Avalon High Read Free Page B

spent less time in the pool, and more at the mall this summer. Maybe, I worried, I was cracking up from lack of contact with people my own age.
    Which is when I rounded a corner, and nearly ran into him.
    And realized I hadn’t imagined him at all.
    He was with two other people. The first thing I noticed about them—the two people who were with him, I mean—was that they were both blond and very attractive, a guy and a girl, around my age. They were on either side of the man from the ravine…who, I noted upon closer inspection, wasn’t a man at all, really, but a boy, also my age, or maybe a little older. He was tall and dark-haired, like me.
    But unlike me, he wasn’t covered in sweat or gasping for breath.
    Oh, and he was really cute, too.
    All three of them looked up, startled, as I came running by. I saw the blond-haired boy say something, andthe blond-haired girl looked upset…maybe because I almost ran into them, even though I veered in time to avoid a collision.
    Only the dark-haired boy smiled at me. He looked right into my face and said something.
    Except that I don’t know what it was since I had my earphones on and couldn’t hear him.
    All I know is that for some reason—I don’t know why—I smiled back. Not because of Image, or anything. It was weird. It was like he smiled at me, and my lips automatically smiled back—my brain had nothing to do with it. There was no conscious decision on my part to smile back.
    I just did. Like it was a habit, or something. Like this was a smile I always smiled back to.
    Except that I had never seen this guy before in my life. So how could my mouth even have known this?
    Which was why it was kind of a relief to run past them. You know, to get away from that smile that made me smile back, even when I didn’t want to. Necessarily.
    My relief was short-lived, though. Because I saw them again as I leaned against the hood of our car, panting heavily and polishing off one of the bottles of water my mom had made Dad and me bring with us. They emerged from the woods—the two boys and the girl—and headed toward their own cars. The blond girl and boy were talking rapidly to the dark-haired boy. I wasn’t close enough to hear what they were saying, but judging from their expressions, it didn’t look like they were toohappy with him. One thing I knew for sure: He wasn’t smiling anymore.
    Finally, he said something that seemed to placate the blond couple, since they stopped looking so upset.
    Then the blond boy climbed into a Jeep, while the dark-haired guy slid behind the wheel of a white Land Cruiser…and the blond girl slipped into the passenger seat beside him. Which surprised me, since it had looked to me like she and the cute blond guy, not the dark-haired one, were the couple.
    But having had little experience in the boyfriend department, I’m not exactly an expert.
    I was sitting on the hood of our own car reflecting on what I had just witnessed—a lovers’ quarrel? A drug deal of some kind?—when my dad finally came staggering over.
    “Water,” he croaked, and I gave him the other bottle.
    It wasn’t until we were inside the car, the air-conditioning blasting on us at full power, that my dad asked, “So. Have a good run?”
    “Yeah,” I said, kind of surprised by the answer.
    “Want to go again tomorrow?” my dad wanted to know.
    “Sure,” I said, looking at the place where the three people I’d seen—the two blonds and the dark-haired boy—had last stood. They were long gone by then.
    “Great,” my dad said, in a voice totally lacking any sort of enthusiasm.
    You could tell he’d been hoping I’d say no. But Icouldn’t do that. Not because I’d finally remembered how much I enjoyed running, or because I’d had a good time with my dad.
    But because—fine, I’ll admit it—I was hoping I’d see that cute guy—and his smile—again.

CHAPTER THREE
    Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle