Read The Kissing Booth for Free Online Page A

5
    LUNCH TRAYS CLATTERED down all around me, and I looked up to find a swarm of girls, both juniors and seniors, clustering.
    ‘So,’ Jaime said chirpily, sitting down opposite me with a huge grin. ‘Tell us everything!’
    ‘About what?’ I frowned in confusion, setting my fork down on the side of my plate of salad.
    ‘About Flynn of course!’ Olivia squealed, leaning in to hear better. ‘We want to know everything. Are you guys, like, together or something?’
    I scoffed. ‘God, no.’
    ‘But you call him
Noah
,’ one of the other girls said, and I looked over to see Tamara, who’d dropped her voice to whisper his name, like she was scared he’d hear her. ‘You don’t call him Flynn.’
    I shrugged. ‘I’ve always done that, though. He was always there when I was growing up. He even told me I was like his little sister this morning. He’s just a good guy.’
    ‘A good guy who always gets in fights?’ Georgia raised a skeptical eyebrow. ‘Puh-lease. He’s protective of you – he always has been.’
    My eyes narrowed and I felt my forehead crease again. ‘What do you mean, he’s
always
been protective of me?’
    The girls all looked at each other. Then, finally, Faith said, ‘You mean you didn’t know?’
    ‘Obviously not,’ I exclaimed, getting more and more frustrated by the second. ‘What don’t I know?’
    ‘Flynn’s always told guys to back off of you,’ Olivia told me confidentially. ‘Told them if they ever did anything to hurt you, they’d be sorry.’
    I blinked a couple of times, staring at her, and then burst out laughing. ‘You’re joking, right?’
    The girls looked at each other again, and I sobered up.
    ‘Oh, come on,’ I said. ‘Look, he’s just acting like the protective big brother, all right? That’s all it is.’
    They looked at each other doubtfully again.
    Jaime finally said, ‘Well, if you’re totally sure . . .’
    ‘A hundred and ten percent. Ask Lee if you don’t believe me.’
    ‘Speaking of, where is your other half?’ Tamara asked.
    ‘He’s in woodwork,’ I said. ‘He wanted to get a head start on our banner. I, on the other hand, wanted some lunch.’
    ‘Fair enough,’ Candice said. ‘Hey, did you get Flynn to do the booth?’
    ‘He won’t. I tried. Believe me, I tried.’
    They all sighed. ‘I wish he would. I’d pay good money for that booth,’ Georgia said, making us all laugh.
    ‘Did he say why he won’t?’ Karen asked.
    I shrugged. ‘Not really.’
    ‘Hey,’ said Lily suddenly, a gleam in her eyes as she looked from Karen to Dana and Samantha. ‘Maybe Flynn will come to the booth, if he’s not going to be a part of it.’
    They all immediately squealed in excitement.
    Not that I blamed them.
    ‘Oh my God! Elle, if you can’t persuade him to work the booth, at least persuade him to stop by!’
    I wavered. ‘I can’t make any promises . . .’
    ‘But you’ll try?’ Dana persisted.
    I heard my cell phone bleep, and went to check my pockets before I realized that I had no pockets in this damn skirt. I sighed to myself before reaching down for my bag and rummaging for my cell phone.
    Come by woodwork, need some help!
read the text.
    I put my phone back and stood up, picking up my lunch tray. ‘I have to go help Lee. I’m guessing he needs a girl’s touch.’
    They laughed, and called their goodbyes.
    ‘Oh, Elle?’
    I turned back. ‘Yeah?’
    ‘
Ask him
,’ Samantha told me with a pointed look.
    I chuckled and nodded at her, making them all squeal, then shook my head to myself.
    And okay, admittedly I wasn’t an awful lot better really. But still – I was over my crush. Completely so since he’d told me I was just a sister to him.
    But that didn’t mean he was any less attractive.
    When I got to woodwork, Lee was tapping a pencil really impatiently against a big plank of wood. After just ten seconds, it was already driving me mad – I didn’t blame Mr. Preston for leaving Lee for the peace of his office