Page 14 of I Kissed Shara Wheeler
The window shuts.
She shoots a confused look at Georgia, who checks the bag, then shakes her head and shrugs.
The window reopens, and Tyler clumsily hands something over.
“I’m, um, supposed to give this to you.”
It’s a sealed envelope. A pink one.
Sirens wailing in her head, she snatches the card and flips it over. Her name is written on the front. She stares down at it: the gentle arcs of the H, the perfect loop of the O.
She whips back to Tyler. “You couldn’t have given it to me at school?”
“I—she—she brought it here last week and told me specifically to give it to you the next time you came through the drive-thru,” he says.
“Who did?” Chloe demands.
His voice comes out shaky when he says it, like it’s the name of an angel, “Shara Wheeler.”
“And you just did it?”
“That’s the first time Shara Wheeler has ever spoken to me in my life,” he tells her dreamily. “I didn’t even think she knew I existed.”
“Oh my God,” Chloe says, and she slams on the gas.
Chloe,
Your mom graduated Willowgrove with my parents. You know that, right? I remember them talking about it at the dinner table the summer after eighth grade.
“I heard Valerie Green is moving back. Remember, she got suspended for coming to school with blue hair? She’s married to a woman now. They want to send their daughter to Willowgrove.”
Before your first day, I took the file out of my dad’s office. Saw your entrance exam. You did pretty well, huh?
I’ve been curious about you since before I met you, but the way things work at Willowgrove, I never could get close enough to figure you out.
High school’s almost over. Now or never, right?
XOXO
Shara Wheeler
P.S. [email protected]
Rory finally picks up on the fourth try.
“For what possible reason are you calling me?”
“Where are you?” Chloe demands, throwing a taco wrapper into the bag. She called him as soon as she dropped Georgia off at Belltower with a flimsy excuse, right after she heard back from Smith.
“I’m… at my friend’s house?”
“Which friend?”
“Jake.”
“Who’s Jake?”
“Uh, Jake Stone?”
