Once Again Read Free Page B

Bradford.” I put my hand in his, awed
by the welcoming feeling that enveloped not only my fingers and
palm, but my entire body. The touch of his skin on mine sent
excitement coursing through me. A random thought went through my
mind – Hadn’t I known it would be this way? - though I knew
it was impossible.
    I’d never felt anything like it before in my
life.
    “Well, Layla Bradford,” he said, not
releasing my hand just yet. Reaching around me with his free hand,
he pulled my door open.
    I slid in wordlessly, and looked up at
him.
    He winked and shut it. “I’ll see you
tomorrow.”
    ***
    My mom made my favorite - fettuccini alfredo
- for dinner, in honor of my first day of school. Of course, the
conversation in our muted green eat-in kitchen was the anticipated
game of twenty thousand questions from my mom and dad about how my
day went.
    “Did you like your classes?”
    “Did you make any friends?”
    “How was the cafeteria food?”
    I answered as vaguely as I could, without
seeming too distracted. The truth was that the first day at Sky
Cove Senior High hadn’t been all that bad. And the unpleasant
encounter with Miller-the-idiot, whose first name I still did not
know, had resulted in that amazing exchange with Lucas Ellis.
    I couldn’t stop thinking about it. About
him.
    And I wasn’t about to talk boys with my
parents.
    “Cute boys?” Apparently my mom was not on the
same page with me.
    “A bit early for that, Mom.” I twirled a bite
of pasta onto my fork and enjoyed the creamy garlic flavor.
    “I guess you’re right,” she said with a grin
that reached all the way to deep brown eyes that matched the dark
mahogany of her hair.
    My mom was great, and I loved her dearly. But
Lucas Ellis? I just wasn’t ready to talk about him yet. It
seemed... I don’t know... like he was just mine for the moment.
    Crazy, stupid thoughts.
    I mentally lectured myself on my
stupidity.
    “Do you have homework?” Thankfully Mom caught
the hint and moved on to another subject.
    “Not tonight,” I said, taking my empty dishes
and rinsing them in the sink. “But I’m sure that will change
tomorrow.”
    “Probably right,” Dad put in, bringing his
plate to the sink.
    My mom and dad were older than most parents
of kids my age, evidenced by the gray sprinkled through my dad’s
black hair, but I liked to think that made them a little less
uptight.
    “I’m going to get my folders organized and my
binder put together tonight,” I said as I loaded my dinner dishes
in the dishwasher. It was a good excuse to escape to my room for a
while.
    Mom nodded. She knew my routine. I was a
creature of habit. And after a day of school and dinner with my
parents, I enjoyed a bit of alone time in my room with my iPod and
my thoughts.
    And tonight my thoughts were all about Lucas
Ellis.
    I felt brainless. He was just a boy. And I’d
known him all of ten hours.
    I decided I’d made too much of the incident
this afternoon. It was my emotions getting the better of me. The
stress of starting at a new school. The strain of feeling alone and
putting on a happy face in spite of it.
    I realized, though, that I hadn’t felt alone
with Lucas. Either in literature class or in the parking lot. I
felt... at home.
    How crazy was that?
    I turned on my box fan. I’d been unprepared
for the fact that most houses in Maine didn’t have air
conditioning. Summers were short here, and some houses had window
units, but for the most part, people in Sky Cove just made due with
fans during July and August.
    Having been raised in the south, not having
air conditioning was strange. And uncomfortable. Thus, the box
fan.
    I smiled as the moving air touched me and
cooled my warm skin. I plugged my ears with headphones, and flipped
to last year’s playlist on my iPod. Songs that had been current
during the last school year pumped out of the tiny earbuds. I tried
to imagine Nashville. Adrienne. My other friends. The places I
liked to hang out.
    None of it was