The Kissing Booth

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Chapter 1

“Do you want a drink?” Lee called from the kitchen as I shut the front door.

“No, thanks,” I called back. “I’ll head on up to your room.”

“Sure thing.”

I headed up the staircase to Lee’s room. I’ll never stop wondering at how big Lee’s house is, it’s practically a mansion. There’s a room downstairs complete with a fifty-inch TV and surround sound, not to mention the pool table, even. And not to forget the pool and the hot tub outside.

Lee’s house is all expensive and grand, and even though I treat it like a second home the only place I feel really, really comfortable is his bedroom.

I opened the door to his room, the sunlight spilling in through the open doors leading out to his small balcony overlooking the garden. Posters of bands covered the walls, his drum kit sat in the corner next to a guitar, and his Apple Mac was proudly displayed on a smart mahogany desk that matched the rest of the furniture.

But, just like any other sixteen year old boy’s room, the floor was littered with t-shirts and underpants and stinky socks, a half-eaten sandwich was festering next to the Apple Mac, and empty cans were crumpled over mostly ever surface.

I launched myself on Lee’s bed, loving how it bounced when you did that.

We’ve been best friends since we were born. Our moms both knew each other from college and I only lived a ten minute walk away now. Lee and I grew up together. We may as well be twins though – we were even born on the same day, freakishly enough.

He’s my best friend. Always has been and always will be.

Even if he does annoy the hell out of me most of the time.

He turned up just at that moment, holding two opened bottles of J20, knowing I’d have drunk his at some point anyway.

“We need to decide what we’re doing for the carnival,” I said.

“I know,” he sighed, messing up his dark brown hair and scrunching up his freckled face. “Can’t we just do a coconut thing? You know when they throw balls and try to knock the coconuts down?”

I shook my head. “That’s what I thought –”

“Of course it is.”

I smirked a little. “But we can’t. It’s already taken.”

“Why do we have to come up with a booth anyway? Can’t we just manage the whole event and make other people come up with the booths?”

“Hey, you’re the one who said being on the school council would look good on our college applications.”

“You’re the one who agreed to it.”

“Because I wanted to be on the dance committee,” I pointed out. “I didn’t realize we had to work on the carnival too.”

“This sucks.”

“I know. Oh, hey, what about if we hired one of those, um… You know,” I said, gesturing with my hands like I was holding a hammer and hitting it down, “those things with the hammer.”

“Where they test your strength?”

“Yeah. That thing.”

“No, they already ordered one of those.”

I sighed. “I don’t know then. There’s not much left to do, everything’s already taken.”

We looked at each other and both said, “I told you we should’ve started planning this earlier.”

The two of us laughed and Lee sat at his computer, spinning around on the chair slowly, tapping the back of it thoughtfully.

“Haunted house?”

I gave him a flat look – well, I tried. It wasn’t easy to catch his eye when he was spinning around like that.

“It’s spring, Lee. Not Halloween.”

“Yeah, so?”

“No. No haunted house.”

“Fine,” he grumbled. “Then what do you suggest, nerd?”

I shrugged. Truth was, I had no idea. We were pretty much screwed. If we didn’t come up with a booth then we’d end up being booted off the council, which would mean we couldn’t put it on our college applications next year.

“I don’t know. I can’t think when it’s this hot.”

“Then take your sweater off and come up with something.”