Until It Hurts to Stop by Jennifer Hubbard

Author:Jennifer Hubbard
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Published: 2013-09-30T21:00:00+00:00

seventeen

On Monday I’m in the girls’ room at school, wrestling with the toilet paper that they jam into the holder so tightly you can only tear off tiny shreds at a time, when a girl out at the sinks says, “So, you and Nick Cleary, huh?”

I peek through the crack around the edges of the stall door. Vanessa Webb leans toward the mirror, sliding lip balm across her mouth. Janie Fletcher stands beside her, fingering the ends of her own hair.

“I can’t believe how people talk at this school,” Vanessa says. “Anything happens, and the whole world knows in a day.”

“It’s true, then?”

“Depends on what you heard.” Vanessa smiles at her reflection.

“What should I have heard?”

Vanessa laughs. “He came over yesterday.”

I spent my Sunday trying new pieces on the piano, researching colleges, and arguing with my mother about whether my favorite pair of jeans was comfortably broken in (my opinion) or ready for the trash can (hers). After that, we fought about the fact that the last time I’d done the laundry, I had ruined her clean-towel-rotation system.

I didn’t hear from Nick all day, but I had no idea he was at Vanessa’s. I knew, from their eye-lock at the party, from his taking pictures on the mountain for her, that he was interested in her. But I never guessed he would act on it so quickly.

“Aaaand?” Janie asks.

“We talked. You know.”

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.” Janie lets go of her hair, stands back from the mirror, and tugs at her shirt. “Did he kiss you?”

“Why, Jane Fletcher, I’m shocked that you would ask such a question.” Vanessa’s tone is playful, mock-offended, her lips pursed, her eyes still laughing. “What kind of girl do you think I am?”

Janie bumps her, hip to hip. “Don’t tell me he didn’t even try!”

“I won’t tell you that. . . .”

I may puke. Good thing there’s a toilet so close by.

“I thought he was going out with that girl Maggie, what’s her last name . . .”

“He says he isn’t. And she told me the same thing. They’re just friends.”

“So, is he any good?”

Vanessa smiles again, her eyes on the mirror. She tucks away the tube of lip balm. “Better than good.”

“Oh, now you have to tell me!”

“Well—I swear he reads my mind or something.” Vanessa pauses. “Like, he knows when to slow down and when to get more intense. It’s—good, that’s all.” She fluffs her hair. “He doesn’t act like he’s God’s gift to girls, the way Marcus did.”

Janie snorts. “Marcus. I don’t know why you ever went out with him.” She turns sideways and smoothes her shirt over her stomach. “So, about Nick: I want the whole story. Details. Where were you, and who started it? And did he try to shove his tongue down your throat right away, or did he wait, like a gentleman?”

They both burst out laughing at the word gentleman. In the stall, I clamp my lips together queasily, thinking, Please, no details.

“All right, Miss Gotta-Know-Everything. We were talking in the living room, and my parents were in the kitchen where they could eavesdrop.

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