How to Meet Boys (26 page)

We all started laughing hysterically.

“Plowed already?” Claire stood in the doorway, a set of small speakers in her hands.

“Hey, the DJ is here. Excellent!” Lucy said.

The two of them started setting up the music, and a few minutes later we were all dancing around the living room, jumping up and down. I hip-checked Lucy, danced a circle around Claire, followed Ava’s moves. In a way, it didn’t even matter if no one else showed up.

Then Henry, Sarah, and about twenty coworkers from the BBC walked through the open front door seemingly at the same time. Henry immediately jumped into the fray, dancing beside us. “Where’ve you been?” he yelled over the loud music.

“We brought your favorites!” Sarah announced, holding up boxes of the fancy chocolate-chip ice cream sandwiches they served at the beach club.

“I love you guys,” I said, hugging them both. “Thanks for coming!”

An hour later, Jackson and I were sitting on the deck together. We were smashed into a plastic Adirondack-style chair that wasn’t technically wide enough for two. Other people were sitting on the deck, talking, laughing, and listening to music.

Off to the side, I could see and hear Gus and Lucy playing croquet in the woods. They were having so much fun together. Lucy was being bold and outgoing, challenging Gus and laughing with him at the same time, flirting and confident.

“It’s absolutely true,” I said. “I don’t know why you don’t believe me.”

“No, it’s not,” Jackson said.

“Yes, it
is
,” I insisted. “I could not talk to boys until I met you.”

“No, I mean—you
still
can’t talk to them. That’s what I’m saying,” Jackson teased as he squeezed me around the waist. “How about when I first met you and you said ‘My fault it was. The stop sign I didn’t see.’”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Well, if you hadn’t nearly run me over, maybe I would have been able to talk like a normal person,” I said. “And don’t forget what you said! ‘Gosh, you really look terrible, can I take you to the hospital because you really look awful, and did I mention that you look horrible?’”

“I was trying to talk to you—” Jackson argued.

“Well, same here!” I cried.

“Wow. We were pretty hopeless. How did we ever end up together?”

“A series of unfortunate events,” I said. “I mean, fortunate ones in the long run, but they involved multiple crashes and wounds, so . . . probably we should have stayed away from each other.”

“Probably,” Jackson agreed.

“That was a sign from the universe. Danger. Conflict approaching,” I said.

“But what are we going to do?” Jackson asked. “It’s too late now.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Way too late.”

I turned to Jackson and hugged him closely to me. I didn’t need to worry about meeting boys from now on. I’d already met the one I wanted to be with.

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www.chelseypaul.com

CATHERINE CLARK
is the author of
Maine Squeeze, Love and Other Things I’m Bad At, Picture Perfect, Wish You Were Here, The Alison Rules, Unforgettable Summer
, and many others. She lives in Minneapolis, MN. For more about Catherine and her books, and the occasional milk shake recipe, visit www.catherineclark.com.

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UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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Also by Catherine Clark

Picture Perfect

Banana Splitsville

Rocky Road Trip

Wish You Were Here

Icing on the Lake

The Alison Rules

Maine Squeeze

Love and Other Things I’m Bad At

Unforgettable Summer

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................

HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

H
OW TO MEET BOYS
. Copyright © 2014 by Catherine Clark. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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ISBN 978-0-06-226451-0

EPub Edition October 2013 ISBN: 9780062264510

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