If looks could kill, Mormor would have ceased to be on the spot. Mom had her laser stare going. I reached out to squeeze her shoulder. She tapped the backs of my knuckles with her knitting needle. “Don’t leave me here. When have I ever forsaken you?” she whispered.

“Sorry, gotta sleep, yo. I do as the kid demands.”

“Damn you, grandchild of mine. Damn you. Tell Devi we’ll pick her up at half past one.” Mom swooped in to brush a kiss to my temple.

I trundled upstairs, tired, but my brain was on fire, too. I kept thinking about Leaf. Even as I texted instructions to Devi about pickup times, I thought about Leaf. When I turned off the light, I thought about Leaf. I kept mentally replaying that moment when his soft lips met my fingertips. I’d get no rest until I sated the horny brain beast, so I relieved myself of some pent-up tension. It was never glamorous to wank oneself to sleep, but I never claimed to be glamorous in the first place. I passed out with my head in the pillow, my hand still stuffed down the front of my pajama pants.

You know you’re tired when you don’t even bother to hide the evidence of your most private deeds.

I slogged through the next school day, my head feeling like a bowling ball. Leaf sat next to me in Weller’s class as the old lady holler-lectured for an hour straight.

Leaf brushed my hand with his before he parted for his next class. Again, I was reminded of the fingertip kisses from the day before. Again, I had a reaction in the pants parts because that shit was intense. I’d overcome it by the time lunch came and shifted my focus to deciding between eating in the library or the cafeteria. In the end, the cafeteria won; I couldn’t be the Periodical Troll forever. Besides, everyone had left me alone all day. What happened with that butthead kid, Michaels, and his Mamacita comment must have gotten around.

“I was thinking of cooking tonight,” Leaf said, sitting next to me. Erin and Morgan sat across from us. “Then maybe we could go to the movies?” He glanced at Morgan. “I’m missing hangouts tonight, by the way. Sara and I are going out.”

Morgan grinned at me from behind her Capri Sun. “Fiiiiine.”

“Sure. What time should I come over?” I asked.

“I can pick you up if you need, or—do you have a car?”

I shrugged. “Access to, most of the time, but Mom’ll probably dump me off at your place so she can escape my grandmother. She goes out for drinks with her work friends on Fridays. She says she drinks to keep Mormor pretty.”

Leaf chuckled. “I can see where you get your fire from. And that’d be perfect. I can drive you home after the movie.”

“Awesome.”