I could also smell Brooks, and he always smelled so good. So spicy. So warm. I leaned into him without realizing it.
He bent his head.
I lifted mine.
“Bri . . .” he mumbled.
“Yes?” I asked, breathless. This was it. That moment in every movie when the facade falls away, and everything becomes real, and the girl gets her first kiss and—
The closet door swung open, and since Brooks had been leaning against it, he fell backward, taking with him a mop, a broom, and a box of paper towels in his attempt to stay upright.
I, of course, did what Lizzie Bennett wouldnothave done. I screamed. Bloody murder. Because I’d been so into my first romantic moment ever that I had not expected Janitor Dickson to open the door and create utter chaos.
“Get out of there, you two!” he reprimanded, batting at Brooks as though we’d been caught in a full-on make-out session.
Brooks scrambled to his feet.
I made a frantic attempt to parkour over the fallen cleaning supplies.
My foot landed squarely on top of a roll of paper towels, squishing it.
“Ya’ll want to get detention?” Janitor Dickson shouted. I highly doubted he had ever watched a romance movie in his life. “Get to class!”
As Brooks and I trotted away from the closet as fast as we could, it was then that I heard her.
Lia.
From my phone in my back pocket.
“Did hekissyou?” she squealed. “What just happened!”
What had just happened, indeed? I wanted to know that too. I also wanted to know how on earth I’d forgotten that Lia had been listening in that entire time. A play-by-play after school was in order.
We needed to figure out what had just happened.
Stat.
Chapter 20
Brooks
I poured the macaroni noodles into the pan of boiling water. “Now what?” I had Mom on the phone, walking me through making macaroni and cheese from a box.
“Seriously, Brooks, you don’t know how to make it?” she laughed.
“Sorry, Mom.” Didn’t she get the clue that she was needed here at home? I had sort of hoped that if I called her with my pathetic attempt at making supper, she’d get in her car and drive back.
“But you made varsity?” she continued on, completely missing her cue to come home.
“Yeah.” Somehow, telling Mom seemed less exciting than when I’d told Brielle. Even after we’d been caught in the closet by Janitor Dickson. And whathadI been thinking? I knew I’d been going in for a kiss. But why? There was no one to see it, so why do it? It did nothing but confuse the fake dating thing we had going on.
But Brielle had been so—Well, I think this is where the word “adorable” might work? I don’t know. And she tried so hard to be chill, but she wasawkward. It had surprised me that when I found out I’d made the team, Brielle was the first person I’d wanted to tell.
Not Mom.
Brielle.
Not Reece.
