Heat of the Moment Read Online Free PDF Page B

Don’t ask me how I know, don’t ask me how I know, don’t ask me how I know.
    â€œHe’s not?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œPerfect.” Derrick grins and doesn’t ask me to elaborate. I guess the possibility of sex is making him a man of few words. “Then we’ll definitely have a chance to have the room to ourselves. Who are you rooming with?”
    â€œI don’t know. Where did you get that paper?” I ask.
    â€œI told you, they handed them out when we got on the bus,” he says.
    Shit. What with this whole maybe-having-sex-with-Derrick thing and then Aven coming up to me like that, I almost forgot that I’m not even supposed to be here. Although I’m already on the plane, so I really doubt they’re going to make me get off. It was surprisingly easy to board. I just handed over my ticket like everyone else. None of our class chaperones even asked me why I wasn’t on the bus. Talk about not keeping track of us. I mean, isn’t that pretty irresponsible of the school?
    I always see those links on Facebook to news stories about kids getting left behind in dangerous places by their schools, and I always wondered how the hell that could happen. Now I know. They don’t pay any attention. To anything. But still. Just because they were so hands-off about boarding doesn’t mean I want to call attention to myself.
    â€œDo you think if I ask for my room assignment they’re going to make me get off the plane?” I ask.
    â€œWhy would they make you get off the plane?” Derrick sounds panicked. Hmm. I wonder why he didn’t seem as panicked when he thought I’d missed the bus. He was just calmly eating pretzel nuggets. He’s probably nervous now because he knows he’s going to get some sex.
    â€œBecause I wasn’t on the bus!” I say, slightly exasperated. I know he has sex brain, but really. Try to keep up.
    A head pops over the back of the seat in front of us. “ Hola! ” a voice says. It’s my friend Juliana. Well, our friend Juliana. She was actually Derrick’s friend first. Well, sort of. She was dating Derrick’s friend Jasper and then they broke up, but somehow she stayed friends with Derrick. And now she’s friends with me. Again, sort of. She’s not the type of friend you can call up and, like, depend on for anything. First, she never answers her phone. And second, she has no boundaries. Like, for example, if I had called her this morning, she most likely wouldn’t have answered her phone. And if I had, she would have refused to let me talk to Derrick until she found out all our business. She’s nice. But she’s kind of nosy.
    â€œAre we excited to get crazy?” Juliana asks. Sometimes she talks in first-person plural.
    â€œI am,” I say. “I’m definitely ready to get crazy.”
    Juliana laughs and tosses her head back. Her long, dark curls hit the window.
    I frown. “What’s so funny?” Of course I’m ready to get crazy.
    â€œOh, nothing,” she says. “Just, you know, thinking about you two getting crazy.”
    She looks at Derrick and gives him a secret little smile.
    I glance over at him, and he shifts on his seat a little, looking uncomfortable. Could Juliana be talking about our sex life? Derrick wouldn’t have told her we hadn’t had sex, would he? That’s, like, personal private information.
    â€œAnyway,” Juliana says, “I have a hookup for tonight. Party in my room.” She winks at us and then drops back down into her seat.
    I want to ask Derrick what she was talking about, but I decide to let it go. So what if he told Juliana we haven’t had sex? It’s not like she’s a stranger. She’s my friend, too. And besides, I’m not embarrassed about it. There’s no reason to be embarrassed about not having sex yet. After this weekend, it won’t be an issue anyway.
    The pilot is