Small Steps - Louis Sachar [39]
“Your bodyguard?”
“No, my manager. But I bet he just married her to have more control over me, because he’s got a girlfriend, too. It doesn’t matter. I’m going to fire him when I turn eighteen.”
Armpit could only shake his head in wonder. She lived in such a different world.
“You’ve got nice strong hands,” said Kaira.
“They’re all calloused from digging.”
“Is that your name? Hands?”
“No.”
“Fingers? Are you the middle finger?”
Armpit dropped her hand. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll tell you my name, but on one condition.”
“What?”
“Whatever my name is, you have to touch me there.”
Kaira took a step backward. “I have to touch you there.”
“That’s the deal.”
She slowly looked him over, starting at his feet and working her way upward. “Ginny said it wasn’t anyplace nasty.”
Armpit shrugged.
“You are so mean.”
“Do you want to know or don’t you?”
“Okay, tell me.”
“Do we have a deal?”
“Yes, we have a deal.”
Armpit waited a long moment, then quietly said, “Armpit.”
Kaira shrieked, causing several other walkers to turn and look at them.
“You are so bad,” Kaira said. “Oh, you are so bad. Okay, raise up your elbow.”
He did so.
She slowly moved her finger up the sleeve of his T-shirt, but he suddenly laughed and pulled away.
“You’re ticklish!”
She tried again, but again he couldn’t stay still.
“Are you going to let me do this or not? Close your eyes.”
He did so and waited. She held on to his shoulder. It was hard to keep still.
She quickly poked her finger up his sleeve and fulfilled her part of the bargain.
He opened his eyes.
“Yuck, it’s all sweaty,” she said as she wiped her finger on her shorts.
He started to explain about the scorpion but she wasn’t interested. Her hand was still on his left shoulder, and now she placed her other hand on the right one.
He gently held her waist and felt her rise to her tiptoes. He could feel blood pulsating against the tips of his fingers but couldn’t tell if it was his or hers.
He leaned toward her.
“What are you doing?” she exclaimed, suddenly backing away.
“My job, Miss DeLeon,” said a voice behind him.
20
“So you d-didn’t kiss her?”
“I couldn’t. Not with her bodyguard right there.”
“I would have kissed her,” said Ginny.
“You would have kissed her?” Armpit teased.
Ginny giggled at that. “I m-mean if I was you. If I was a b-b-boy.”
Armpit ate a spoonful of Cheerios. They were in her half of the house. They were her Cheerios.
He knew Ginny was right. How many chances in your life do you get to kiss someone like Kaira DeLeon? He’d thought about nothing else since the moment Fred showed up.
Fred had ruined the moment, but as the three of them headed back to the hotel, Armpit had had it all planned out. Just before saying good-bye, he would say something smooth like “Next time you’re in town, give me a call,” and then kiss her.
But it never happened. Kaira’s manager was in the hotel lobby when she returned, and she started yelling at him for firing the drummer, and he told her that drummers were a dime a dozen. Kaira was practically in tears. She told Armpit she was “sorry about all this,” then went sulking off into the elevator.
“She told me to say hi to you.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. She thinks you’re really cool.”
Ginny smiled. Her glasses slid down her nose and she pushed them back in place.
“What happened to the f-food?”
“What food?”
“At the café.”
Armpit laughed because he had wondered about that too. After Kaira went up in the elevator, he went back to the restaurant to check.
“They threw it away.”
“Too bad,” said Ginny.
“Yeah, I woulda liked to have tried those twenty-nine-dollar eggs.”
“Did you have to pay for them?”
“No, everything was charged to her room, but it’s not like she pays for it either. Everything’s charged to the tour. It’s a whole other world. It’s no big deal to them to pay a hundred dollars for breakfast.”
“No wonder t-tickets