“You’re so beautiful,” the slippery singer continued.
“Th-thanks,” and now I giggled. It felt very undignified, but it happened anyway, and I heard a chorus of breathy sighs coming from the girls standing close by. I looked over at them and the girl with the white eyes caught my attention.
“Kiss him!” she mouthed to me, and I immediately felt my cheeks go red. I shook my head at her, but she countered my shake with a very vigorous nod. And then the girl next to her nodded, and soon they were all nodding. I looked back at Klaw. He was definitely increasing his lean. A long, languid lean, like a thick liquid slowly dripping down the side of a wall.
“Sooooo,” the word oozed from his lips, “you want to like, hang out or . . .something?” He made that “something” sound like a loaded gun.
“Um, I mean, sure,” I replied.
“Well, actually.” Noah’s head was back again. “We were just leaving.”
“I’m sure she can stay a little longer, can’t she?” Klaw came closer to me, his body almost touching mine now. I looked over at the group of girls, and White Eyes caught my attention. She stuck her tongue out and flicked it about in the air.Oh my God, she had a tongue like a snake!Everyone around her laughed and I quickly looked away.
“Wewereactually about to leave,” I said.
“Noooooo.” He pushed his lower lip out into a pout, revealing a tattoo on the inside of his lip that looked like a finger engaged in a zap sign. “Such a pity, but here.” Klaw took my arm and pulled a Sharpie out of the front of his pants. He raised the lid to his mouth and then, with this sexy casualness, he pulled the lid off with his teeth and spat it to the floor. He lowered the Sharpie to my arm, still making this uncomfortably intense eye contact, and then scribbled his number all the way down it. When he was done, he tossed the Sharpie over his shoulder nonchalantly. Noah protested and swatted it as it connected with his forehead, and I think I heard him mutter something that sounded like “douchebag.”
Klaw pointed to my arm. “My number. Like, call me. Anytime. We can hang out. Commune. Whenever.”
“We live in Joburg!” Noah piped up, rubbing his forehead.
“Cool. I’m often there for gigs. With my band.” He ran his eyes up and down me and I shivered a little. “Cool meeting you.” And then he leaned forward and planted a very unexpected kiss on my cheek. I looked over at the girls again. One of them seemed to have picked up the Sharpie lid and was smelling it. White Eyes threw her hands in the air, as if frustrated with me.
Oh well, what the hell, right. So I did it. I leaned in and kissed him on the lips. Our lips remained closed for a while, pressed into each other’s, but when his parted and I felt a little wet slug begin to emerge and try to wiggle its way into my mouth, I pulled away, laughing.
“Cool! Nice to meet you too!” I looked down at my arm. “I’ll call you sometime.” Klaw blew me a kiss and then slither-walked away. I stared after him for a while until Noah leaned into my field of vision.
“Did you see that? I just kissed a rock star. The lead singer of a band. I just kissed him!”
“I think everyone saw that,” Noah said flatly, and then looked over at the crowd of girls. I looked too and several of them shot me the thumbs-up. “Besides, I wouldn’t exactly call him a singer, and I’m not sure that three people screaming on stage makes a band. But hey, that’s just me.”
I totally ignored Noah. He wasn’t going to rain on my rockstar-kissing parade. “I, Zoe, am the kisser of rock stars. I am the cool kisser of rock stars.”
“Yeah, yeah, we know.” Noah sounded even flatter now.
“Hey, we’re, like, kicking it. We’re going to this beach party now. You wanna come?” one of the Hoodies asked as all three of them came sauntering up to us.
“Oooh. I’ve never been to a beach party before,” I said excitedly. “Where is it?”
“It’s on the main beach, by the pier.”
“Cool, see you there,” I said, and turned.
“Uh, actually . . .” Hoodie Two stopped me. “You’re kind of our lift there!”
“Oh! Of course. Let’s go then.” I started walking towards the exit and stopped when I realized Noah wasn’t behind me. “Noah, aren’t you coming?” I asked.
He looked at me blankly for a while, as if a little sullen and put out. “Sure, I’ll comecommune.” He pushed himself off the bar and walked reluctantly after us.
And that is how we found ourselves back in the car for the second time that night on our way to a party with our travel companions, as well as three more. The white-eyed girl, the one wearing the mirror jacket and someone else who was wearing a purple cloak, so it was hard to tell anything about them.
CHAPTER 54
“I can’t believe you kissed Klaw,” the girl with the white eyes, whose name was Zamantha, with a “Z,” said as we drove.
“Wait! You kissed Klaw? Lead singer of Worm Sheep Head and only the hottest guy on the planet?” Mirror Jacket, whose name was Lila, almost launched herself out of the back seat at this news.
“She has his phone number on her arm! On her arm!” Zamantha grabbed my arm and showed it to Lila, who was now giddy. She reminded me of the girl who looked like she had gotten high from sniffing Klaw’s Sharpie lid.
