[[Warnings: Not really any. Minor consent/peer pressure issues but nothing happens.
Notes: Thanks to Hournites for beta reading!
Prompt credit: emswritingprompts]]
When Courtney Whitmore graduated high school she'd likely be voted Most likely to meddle . As that was her best talent whether she was behind a mask or just behind on her homework. She was dead set on doing just that this week. She headed down the stairs where she was happy to see Pat in the kitchen. She slid across the wood floor in her socks, letting herself glide up to the island, using it to stop herself.
"Hey, Pat!" She grinned. "Question."
Pat threw the kitchen towel he was using up over one shoulder as he turned to face her. He was already skeptical . "Ask it." The words were almost reluctant.
She drummed her fingers on the tile of the counter. "What's that game that old people used to play? To make people like make-out and embarrass them?"
"Do you mean a kissing booth? Also, don't you kids all have Google on your phone now?"
"No, this is like a party game? Something about eleven minutes. I did Google it and nothing came up."
Pat did not like the turn of this conversation. "Yeah, um. Barb!" Pat called through the house.
Courtney's mother appeared in the doorway. "I was right here," she said, carefully affixing one of her earrings. "What's up?"
"Courtney has some questions about old party games." He patted his hands down on her shoulders casually.
"Oh, are you having a party? How fun." As she entered the kitchen she saw Pat trying to leave. "Where are you going?"
"You know? I gotta go ... walk Mike."
"Walk our son?"
"Yeah he's not getting enough exercise from the paper route so you know." He made a looping gesture with his hand. "I'm gonna make him do a couple laps around the block.
Barb gave him an amused look. "Alright." She looked back at Courtney. "What do you need, honey?"
"I was trying to find the name of a game. There's a time limit and you like, make your friends make out? Eleven minutes? I tried to google and got nothing."
"Do--" Barb paused for a moment. "Do you mean Seven Minutes in Heaven ?"
"Is that what it is?"
"Maybe ... That's like. You draw names from a hat, and then you lock them in a closet for seven minutes. It's a kissing game." She was starting to realise why Pat had, as Mike had taught her recently, 'noped' out of this conversation. "Why?"
"I was just wondering." She hummed.
Barb nodded. "Alright then."
-
When Courtney Googled 'Seven Minutes in Heaven' she knew this was perfect. All she had to do was set the scene. She unlocked her phone and clicked over to Cameron's chat.
Hey are your grandparents still out of town this weekend?
Cameron texted back moments later: Yeah. Why? Do you wanna come by Friday? (:
Courtney: I was thinking we could do a movie night with everyone, but I didn't want to invite myself and everyone to your ESTATE without asking.
Cameron: It's not an estate. But of course. I'm just sitting here by myself. Invite Joey too.
Courtney: Why wouldn't I invite Joey? He's in the group chat?
Cameron: Right yeah sorry.
The following Friday, Yolanda knew exactly what Courtney was up to. She didn't like it. She made that clear for the third time. "I don't know what you're planning, but I think this is too far."
"Ugh," Courtney touched her arm lightly. "It'll be fine." The group was just starting to settle in when Joey arrived.
He entered a bit awkwardly when Cameron got the door. "Sorry I'm late! I walked."
Cameron's head snapped up. "You walked ? All the way out here? I would have given you a ride."
"That's okay!" Joey grinned. "What movie are we watching?" He was wearing a trim fit t-shirt with a band logo Courtney didn't recognize.
"Whatever Cameron has on DVD I guess," Courtney shrugged her shoulders.
"We have all the movie channels." Cameron called from the kitchen. "I'm making pizzas, what does everyone like?"
"I can eat anything," Joey called through and waved to Cameron.
"I like jalapenos, if that's fine?" Rick offered a bit lamely.
Cameron waved the others into the kitchen. "I can do jalapenos!"
"You're making pizza?" Courtney's eyes were wide as she took in the sight of him pulling heaps of dough out of a hand mixer.
To Courtney, he looked like he knew his way around the idea as he started to knead the dough into the counter. "Well, no one else in the house is going to use the mansory oven so ..." he trailed off.
"What's a masonry oven?" asked Yolanda, entering the conversation.
Rick walked into the kitchen with her, being surprisingly relaxed even in Cameron's house. "It's a brick oven," He leaned on the counter slightly. "What do you need me to do?" he was already rolling up the sleeves of his flannel.
Cameron stared at him. "You cook?"
Rich shrugged his shoulders. "I've worked on cars since I was eight, cooking seems less complicated. I've been told I'm good at following directions."
Cameron huffed, giving him the benefit of the doubt it would seem. "Alright, wash your hands and knead the dough.
"I was going to wash my hands!" Rick snapped. "I wasn't raised in a barn."
There it is thought Courtney, and she assumed Yolanda had picked up on it as well. Joey on the other hand was still blissfully unaware of any sort of tension between the two. Though Cameron might have told him a bit, Courtney wasn't entirely sure. She didn't care about IceHour drama, though, not tonight. She had one plan and she was going to stick to it solidly.
"I'll help too!" said Joey.
Courtney looked at the three boys in the kitchen for a moment.
"Me too," said Yolanda, but Courtney's hand came out and pulled her back.
"No, don't." She slowly pulled her hand back and crossed her arms, leaning against the doorway. "Three men in the kitchen for us? I like this a lot."
Courtney watched with surprise as Rick moved around the kitchen with an ease she usually only saw when he was working on cars.
"Can you cut the bell peppers? Courtney likes bell peppers on pizza," said Cameron.
Rick nodded and started to slice them into sticks, then dicing them to add to one of the pizzas. The three guys worked casually, but Joey seemed a bit lost, mostly doing whatever the other two told him to do. Cameron didn't seem to mind, though, quite the opposite. He seemed to find it endearing.
Yolanda looked away rather pointedly as Cameron wiped a splatter of red sauce from Joey's cheek. Joey flushed very slightly and ducked away from Cameron's grasp. Rick rolled his eyes. That Courtney noticed. What's wrong Rick? Wondering why everyone can't just stare from afar with puppy dog eyes? She crossed her arms, and Rick reacted to the attitude clear on her face but elected to ignore it as he had no idea what she was thinking.
As Rick continued to work it became obvious to the JSA that he was taking hints from Beth. Speaking of Beth, Rick got a text on his phone then. His hands were still covered in flour when he said. "I gotta go."
He leapt over the counter.
Okay. That only happened in Courtney's head, but she wouldn't put it past him.
When he finally returned all the pizzas were finished. He came through the front door with Beth's backpack slung over his shoulder.
She followed at his side, she seemed a little bit embarrassed. "Thanks, Rick, but really you didn't have to come get me. I was in view of the house."
"I wanted to fix your flat before I was too tired," Rick said, almost mumbling the words. He seemed embarrassed as well.
This, of course, did not go unnoticed by Courtney. She made a mental note of that. She was always aware of when Rick dropped everything for Beth and how his voice changed when he called to her in battle. She was getting bored with their back and forth, tiptoeing around each other. They'd be so cute and happy if they just got it together.
When they settled in for the movie, Courtney ran her best maneuvers to make sure that the seating of the Mahkent living room was filled to her standards. Courtney and Yolanda to the left, Cameron and Joey in the middle, and Rick and Beth on the third sofa. Cameron's eyes kept shifting from Joey to the TV as they put on Avengers: Infinity War .
Courtney was vaguely aware of the Wanda and Vision scene happening, because Yolanda quickly hid her face in her shoulder for several minutes. As the movie went on, Courtney hadn't been paying close enough attention to be hit as hard by Peter's death as the other's had been. She looked around the room at her friends. Yolanda was watching, not crying, but the sheer terror was clear on her face as Peter turned to dust.
She let her eyes wander across the way. Rick looked like he was holding back an emotion, but Beth didn't have any reserves, tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. She heard a sniff, and turned to the middle sofa where she saw Joey was a sobbing mess, eyes bright red, even in the light from the television. That was when she noticed Cameron's arm. It appeared to be up on the back of the sofa in a casual gesture, but as she looked harder in the dim light she saw that his hand was on Joey's shoulder, thumb gently swiping back and forth.
The rest of Cameron, though, was focused on the screen. His eyes locked on Peter as he vanished and he had tears in his eyes as well but his face remained flat. Cameron always felt like he and Rick were similar but in 'different directions'. Rick was hard, and stoic because of his anger and he had needed to be with how he grew up in Blue Valley. Cameron was just quiet. Reserved is the word Courtney was looking for. He was reserved . She always found it sweet, he didn't like to be in the spotlight but his actions showed louder than any words he'd ever spoken to her.
Courtney paused the movie. "I have to pee," she announced a little too loudly. "Does it matter which bathroom I use? There's about twenty."
Cameron pulled his hand back from Joey's shoulder and wiped the tears from his face. "Uh, no. Nearest one is right behind that partition wall though." She couldn't tell if he was more embarrassed by her pointing out the house or that she may have seen him comforting Joey. But she had a one-track mind, she was going to get Rick and Beth together. Hournite. It even sounded nice if you asked her.
No one asked her. Nobody ever did. But, as she's said before. One track mind.
When Courtney returned from the bathroom her friends were talking and finishing their respective pizzas. "So, tell me." She began. "Would you like to play a game?"
"Why do you gotta say it like Jigsaw?" asked Cameron, a bit pointedly, he seemed to sense now that she was acting strange, but Courtney wouldn't concern herself with that.
It's not a murder game it's a sexy game. She thought but ignored his objection. "It's called 7 minutes in heaven, and old people used to play it in the 90's."
"My mom used to watch 7th Heaven," Cameron interrupted again. "Does it have anything to do with that?"
"No." Courtney snipped, her smile still bright, but she barely let him finish. Let me speak, Ice Boy. She thought bitterly. "So, the rules are really--"
Yolanda's eyes widened for a moment as she watched Courtney look at Beth and Rick who were still in their own little world. This would not end well.
"My mom loved that show too!" Yolanda pointed out.
"Guys, it's not like the show, okay? Seven minutes in heaven is where you lock your friends in the closet and let them kiss for seven minutes!"
Rick wasn't paying very close attention to Courtney, he was in his own little world with Beth. Which Courtney was painfully aware of. He had one arm slung over the back of the sofa. "Rick is the oldest so we start on his side of the room."
Yolanda shot her a warning look which was only met by annoyance by Courtney. She's overreacting. It'll be fine.
Rick's head snapped around to look at Courtney. "What am I doing, sorry?"
"You and Beth are going for seven minutes in heaven!" She pulled Rick by the arm and led him up to one of the bedrooms.
Before Rick or Beth could fully process the situation they were locked in a closet.
He started pacing. "I can't believe –!"
Beth's heartbeat started to pick up in her chest. She was alone in the closet with Rick, they were expected to kiss. Did she want to kiss him? What if he wanted to kiss her? What if he didn't want to kiss her? She tried to collect herself. Why did she care so much?
"Rick, it's fine."
He walked over to the seaweed green chaise lounge in the center of the closet. "Who has a fucking sofa in their closet? What does he do in here lay back with a bowl of fruit and contemplate how fucking rich he is?"
"It's a chaise lounge, Rick. You just sit on it when you put on your shoes like the bench I have at the end of my bed–!" She tried to start but he cut her off.
"Why is Courtney acting like this!" He sat down on the sofa .
They spent the next few minutes in silence.
"Rick–" She started but he interrupted her.
"Well." Rick stuffed his hands into his pockets, avoiding her eyes for a moment, but when he met her eyes again something fluttered in his chest. He lost his words for a moment. I don't want to have this conversation in Cameron's goddamn closet. This is such a joke, why can't Courtney leave anything alone? He thought bitterly, though calling this room a closet was a joke in itself. It had at least three other sub-rooms leading off of it.
"Yeah?" She was looking at him so intently, but he could see she was uncertain. Like she was trying to read him.
He couldn't think of a time where she ever had to try to read him. She just did. "It's just that--" What am I going to say? That I don't want to play a stupid kissing game? Because that sounds like something a guy my age would say. He couldn't exactly tell her Courtney was targeting them either. He wasn't ready for that conversation.
"It's not that–" he started again, hopelessly. "I just hate this so much! It's so ridiculous. It's stupid."
Just then, the door flung open and standing beside Courtney was a very bored looking Cameron. The others were there as well, Joey looked sympathetic and Yolanda looked only at Courtney with visible frustration.
"Oh my god!" Courtney was nearly shrieking. "They were so close!"
Rick straightened up and something tore through his insides that he didn't recognize. Embarrassment? Is this what being embarrassed felt like? It wove its way through his organs and clamped down. It was quickly set ablaze as he stomped out of the closet.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" His venom was turned on Courtney who simply looked at him a bit wide eyed.
"I told you this was a bad idea," said Yolanda with urgency.
Courtney tried to brush it off. "I think everyone needs to chill out."
"I--" I thought I could trust you . He wanted to say, sure he knew she'd want to meddle but he never thought she'd pull something like this. Try to force him to put his feelings on display for everyone in the friend group. "I'm leaving." He rushed out of the room, ignoring even Beth's attempts to convince him to stay. "Don't talk to me," he snapped.
As Joey watched the interaction, the rest of the night's events pieced together and it was more than clear to him that this had been personal. Courtney came up with all of this to trick Rick into admitting his feelings for Beth, and it hurt him. More than Rick would ever admit, Joey knew that well. He felt a sudden alienation from Courtney that he hadn't felt before.
"I have to go," he said a bit weakly.
"Wait, we can still finish the movie!" she suggested. "Rick is fine! He'll calm down and come back up. He always does."
Joey looked at her for a moment. "Courtney, that was mean. I don't know if you realized that or not... It was really mean. I want to go see if Rick's okay."
-
Outside, Joey caught up to Rick. "Hey, Rick!" He stopped the car door from closing. "Are you alright?"
"I don't really have time for this," he said firmly, but he couldn't be too mean to Joey. He didn't have it in him.
Joey bit his lip, trying to find his words. "What Courtney did was mean and I promise I didn't know about it." He folded his hands together awkwardly playing with them. "I thought Courtney was nice, now I'm starting to wonder if I was wrong."
Rick considered slamming the door and leaving, but then he remembered Joey walked all the way out there. It also didn't look like he wanted to go back in the house. Courtney sure stepped in it if even Joey's upset. I'm not completely crazy . "Do you need a ride?" he asked suddenly. "You said you walked here."
Joey got in the car, not knowing his options otherwise. He sat in the passenger's seat in near silence as Rick started the car but didn't drive away. "Courtney's nice, kind of," said Rick after a bit, once he calmed down some. "She's just meddling, and annoying. God." He slapped the steering wheel. "She's really just– She's stupid sometimes."
Joey was quiet for a moment and Rick started to pull out onto the long gravel driveway that would start to lead them back to town. Joey tried to figure out what to say, he wasn't really great at this kind of thing. "I saw how hurt you were when she pulled the door open."
"I was mad, because Courtney is nosy, and stupid and intrusive."
"Because ..." He trailed off.
"You really care about Beth, I see it when you look at her. It's–" He fiddled with his hands, stalling. "I think it hurt when Courtney tried to show that to everyone, and push you into that situation."
Rick softened visibly. "Am I that pathetic and obvious?' he asked after a few minutes of silent driving. "Is that how you guys look at me?"
Joey frowned at that. "No. I mean, I don't. I always thought it was kind of nice!" He said almost desperately, trying to save himself. "I wish someone looked at me how you and Beth look at each other." He admitted, then bit down on the inside of his lip, just hoping he was saying the right things.
"Someone?" Rick asked, a little amused considering the entire night Cameron was focused on him.
"A girl!" Joey said quickly. "A girl, of course."
Rick shook his head, softening a bit. "That's not what I meant," He sighed. Nothing was coming out right tonight. "You live just past the City Center right?" he asked.
"Yeah!" He nodded. "I walk by the memorial painting of Cam's dad on my way to school."
Rick nodded and took the turns he needed to head that way. When they passed the memorial he glanced at Joey. "Where do I turn?"
"Oh, it's straight down, and then it's the first house on the corner up here. With the big porch." Joey pointed it out in the dark. "The porch light is on."
When Rick stopped the car he beamed again, his eyes still red and puffy from the film. "Thanks, Rick!" Then he paused again. "Uh," he stumbled over his words. "I hope you and Beth can work things out, she looked kinda hurt when you ran out too."
Rick sighed. "Yeah."
He watched Joey undo his seat belt and carefully close the door behind him.
"Hey." Rick said when he started to walk up to the house.
Joey stopped, three steps from the car and turned on his heel. He looked into the window, leaning his arms on it. "Yeah?"
"You should let Cameron know you got home alright."
"Huh," he pulled out his phone. "Oh, he texted me." He looked back at Rick. "Thanks again, night Rick!" His grin took up most of his face, and Rick had to admit he found it endearing. He'd always found Joey endearing, even when he was shooting death glares at him in the sixth grade for always pretending to pull coins out of his ears.
He waited for Joey to get inside (Couldn't be too careful in Blue Valley these days) and then checked his own phone. He was surprised he had texts from everyone else at the party. He regretted the action. He had several texts.
Yolanda: What Courtney did wasn't cool. I tried to warn her. I really am sorry.
Cameron: I really don't think you needed to yell at Courtney like that, but I didn't know what she was up to. Sorry bro.
Courtney: Drive a few laps around town and come back. It was just a joke!
Beth: Text me when you get home.
Rick pinched the bridge of his nose. God tonight was a mess. He wanted to forget it, completely wipe it from his memory. He never texted Beth back. He never texted any of them back.
On Sunday, when Pat sent them a text to meet at the Pit Stop, he did arrive, but something still felt raw about being around Courtney. She stopped when she saw Rick heading inside. "Hey!" She gave him a small smile. "Can we talk?"
Rick set his jaw but found himself agreeing. He followed her off to the side of the building. He waited. She didn't say anything. So he waited a bit longer before he heaved a sigh. "If you don't have anything to say then why–"
"I'm sorry," Courtney said quickly. "I was out of line. I didn't think about what you wanted." She reached out and touched his arm. "I really am sorry. Yolanda tore me a new one, so I totally get it."
"Yeah." He replied, avoiding her eyes.
Courtney must have seen something flash in them, because she stopped. "You weren't just mad, were you?" she asked, reaching out and touching his arm. The air between them got heavier with that and Rick refused to meet her eye again.
He chose instead to move away. "Of course I was mad, Court. I was pissed off. That wasn't funny."
"I didn't know it would hurt you like that. I'm sorry." She tugged on his sleeve. "Come on, Rick, look at me."
His head swiveled slowly to meet her eyes. She wasn't playing games anymore.
"I'm sorry. Really." She squeezed his arm. "I won't do something like that again. I'll let you talk to Beth on your own time, okay?"
"If she'll even talk to me again." Rick corrected her before going into the Pit Stop.
Rick took his usual spot next to Beth, he glanced at her briefly and saw that she wasn't looking at him. He felt small at that, she didn't even acknowledge him. He was wrong about that, because after a few seconds, she did but only to pointedly move to another seat. His heart stopped.
Beth wasn't petty. Sure, she had every right to be after he ignored her for the entire weekend. He wondered if it would make it better if she knew he ignored everyone. Even Joey once he left the car. He'd gotten a few encouraging texts from him but they'd been read and ignored.
He barely listened to whatever Pat had to tell them, he was far too focused on Beth. Which, if he were being honest wasn't exactly much different than any other day. He waited for her to look at him, maybe they could have some of their silent communication.
She didn't look at him once, and when the others migrated upstairs he stayed on the first level. Now staring at Beth again, hoping she would look up. Surely she would feel his eyes on her and give him some sort of indication of why she'd moved away. Some small show of emotion.
There was the sound of a chip bag crinkling beside him, and he felt a shadow over his shoulder.
"You know," Rick identified Mike's voice without looking at him. "I don't think Hourman could read minds. Or are you trying to light her on fire with your mind? In that case I might have to step in with STRIPE."
"Shut up." Rick pulled out his phone and sent Beth a text.
Rick: Hi.
His eyes returned to her as he heard his unique ringtone on her phone. She didn't so much as turn her phone over. That struck Rick harder than the bathroom stall he plowed through in his battle against Artemis Crock.
However, when everyone left, Beth remained. Finally she walked to the railing and cast her gaze down at Rick.
"Talk to my face if you want to talk." Her words were so firm, so serious.
Rick stood from his seat and made his ascend up the stairs. "I didn't know Courtney was going to do that, why are you mad at me?"
Beth stared at him. "What do you mean, why am I mad? I'm not mad." She crossed her arms, but he could see now she was wrapping them around herself slightly. "That hurt Rick."
He blinked at her. "What?"
She didn't look at him. "Like, if you didn't want to kiss me that's fine. I wasn't exactly all for it either, I don't exactly want my first kiss to be in Cameron Mahkent's closet. It was a pretty bad situation anyway, but why did you have to act like kissing me was so bad? You were so bothered by the idea. I just kept thinking, does the idea repulse you that much?"
He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again. He just stared at her. She looked so small. She was the smallest member of the JSA and the least apt to defend herself. Rick had taken up that position freely, but when they were together ... when it was just them, in the quiet hours. Things were a little different. He never wanted to be the person who made her feel like she wasn't enough.
"You wanted to talk and now you're not saying anything?" The words hung in the air for a few seconds.
How did he even begin to explain this to her? "I want to kiss you." He finally said.
"What?" She finally looked at him, and it sparked something in him.
"Of course I wanted to kiss you, Beth. I've wanted to kiss you for a year." His mouth felt like the desert, he licked his lips as he tried to collect himself. "Courtney knew that. She used it against me. I wanted to kiss you but I didn't want to kiss you after she'd just, I don't know. Ripped my guts out and put them on display like that? Like. That's what the entire movie night was about. It was all just her meddling with an audience for her antics and that hurt ." He reached out carefully, towards one of her hands. He hesitated for a moment before placing it over hers. "I'm sorry you felt that way. I was mad, and I was hurt. I couldn't see straight. I just needed to get out of there."
"Well," Beth let out a breath. "That tracks for Courtney." She slowly turned her hand and took his. "Now I'm a little embarrassed."
"Don't be, Courtney didn't realise how bad this would fuck with us." He squeezed her hand.
Standing in the middle of the Pit Stop felt so open and disposed, despite the heavy hair. The conversation wasn't over, but Beth was less guarded and they had more to say. He wondered if they should leave, though it took him a few minutes to get up the nerve to ask.
"Do you want to talk? We could go for a drive," he slowly lowered their hands to their sides.
Beth hesitated, but in the end she agreed. "Yeah." She agreed and they left the Pit Stop.
She was surprised when he opened the door for her. "Uh, thanks." The words tumbled out, a bit delayed in her surprise. Once she slid into the front seat, he closed the door. Her eyes followed him around the car and she watched him settle into the driver's side.
"That was weird, wasn't it?" He asked, scratching the back of his head in a nervous tick.
She perked up a bit. "No! It wasn't weird at all!" she faded back into the uncomfortable silence. "Rick?"
"Yeah?" He turned his head towards her.
She looked at her hands for a moment before she met his eyes. "You could have kissed me whenever you wanted. I didn't know you wanted to kiss me."
"I'm sorry I ran out, I was mad at Courtney."
"You said," As she looked at Rick she leaned in slightly. "Listen–"
Rick started the car but didn't move yet. "Do you have your seat belt on?"
Beth raised an eyebrow. "Do you?"
He looked at her for a moment and a small smirk spread across his lips. Slowly he leaned back and made a show of putting his seatbelt on. He saw that hers was on, so he pulled away from the Pit Stop. He started to drive down the road in town but he wasn't really sure where he was going if he was being honest. Maybe he should have just stayed at the Pit Stop. They could have talked there. He locked his eyes on the road. "I'm sorry I let my emotions get the better of me."
"I know, I feel silly too."
"Why should you? I'm the one who acted like an asshole." He pulled up to Richie's diner and parked. "Are you hungry?" The question hung in the air for a moment.
"Not particularly ... What would you have done differently?"
"Huh?" He turned to look at her again.
She rested her elbow on the centre console, her chin now on her fist. "Things are different now, what would you have done differently?" Her eyes met his, looking down at his lips for a moment, then back up to meet his eyes.
"Oh," he mumbled and leaned in, kissing her once. It was hesitant and awkward.
Beth was almost surprised he'd done it, sure he had said not fifteen minutes ago that he wanted to kiss her. But she didn't expect it to take so long for him to get on with it. Especially after she said he could pretty plainly.
Seeming to not care that they were currently parked out in front of the town's favourite (and only) diner, Beth leaned in again and kissed Rick more seriously; one hand on his cheek. Beth had never really kissed a boy before. She didn't think her awkward pucker with Guy Gardner in the third grade counted, well, she was one hundred percent sure that didn't count. Kissing Rick, yeah that counted.
Seconds later, Courtney exited Richie's Diner. She glanced at Rick's car, as it was a familiar object in her view point, but she did a double take when she saw Rick and Beth in the front seat; still kissing. She covered her mouth to hide a laugh. But for once in her life, Courtney Whitmore minded her own business and carried on back home.