moaned. I laughed so hard I choked on my own food and had to gulp down half a bottle of water to stop coughing.

  We’d walked for an hour to find the spot where we were now sitting. We hadn’t meant to go so far, and it surprised us both how much we’d needed to get out of the car and stretch our legs for a while.

  Occasionally, we heard someone else on the trail passing by. For the most part, though, the only sounds we heard were birds, rustling leaves and the burble of the stream.

  It was just us.

  It was … pretty glorious. Even Lee was mesmerized.

  Our quick pit stop rapidly turned into an afternoon off by the time we’d finished the sandwiches, eaten half the pie and drank a bottle of iced tea. It’d take another hour to walk back to the car, but neither of us had made a move. This was exactly the kind of adventure we had been picturing when we’d planned the road trip, I knew.

  Lee and I stretched out on the rock. We were lying down with our heads near each other’s knees.

  My cell phone buzzed. I looked at it and saw it was a text from Noah – he hoped we were having a nice afternoon. Guilt fizzled in the pit of my stomach.

  ‘We should get back on the road,’ Lee said. He didn’t even need to ask who the text was from. It had been maybe five or twenty or forty minutes since I’d said the same thing – it was hard to keep track of time while in a drowsy food-induced haze, basking in the afternoon sun and listening to the wildlife.

  ‘You wanna take the night shift or shall I?’

  Lee grumbled incoherently but I knew exactly what he meant. We shouldn’t have stopped. It was getting increasingly impossible to think about going back to the car. Neither of us was thrilled at the idea of sitting behind the wheel and driving for eight or nine hours. Not when this forest was so idyllic.

  Lee rolled on to his side, almost kneeing me in the face. I propped myself up on my elbows and raised my eyebrows at him, knowing some grand proposal was on the way.

  ‘Okay. Just hear me out,’ he said. ‘What if we stuck around here tonight?’

  My nose wrinkled before I could help it. ‘What, camping? You hate the woods. Now you wanna camp out? We don’t even have a tent.’

  ‘No, I just mean … in Missouri. St. Louis isn’t far. They’ve gotta have something going on tonight, right? We’ll just … extend this little detour. And then, I swear, no more stops like this. Come on, Elle. How many times in your life are you gonna be in Missouri?’

  I laughed. He said it with all the grandeur of Paris or Venice, or somewhere else romantic and starry-eyed.

  But, hey, I guessed they didn’t set Meet Me in St. Louis in St. Louis for nothing.

  Lee’s mouth drooped, his eyes widening into a puppy-dog look.

  Oh, shoot. Who was I kidding? That look totally worked on me.

  We’d already lost half a day – what was a few more hours?

  Lee was right. How many times in our lives would we be in Missouri?