Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli (ereader with android txt) 📕

I’m definitely too nosy to resist this.

It takes some major skirt maneuvering for me to properly settle onto the side steps off the stage. Once I do, though, I beckon him over. “Ryan Kevin Garfield,” I say, beaming. “Wow. Holy grand gesture.”

He looks taken aback. “Wait. What?”

“No, don’t worry. Grand gesture in a good way!” I press my hands to my heart. “Do you want me to go see if she’s in the dressing room?”

“Kate, oh my God.” Ryan rolls his eyes and shoves the bouquet into my arms. “These are for you, doofus. Here.”

I shoot him a puzzled half smile. “You don’t have to give me Brandie’s flowers.”

“They’re not Brandie’s flowers. Kate, I don’t even know where you’re getting this.” He rubs his temples. “I don’t have a crush on Brandie—”

“Right. So when you decided to rehearse with us the other day, it’s because you’re such a fan of musicals—”

“I decided to rehearse with you the other day because you’d literally just called me out for only hanging with fuckboys.”

I hug the bouquet to my chest. “Okay, but what about the texting?”

“I’m . . . eighteen. I have a phone. I text people sometimes?”

“But you’re shady about it now! Like, I get within a mile of you, and you yank your phone away so fast—”

“Because I’m secretly texting with Brandie?” Ryan shakes his head, grinning. “Kate, ninety-nine percent of the time, I’m talking to Noah.”

“Ohhh.”

“And most of the time, he’s talking about you.”

“Got it.” I’m beaming.

“Kate, I like Brandie a lot, but I’m not looking for a girlfriend. It’s senior year. I’m leaving in a few months—”

“Right. Totally.” I nod quickly, a lump rising into my throat. “But you liked Kennesaw, right? And some of the other local schools—”

“Yeah, definitely, but.” He sighs. “Okay, scoot over.”

He squeezes in beside me on the steps. Just about everyone’s left the auditorium by now, which makes the whole space seem weirdly huge and majestic. For a moment, neither of us speaks.

“I don’t know where I’ll end up,” Ryan says finally. “Might be Tech. Might be Kennesaw. Might be California. I don’t know what scholarships are going to look like. I don’t even know where I’ll get in. But it’s definitely starting to feel real.”

I nod mutely.

“So, it’s like, suddenly this big change that seemed really far away is right there. And I’m excited, yeah, but it’s also kind of freaking me out. So if I seemed a little, I don’t know, clingy—”

“Clingy?” I laugh, startled. “I can’t even imagine you being clingy.”

“Okay, well.” He smiles. “If it seemed like I was around more—Kate, I’m really sorry if it seemed like I was just trying to hook up with one of your friends.”

“It’s fine! I was all for it!”

“Yeah, you made that pretty clear.” He laughs. “But, Katy, that was never a thing. I just feel weird about the fact that I’m leaving you.”

I just stare at him. “Oh.”

“Kate!” I look up with a start, to find Andy peeking out from the side of the curtain. “Where have you been? Come on! Almost everyone’s changed already.”

“Oops—coming!” I scramble up, biting my lip. “Sorry—”

“It’s fine. Go do your thing.”

“I did.” I step back onstage, grinning. “And I am.”

Scene 80

“You know what just hit me?” I say, as I follow Andy to the dressing room. “You’re going to be seventeen in, like, two hours.”

“I know! Did you ever think we’d have boyfriends on our seventeenth birthdays? We’re like movie teens.”

“Um. Slow your roll, Walker. No one’s used the b-word yet.”

“Yeah, whatever.” He grins. “I give it a week.”

It’s so strange. Two months ago, when it came to my friends’ collective love lives, Harold was the whole story. But now my whole squad’s gone Shakespearean. Okay, Brandie’s still saving herself for Harry Styles, but it’s barely October. At the rate we’re all going, she’ll probably be married by homecoming.

I open the dressing room door, and there’s Noah.

“So here’s the thing,” he says promptly. “I want to be your b-word.”

“Wow. You’re here. Hi.” I can’t quite catch my breath. “I guess you heard us—”

“Yeah. Yup.” He grabs my hand.

“That’s my exit cue,” says Andy, already backtracking. He pulls the door shut behind him. No six inches. No inches whatsoever.

Noah’s back in his hoodie and gym shorts, face scrubbed clean, cheeks still pink from the washcloth. He presses my hand to his chest, and his heart’s thudding.

I stare at him. “Noah, I’m—”

“God. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to ambush you. Did I ambush you?”

“Maybe?” I drop his hand, stepping nearer. “I kind of liked it.”

“Kind of. Okay. So is that like—”

“Noah!” I grab his face in my hands and kiss him.

He exhales, startled. But then he tugs me closer, walking me backward until his back’s flush with the vanity, his face framed with lights. And there’s me in the mirror, in my gown and tiara, but I shut my eyes quickly.

I don’t want to watch this like a movie. I don’t want to save the details for later.

I want—

Noah’s lips, an inch from mine. “Happy opening night,” he says, smiling.

But it feels so much less like a night, and so much more like an opening.

Curtain Call

Ryan says driver’s license pictures are always garbage, but then again, he didn’t have an entourage. Brandie keeps straightening my collar and blotting my nose with a tissue, and Raina’s physically tucked my hair behind my ears three times. And that’s just since we walked into the DDS. But all Anderson cares about is the smile.

“Katy, they’re going to tell you not to smile, and you have to—are you listening to me? You have to ignore them. Or it will look like a mug shot.”

“I can’t decide if you sound like an f-boy or a pageant mom.”

“I’m just saying. Don’t let them intimidate you,” Andy says. “Smiling’s not illegal in Georgia.”

Noah leans toward Matt. “Is smiling illegal in states that are not Georgia?”

“I guess so?” Matt shrugs.

I love my hype team: the full squad, including Matt. And my brother. And my boyfriend.

I’ve