‘I’ll talk to you later. Good luck.’
He gave me his infamous smirk as he walked backward toward the gate. ‘Luck? Shelly, you forget – this is Flynn you’re talking to. I don’t need luck.’
I laughed, and wasn’t entirely shocked when a tear splashed down my cheek; I felt the salty taste on the corner of my mouth, where the memory of Noah’s kisses lingered. ‘Stupid violence junkie.’
He winked, laughing, and disappeared through the gate, out of sight.
A few minutes later, I stood by the windows, watching the plane roll down the runway, and I felt someone at my side, putting an arm around me. I leaned my head on Lee’s shoulder. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. He was there for me, just like he always would be.
As Noah’s plane built up speed and eased up into the air and the wheels left the ground, I felt myself smiling a little – a sad smile.
Maybe things really would work out with Noah. I hoped they did. I had my fingers crossed tightly by my side. Maybe things wouldn’t work out with Noah – we’d meet other people, or we’d drift apart, or a long-distance relationship just wouldn’t suit us. But whatever happened, I knew there was part of me that was always going to belong to Noah Flynn, the school bad-ass; a little piece of my heart that was always going to be his.
Whatever happens, I told myself, staring after Noah’s plane,things are going to be okay.
‘Just think,’ Lee said then, ‘all this, just from the kissing booth.’
I laughed, pushing him slightly, and he laughed too, squeezing me tight for a second before we turned away from the view of the empty runway, where the plane was lost somewhere in the cloudy sky, and walked off.
