Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
We reach the photobooth area just as another song comes on. Pie tilts her head, listening. Like she’s trying to place it.
“What are you doing?”
“What?”
“Why do you have that look on your face?”
“This song. I think I’ve heard it before.”
“You think? This is the Go-Go’s.”
“The who?”
I laugh. “‘We Got the Beat?’”
“Yeah, that’s this, right?”
“Oh, my God. How do you not know the Go-Go’s?”
“Pell. We’re in nineteen eighty-two. I was born in nineteen ninety-eight. And how do you know all these songs, anyway? I thought you were infamously antisocial.”
“The radio. Top 40 countdown. Every fuckin’ Sunday.”
“The radio?”
“It was a thing back then. Grant used to work on El Camino in the back parking lot and he always had the radio on. I heard it from all over the sanctuary.”
“And the Go-Go’s caught your ear?”
“They had a good beat and were fun to dance to.” I’m smiling all the way through those words.
“You’re such a dork. And I think it’s cute that you call his car El Camino.”
“What do you mean? That was its name.”
She just pats my chest and mutters, “Cute.” Then she points to a table of props where a group of teenagers are sorting through glitter glasses and feather boas. “Props or no props?”
“Whatever you want, sweet Pie.”
“I say no props.” She places her hands on my shoulders and leans up on her tiptoes to kiss my mouth. In the middle of the kiss she whispers, “Just us. That’s all we need, ya know? Just us.”
When she pulls back, I grab her around the waist and tug her towards me again. “Pie.” I say this seriously because I’m being very serious. “It’s going to be us forever, and ever, and ever.”
“I know.”
We spend a moment lost in each other’s eyes. And then someone pokes me.
I turn and find a massive teenage boy—obviously an athlete—with cropped blond hair, clean-cut face, and piercing green eyes. He nods his head at me, then points to the booth. “It’s your turn, dude.”
I smile and turn Pie around, then glance over my shoulder at him as she leads me into the booth.
He looks familiar. Like maybe we’ve met before at some point in the past.
Or hell, maybe I’ve seen him in the present. He’s got a Roth look to him. Like maybe he’s Russ’s uncle, or father, or cousin-in-law. And isn’t it interesting that he could see us? I mean, sometimes the hallway people do see us, but usually it’s only after we’ve been interacting with them too much. Like they want to ignore us, but can’t.
Pie and I haven’t been interacting with anyone here. And we were just quietly standing in line, talking between ourselves and waiting our turn.
Pie steps into the booth and tugs me in behind her. But just before she swishes the red-velvet curtain closed, I spy the Roth kid still staring at me.
Then he’s gone and Pie is pushing me to sit down on the tiny bench. I barely fit in here, and the only way she fits with me is by sitting on my lap.
She wraps her arms around my neck and presses her cheek up to mine. “OK. We get five pics. They’re gonna come like flash, flash, flash, flash.” She blinks her fingers each time she says the word ‘flash,’ very animated about this photoshoot. “So we need to decide. Do we want to pose or be natural? Look hot and sexy or make goofy faces?”
I reach over, press the green button, and then start kissing Pie.
She giggles at first, and flash!
But then I cup her face and take her mouth, and flash!
I take my kisses to her neck and she tips her head back, exposing her throat so I can nibble my way down her neck, and flash!
Then I grip her shoulders as she opens her eyes and stares down at me with a hunger that makes me hard, and flash!
The next moment, she’s got her fingers in my hair, tousling it, and she kisses my cheek as we both stare straight ahead, and flash!
Done.
We come out of the booth, kinda breathless. And it feels like everyone in the ballroom is watching us. It feels that way, because they are.
“Ut-oh,” Pie whispers. “I think they’ve realized we don’t belong here.”
“Yep.” Then I look across the ballroom and sure enough, there’s a huge double door. “It’s time to leave.”
Pie sighs. “Well, it was fun while it lasted.” Then she looks up at me. “Do you think this is our goodbye tour, Pell?”
“Goodbye tour?”
“Yeah. The band is breaking up. The sanctuary is crumbling. The curse might be over. This might be the last chance we have in the hallways.”
“Huh.” I am unexpectedly sad about this.
“Oooo!” Pie squeals as the booth spits out our photo strip. She grabs it from the little silver cage and blows on it, just in case it’s still wet. Then she sighs again. Only this time, it’s a swoony sigh. “Look, Pell. It’s really us.”