The International Kissing Club (45 page)

Chapter 25
Piper

Piper climbed into her car and started the engine, still having a hard time getting used to driving again after spending the past ten weeks taking the Metro almost everywhere. She’d been back in Texas two days now, and it still seemed a little strange. Nothing had changed in Paris during the ten weeks she’d been gone, and yet
everything
had changed. It was an unsettling feeling, one that made her apprehension almost as huge as her excitement to see her friends again.

She
had changed. She knew that. France had changed her. Freedom had changed her.
Sebastian
had changed her. Just thinking his name had her hands shaking and her heart crumbling a little in her chest. She missed him like crazy, way more than she ever would have imagined possible when she’d first met him all those weeks ago. What made it worse was that she’d never talked to him again after that awful day in the café.

He’d e-mailed her, texted her, even called a couple times, but she’d texted him back and said she didn’t want to see him, so he’d stayed away. And she was glad he had. Really, she was. She couldn’t look at him now, not while her heart was still broken wide open.
How could I have been so stupid?
she wondered as she turned the corner onto Mei’s street.
How could I have ever thought that he’d loved me?
Her own family had never been able to love her—why had she been stupid enough to think that Sebastian could?

It wasn’t a mistake she planned on making again. The only people she’d ever been able to count on were Cass, Mei, and Izzy. She needed to remember that if she wanted to keep herself from being gutted like this again.

Lost in thought, Piper was at the end of the block before it registered that she had driven right by Mei’s house. Terrific. Now she couldn’t even remember how to get to her best friend’s place. Just how much had changed in ten weeks?

With a sigh, she turned the car around and headed back up the street, making sure to stay aware enough to stop at the right house. But after pulling into Mei’s driveway, Piper didn’t bound from the car, like she’d thought she would. Instead, she rested her head on the steering wheel and tried to pull herself together.

So what if she missed the real Paris and Sebastian and Simone and even Marie, who in ten weeks had mothered her more than her own had in a lifetime?

So what if she missed the trips to the small, out-of-the-way galleries Sebastian had taken her to?

So what if she missed the glassblowing class where she’d finally found the kind of art she wanted to create?

She was back in Paris, Texas, now. Yes, the Sara Lee bakery was a far cry from the little pâtisserie around the corner from Marie and Gus’s apartment, their coffee cake nowhere near as good as the chocolate croissants she’d eaten by the bucketful. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy herself. Enjoy her friends and the fact that her mother was sober for once. Although she wasn’t quite sure what it said that the second she’d gone out of town, her mom had managed to clean up her act. Nice to have it confirmed that she had been completely responsible for her mom’s dependence on martinis and prescription medicine.

But sitting here feeling sorry for herself wasn’t doing anything but making her more depressed. Determined to get her head back into this reunion thing, Piper climbed out of the car—just as Mei opened her front door and stepped onto the porch.

As Mei started toward her, Piper’s mouth dropped open. Piper had gained five pounds in Paris and dyed her hair, neither of which had sat well with her mother. Mei, on the other hand, had lost so much weight that she looked like a strong hug might crack her in half. Her parents must be twice as freaked out as Piper’s mom was.

Her own sorrows forgotten, she bounded up the driveway. “Mei! Are you okay?”

Mei threw her arms around Piper. “I’m fine. How are you? The blue streaks look fabulous!”

Tears sprung to Piper’s eyes as she returned Mei’s hug. After the past couple of weeks of tormenting herself over her mistakes and wondering what things would be like when she returned to Texas, it was so nice to just be accepted for who she was. This moment, this hug, this connection felt much more like a homecoming than meeting her parents at the airport ever could.

“Thanks.” Piper returned her hug, still shocked at how fragile Mei looked and felt. “What happened to you? You’re—”

“Ugh. Don’t you start, too.” Mei rolled her eyes. “Let’s just say there were no Panda Expresses in China and leave it at that. On the plus side, I’m finally a size zero.”

“More like a double zero, and I didn’t know you were aiming for that, anyway,” Piper said, ushering her friend to the car.

“I wasn’t.”

“Well, come on, then, let’s go get you an extra-large Blizzard. My treat.”

“You have no idea how good that sounds.” Mei climbed into the passenger side as Piper started the car. “Better than wasabi ice cream, anyway.”

“Wasabi ice cream? Sounds disgusting.”

“It wasn’t all that bad,” Mei said. “But I guess you had to be there.” Piper glanced away from the road long enough to throw her friend an incredulous look. “Are you
blushing
?”

“No! Of course not. What possible reason would I have to blush?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe those three points on the IKC page?” She poked Mei in the shoulder. “Come on, spill. Tell me
everything
.”

Mei sighed. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“At the beginning, of course. You got off the plane in China and then what?”

“It wasn’t at all like I expected it to be, you know? I mean, I thought once I got to China I’d finally feel like I belonged. But it turns out, over there, I’m even more of a freak than I am here.”

“You’re not a freak!” Piper was outraged at the very idea. “You’re the best. Everyone loves you. And if those stupid Chinese girls couldn’t appreciate your utter and complete fabulousness, then that was totally their loss.”

“Jeez, vehement much?” But Mei looked happy at Piper’s defense of her.

“Ugh. Please don’t start with the SAT words already! I’m still jetlagged.”

Her friend laughed so hard she nearly snorted. “You know, I really missed you, Piper. How come you can always make me feel better?”

“Because I am almost as fabulous as you.” She whipped her car into the DQ lot and saw that Izzy’s car, Brittney, was already parked near the front door. The sight of its battered bumper and dinged-up doors, combined with the easy laughter she’d shared with Mei, cheered her up like nothing else could have. Maybe
everything
hadn’t changed, after all.

But as they settled around a small greasy table ten minutes later, she wasn’t so sure about that. Cassidy was wearing mascara and lip gloss—
lip gloss
—and Izzy looked like a walking advertisement for a Subaru commercial, and the most rugged, outdoorsy one at that. She wasn’t sure what to make of all the changes and wondered if her friends were having as much trouble adjusting as she was.

Mei seemed okay, though the gigantic Butterfinger Blizzard Piper had ordered for her was nearly as big as she was. And Izzy looked
great, all tanned and toned and glowing. Only Cassidy seemed as lost and shell-shocked as she felt.

Piper waited until everyone had shoveled in a few spoons of ice cream before demanding, “So, who wants to go first?” She made a concerted effort to appear upbeat despite the sadness that trembled just below the surface.

“You go first,” Cass said. “You probably have the best stories after racking up all those points.”

“Yeah, but Izzy’s the one who racked up the most recent points. I think she should start.”

“Ooh, that’s true,” Mei agreed. “Come on, Iz. Spill.”

Izzy looked like she’d just been thrust onto a particularly blistering hot seat, and Piper wondered at the panic she thought she saw in her friend’s eyes. But before she could comment, Izzy got it together. “It was no big deal,” she said with a shrug.

“You kissed a guy in Paris, Texas!” Piper said. “It’s a huge deal. Who was it?”

“Umm—”

“Oh God,” Cassidy interjected. “Please tell me it wasn’t River again. That guy is a total scumbag, Izzy.”

“No way! I haven’t talked to him once since he went away to school.”

“Thank God!” Piper spooned up more ice cream. “I was beginning to get worried. But if it wasn’t River, then who was it?”

“Trust me, Piper. You
don’t
want to know. It happened on Tanner’s farm. There was a tractor and compost.” She shook her head. “Bugs. It really wasn’t your scene.”

“Okaaaaaay. But—”

“My big three points happened in the middle of a fountain in Shenyang,” Mei said suddenly.

“Ooh, se-xy!” Piper said with a wink. “I can just see you and Guiran, all wet and see-through and—”

“Freezing!” Mei interrupted dryly. “The water was like three degrees above absolute zero.”

“That’s insane! I’m so glad it was spring most of the time I was in Australia.”

“So, where did you first kiss Lucas, Cass?” Izzy asked.

“At the beach. It was … nice.” The look in Cassidy’s eyes said it had been a lot more than nice and Piper was thrilled for her. “But whatever. There are so many hot guys in Australia you can’t help but trip and press your lips against one of them.”

Though she said it with her usual bravado, Piper could hear something in her voice that was totally new for Cassidy. A vulnerability that meant Lucas was more than just the guy who had caught her when she’d fallen.

“If he had the good sense to break your fall, he must be a really great guy. Some of them are, you know,” she told Cass, not wanting her friend to lose hope. “Maybe he’ll surprise you.”

If possible, her reassurances only seemed to make Cassidy even more agitated. “Yeah, well, whatever.”

Wow. It looked like she hadn’t been the only one to fall hard these past few weeks. Piper didn’t know whether to curse the IKC or be grateful for the chances it had given her. The only thing she was sure of was that it had completely messed up her life.

No
, said the little voice in the back of her head. That wasn’t true.
She’d
managed to screw everything up all on her own. The IKC hadn’t had much to do with it at all.

Lost in thought, it took her a minute to realize her friends were looking at her expectantly. Oh right, she was the only one who hadn’t shared. But where was she supposed to start? Finally, she just shrugged and said, “Well, my points came from—”

“Everywhere?” Cassidy interjected, elbowing her in the ribs.

“Right,” agreed Izzy. “Is there anyone in Paris you
didn’t
kiss?”

Piper laughed, because her friends expected it of her, but it was
hard, especially as Sebastian’s face had flashed, unbidden, before her eyes. The last thing she wanted was for her friends to know how much she was hurting over being dumped. But at the same time, she couldn’t lie—it felt too much like another betrayal of what she’d felt for him. “The only points that really mattered happened in the courtyard of the Louvre.”

“That’s a great story. So romantic. You were with Sebastian, right?” Mei asked.

“Yeah. Sebastian.”

“Tell us about him,” Izzy said. “I mean, the picture you posted was completely hot, but what happened? How did you leave things?”

“I don’t—I can’t—” Piper shook her head, afraid she was going to shatter if she had to talk anymore about it. But at the same time, she missed Sebastian so much that everything kind of came spilling out.

“He’s not like any guy I’ve ever met before.”

“Well, duh. He’s French.”

“It’s more than that, Cass. I mean, at first I hated him. He was so obnoxious and full of himself and rude—”

“Again, he’s
French
.”

“I know, right? But there’s so much more to him than that. He’s incredibly smart and talented—his sculptures are beautiful—and once you get past the smug outer shell, he’s really tender. And witty. And caring. And—”

“Wow, Pipes, you really fell for him.” Cassidy looked a little stunned, like she couldn’t imagine Piper actually finding real love. Or maybe Piper just imagined it, since Sebastian’s words were still fresh in her head.