Pants on Fire Read Free

two shaped like the numbers nine and seven. They were kids’ candles, with clowns on them, but I knew Mrs. Hogarth wouldn’t mind.
    “Oh, nothing for me, thanks,” Mrs. Hogarth said. “I’m stuffed. That grouper was delicious!”
    “I’ll be right back to see if anyone wants coffee, then,” I said, and hurried around the corner to the soda station, still careful not to look back in Eric’s direction.
    Ducking into the kitchen, I grabbed Mrs. Hogarth’s cake, threw on the two candles, and started out again——and almost crashed right into Eric Fluteley, who, looking at me intensely the whole time, took the cake from my hands, set it next to the coffeemaker, grabbed me by both shoulders, and kissed me on the lips.

Two
    “The Gull ’n Gulp just so isn’t Morgan Castle’s kind of place,” Sidney was going on, into my cell phone.
    I grunted in response. I was trying to work some leave-in conditioner through my wet hair with a comb. I’d had to wash it three times after my shift in order to get the smell of fried quahog out of it.
    Seriously, I don’t know how Seth can stand to make out with me when I stink so much of clams.
    But the stink is pretty much the only downside of waitressing at one of the most popular restaurants in town. Especially when you pocket forty-eight bucks in tips, like I did tonight.
    Not to mention the added bonus of getting kissed by Eric Fluteley at the soda station.
    “I mean, shouldn’t she have been over at the OakenBucket?” Sidney asked.
    “Totally.” I don’t know what’s going on with my hair. I have been trying to grow it out ever since an unfortunate bob incident midway through sophomore year. It’s almost shoulder-length now, with a lot of layers (because the stick-straight thing that works so well for Sidney doesn’t work at all for me) and gold highlights to make it less aggressively brown . According to Marty over at Supercuts, I’m supposed to let it dry naturally, then scrunch it with curl enhancer to make it fuller and give it bounce.
    But that only seems to work when it’s humid outside, or I’m in the vicinity of the Gull ’n Gulp’s kitchen.
    Sidney was right, of course. The Oaken Bucket, the vegan café across town, is much more Morgan’s scene than the Gull ’n Gulp. I mean, the Bucket serves stuff like falafel in a pita with hummus and avocado, and tofu stirfry over brown rice. You won’t find a single item on the menu made with quahogs over at the Bucket, that’s for sure.
    “There’s only one reason she’d go there,” Sidney went on, in her most malevolent tone. “And we all know what it is.”
    I nearly dropped my phone. Right into the toilet, which is where the comb ended up. Fortunately, I’d remembered to flush earlier. I caught the phone at the last minute and pressed it to my ear.
    “W-wait,” I stammered. “What? We do?”
    How could she know? She couldn’t know! No one hadseen me with Eric—had they?
    I knew I should have slapped him. Oh, why had I kissed him back? I wouldn’t have, if I’d thought there was any chance that Seth—or Sidney—might have seen us.
    But the soda station is totally hidden from view from the corner booth. And from where Morgan Castle was sitting.
    So instead of slapping Eric Fluteley when he started kissing me, I melted, exactly as if I’d been one of Mrs. Hogarth’s birthday candles left to burn too long.
    Well, what else was I going to do? I mean, Eric’s just…hot.
    When Eric finally let me up for air, though, I said, very indignantly (though admittedly through delightfully tingly lips), “What are you, crazy? Did you see who’s sitting in the corner booth? The entire Quahog football team!”
    Eric had replied, “Not all of them. Don’t exaggerate, Katie.”
    “Well, the ones who’d totally pound your face in, if they saw you doing what you just did.” I really couldn’t believe it. I mean, what had he been thinking ? You do not just go up to a girl and start kissing her behind the