So that night at the drive-in, I’d accidentally-on-purpose grazed Evie’s boob. I’d sworn to Evie it was an accident, but I knew what I was doing. I wanted to know if they were as soft as they looked. Up to that point, Evie and I had only done a little bit of kissing. We’d held hands. We’d snuggled on the couch with her hand tucked in mine or her head on my shoulder, but we’d never done anything else.
Dangerous Minds was playing at the drive-in, and Evie wanted to see it because she’d heard that Michelle Pfeiffer played a badass Marine turned teacher. My mom had driven us to the drive-in, and we’d set up chairs between the cars because Barbara-Claire and Junior were with us. So while my mom and dad watched the movie from the front seat of our car, the four of us had sat in webbed folding chairs my mom and dad used when we went to the beach. We sat right next to the speaker so we could hear everything.
Despite that, I couldn’t concentrate on the movie. I spent the whole time with Evie’s sweaty palm against mine, and when the movie got sad, she’d started to sniffle. I’d grabbed her chair and dragged it closer to me and draped my arm around her. She’d leaned on me and whispered, “I can’t believe he told him to come back when he learned to knock.” Then he died. And when the teacher delivered the news to the class, Evie might as well have been a student in the movie because she got just as upset as they did. “I hate this movie,” she whispered, her voice tear-filled and gruff.
I’d pulled her closer still, and her hand had landed on my thigh. She’d squeezed it unconsciously due to the on-screen tension, and I was about to spontaneously combust. I’d let my arm drop a little, and Evie gasped as my hand grazed the outside of her boob.
She’d turned her head toward me and whispered, “Did you just touch my breast, Grady Parker?” She then grabbed my offending hand to hold it still.
“Did I?” I’d countered with what I hoped was convincing innocence.
“You know very well that you did!”
“Oh, sorry,” I’d said, my voice gruff with embarrassment. “If I did, it was completely by accident.”
“Accident. Really.”
I’d nodded, hoping she’d believe me. “I swear it was an accident. Didn’t mean to.”
But I’d totally meant to. And it was just as soft as I’d imagined.
22
Grady
“I still love that movie,” Evie says as we get in the Jeep.
“I thought you hated that movie,” I reply. “You cried through the whole ending of it.”
“Yeah, but it was a good cry.”
“No such thing as a good cry. It’s either crying or it’s not.”
“You suck, Grady Parker.” She waits a beat. “You know, I always thought that you touched my boob on purpose that night,” she says quietly. “That was right before…”
Before she stopped talking to me.
I take a deep breath. I want to ask, but I don’t want to ruin this newfound friendship we’re building. Will it help or hurt to ask her about back then? Has enough time finally elapsed?
“I’m sorry I gave you that ugly cookie,” she says quietly. She brushes her hair back from her forehead, her arm out the window as the wind blows through the cab.
“What? I loved my ugly cookie. The ugly ones were always my favorite.”
“I left it on your desk because I thought you’d like it. I didn’t know that everybody would see it before you did. I think that’s where it went wrong.”
I shake my head. “That’s not what went wrong.”
“Then what did?”
I look at her again. She has a quizzical expression on her face like she really wants to know. “I have no idea. You tell me.”
Her brow furrows. “You’re the one who started talking to Kerry-Anne Williams. You had a big crush on her.” I look over and catch her rolling her eyes. I jerk my eyes back to the road.
“No, I did not,” I say vehemently. I hated the ground that Kerry-Anne Williams walked on, mainly because she liked to talk trash about Evie. There were many occasions when I’d walk up to a snickering group of people and find Kerry-Anne talking about Evie, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like Kerry-Anne. “Kerry-Anne was one of my least favorite people in the world. Still is, to be honest.”
“It’s okay, Grady,” she says quietly. “Kerry-Anne had bigger boobs than I did.”
“And a bigger ego. And a bigger mean streak.”