Free The International Kissing Club by Ivy Adams

about herself, wanted to experience all the things she’d missed by being stuck in Paris, Texas, for sixteen years, but at the same time, she didn’t want everyone else to change, too. It might be selfish, but after the summer she’d had, she was terrified of losing what little she did have—namely, the three best friends any girl could ever ask for.
    She wanted this trip badly. They all did, but now that it was slowly becoming a reality, Piper realized just how much she would miss them.
    She’d miss Cassidy’s sarcasm, the way she always called things like she saw them. With her long blond hair and lean, athletic body Cass might look like Sporty Barbie, but she was so much cooler than that.
    And Mei, who seemed so prim and proper on the outside with her always perfect black hair and flawless skin but who, inside, had the wild soul of a rock star.
    Even Izzy, whose behavior had been strange and erratic lately but whom Piper always knew she could count on when she needed her. She had a feeling she would miss Izzy most of all. When she was in France, who would make her laugh so hard she was in danger of spewing?
    She glanced at Izzy, realized her friend’s chocolate-brown eyes were completely spaced out. Even though she was sitting at their table, drinking her milkshake and twirling a lock of her hair around her finger, she was a million miles away. Maybe she needed someone to remind
her
for once that everything was going to be okay. “I’m sorry, Iz,” she said, even though she wasn’t really sure what she was supposed to be apologizing for. “I was just joking. You know I love your style.”
    Izzy sighed, and it wasn’t until she relaxed that Piper realized how tense her friend had really been. Reaching out, she rubbed a hand between Izzy’s shoulder blades. “I know,” Izzy answered. “Sorry—I shouldn’t have jumped at you like that.”
    “This much shopping would make anyone irritable,” Cassidy said, though the glance she exchanged with Mei told Piper that the two of them were also weirded out by Izzy’s strange behavior. “I’m pretty close to losing it myself.”
    Izzy laughed and Piper shot Cassidy a grateful look—thank God her friends were so good at smoothing over the rough edges when she stuck her foot in it. Cassidy grinned back and Piper couldn’t help thinking that of the four of them, Cassidy looked the least like she was going to lose it. In fact, she was practically glowing, as if just the thought of getting out of Paris, Texas, for a while was enough to light her up from the inside.
    Not that Piper blamed her. She’d had it rough ever since the Cotton Festival a few months before, but Cassidy had had it rough from the very beginning. Even though it was the twenty-first century, things in Paris hadn’t changed so much that people didn’t look down on Cassidy because her mom had gotten pregnant in high school. It was stupid and bigoted and enough to drive Piper crazy, but there it was.
    That’s how the two of them had become friends, in fact. In kindergarten, one of the older kids had been teasing Cassidy about being a “bastard” while he walked by their table in the cafeteria. Piper hadn’t known what the word meant, but there was no mistaking the mean sneer on the boy’s face. Plus Cassidy had looked like she was about to cry, and Piper couldn’t stand that, so she’d picked up the huge bottle of ketchup on the table in front of her and squirted it all over the little jerk.
    She’d spent the next week sitting on the bench at recess, but it had totally been worth it. Especially since Cassidy had sat with her every day. They’d been inseparable ever since, and every once in a while Cassidy still referred to the boy’s shirt as Piper’s first canvas.
    As she looked around at her friends, Piper realized that she wasn’t the only one with a semiurgent reason to get out of Paris. Even Mei had a motive for going. Her entire life she’d been on the outside looking in. Sure,