The Education of Hailey Kendrick - Eileen Cook [59]
“Easy, Prima Donna. It was a kiss. It wasn’t an unending declaration of love or a marriage proposal. I took a chance, and not all chances can turn out as good as karaoke.”
I didn’t know if I should be relieved that he wasn’t upset, or ticked that he was comparing kissing me to karaoke. “What do we do now?” I asked.
“Well, if we’re going to get you back to the dorm on time, we should leave.” Drew climbed into the truck. I watched my exhaled breath fog in the cold air. For someone who was always advocating that people should talk about things, he’d picked a fine time to go silent. I climbed into the passenger seat and slammed the door. Men.
We drove back to campus in silence. Drew pulled the truck to the side of the road behind the administration building. He got out and trudged up to the stone wall that circled the campus.
“You coming?”
If he thought playing it cool was going to upset me, he was wrong. I’d perfected acting like nothing was wrong for a good part of my life. I stomped through the deep snow. Drew bent over and cupped his hands. I stepped into his palm, and he hefted me up onto the wall. I sat on top and spun my legs around so that I could drop onto the campus side.
“Thanks for bringing me back to campus,” I said. I dropped to the ground, the pile of snow cushioning my fall. I took a quick glance around to make sure no one had seen me.
“Hey, Hailey?” Drew’s voice drifted over the wall.
I considered pretending that I hadn’t heard him and just walking away, but I couldn’t do it. “Yeah,” I called back softly.
“I still think it’s a wonderful world.”
25
Joel was sitting outside my door in the dorm hallway working on his math homework when I got back. I wondered how long he’d been waiting. When he saw me, he stood.
“Where were you?”
“Studying,” I said, before I realized I didn’t have any books or notes with me. Joel looked me up and down, noting the clumps of snow on my socks. “I took a walk to clear my head.”
“Through the snow?”
“It’s winter. Sort of hard to avoid the snow. Besides, I like fresh air.” I unlocked my door and went in, leaving the door swinging behind me. Evesham allowed people of the opposite sex to visit the dorms, but you had to leave the door open. It was supposed to prevent people from having sex. Clearly the administration didn’t have the imagination that the student body did. Evesham was full of places where couples could hook up. “What’s up?” I asked, sitting down on my bed so I could pull my wet socks off. My legs were red from the cold. The bright red skin made me think of Drew’s face. I shoved that image out of my head. I wasn’t prepared to deal with Drew right now. I was having a hard enough time figuring out what to say to Joel. I was suddenly aware we hadn’t spent much time in each other’s company by ourselves since the whole statue incident.
“I tried to call you, but you didn’t pick up your phone,” Joel said. “You’re supposed to keep it on so that I can get in touch with you. I’m responsible for making sure you’re meeting the conditions of your punishment.”
“I didn’t think about it.” I shrugged.
“I needed to talk with you about your punishment.”
“That’s good. I needed to talk to you, too.”
“Dean Winston is getting flack from people’s parents about the restriction rules.”
“He can always decide to lift it.” I pulled on a pair of hot pink fleece socks that my grandma had given me for Christmas last year. I wiggled my toes to get the blood moving.
“He isn’t going to give in,” Joel said.
“If you’re worried that I’m going to tell on you, I’m not. It’s up to him what he chooses to do about that. He can keep me on restriction for the rest of the year if he wants.”
“I feel bad,” Joel said.
I pushed down a wave of annoyance. I couldn’t remember if Joel had always been this passive or if this was something new. Wasn’t it enough that I was the