Once Again (8 page)

The finality of the door closing behind him
echoed like thunder in my mind.

“Layla!”

My eyes flew open and I looked around
frantically, assuring myself that I was in my bedroom. Mom stood in
my doorway.

“Jessie’s here,” she said.

I yanked the headphones out of my ears
and...

Two hours? I’d only meant to unwind. How had
I managed to sleep for two hours?

And the dream... it had been so real, so
vivid. I was trembling, and even now I wanted to sob in
despair.

“I fell asleep,” I answered, as if she hadn’t
already figured that out. “Tell Jessie I’ll be right down.”

At least my clothes were ready, which was
more than I could say for my hair. I dressed in a matter of seconds
and pushed my feet into my boots, pulling the bottoms of my
boot-cut jeans over the tops. Running across the hall to the
bathroom, I twisted my hair into a messy knot and secured it into
place with a large clip. It wasn’t my first choice for a hair-do,
but it looked good enough, sort of casually elegant.

I pulled a few wavy strands loose to hang
around my face, then brushed a bit of pink blush across my cheeks.
I grabbed my eyeliner pencil and spruced up a bit around my eyes.
Apparently, I’d cried during the dream, because the liner I’d
applied before my impromptu nap was all but invisible.

Satisfied that I looked acceptable, I ran
down the stairs to find Jessie. She was waiting in the kitchen,
having a lively conversation with my mother about our cross-country
team.

I groaned to myself. I’d only barely managed
to convince Mom that Lucas was just my friend. If Jessie brought up
that Lucas was meeting me at the game Mom would be all over me
again.

“Hey Jess,” I said, picking my purse up off
the table. “Ready?”

“Sure.” Jessie was all smiles, and thankfully
she ceased her talk about the cross-country runners before Luke’s
name was mentioned.

The football stadium was packed, the stands
overflowing with people, most of them kids from Sky Cove. Our
opponents, from nearby Camden, made up a smaller portion of the
crowd.

Jessie and I found seats near the top of the
stands on the Sky Cove side. Marsha and Tiffany found us soon
after. With the sun now below the horizon, the air felt chilly and
crisp, but not at all unpleasant. Perfect football weather. Of
course, I knew next to nothing about football, other than what a
touchdown was. But I quickly figured out that, for most of the
students here, the game was more of a social occasion than a
sporting event.

I had to make myself refrain from looking
around for Lucas. It would be too obvious, to my friends and
probably to everyone else.

But it was so hard not to. Not only because I
looked forward to being with him, but because the feelings from my
dream were still hanging around, nagging at my heart. In the dream,
I had been devastated by Lucas’s departure. Heartbroken by his
tearful “I love you” as he left.

And though I knew it had only been a dream,
it was proving difficult to convince my emotions that the real,
live Lucas was fine and exactly as he had been at school today.
That he hadn’t decided to skip town for my well being the way
dream-Lucas had.

Or that he hadn’t decided being friends with
the new girl was too much of a liability.

And didn’t it just make me so happy to have
those doubts bouncing around my head?

Three minutes remained in the second quarter
when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Room for me?” asked Lucas. The noise from
the crowd was loud, so his face was bent to my ear. His voice,
deep, rich and full of amusement, made my heart melt.

Relief flooded through me as I scooted closer
to Jessie, making room for Lucas on the end of the bleacher. I knew
the smile on my face was gigantic, both from Luke’s presence beside
me and the release of tension that had tormented me since the
dream.

“Did you win?” I asked, leaning closer to
make myself heard.

“Yes.” He smiled. “We did.”

“Did
you
win?”

He nodded, but like last time, he clearly
didn’t think much of his own success.

I was very aware of Jessie, Marsha, and
Tiffany - and probably a lot of other people - watching us. I
didn’t want to say or do anything that would make him uncomfortable
or give anyone the wrong idea about us.

Despite the way I felt about him, I still had
no idea exactly
what
we were. And though it was sometimes
frustrating to be so uncertain, I was really enjoying getting to
know him without any expectations or pressure.

He slipped on a gray hooded sweatshirt,
bearing the Sky Cove cross-country logo, then picked up my
hand.

“Glad to see you, Layla.” He winked, then
playfully kissed the back of my hand.

He laid my hand on my knee, then positioned
his own knee so that the side of his hand brushed against mine.
Perfect and sweet, the subtle gesture proved Lucas to be a
romantic. And, unlike the ending of my dream,
here
.

I swallowed past the lump of joy in my
throat.

As
far as successes went, the last Friday of September had been a big
one for Sky Cove Senior High. Lucas and the cross-country team won
their meet, and the football team won soundly over their rival.
Apparently, Todd Miller had even been the MVP of the game.

The football stands began to empty, and all
over the stadium, kids started making plans to continue the evening
somewhere else. The Pizza Place was the most popular choice, I
gathered from what Jessie and the girls said, because it had picnic
seating outside to accommodate larger crowds.

And though the breeze was chilly, it wasn’t
uncomfortable outside, even this late in the evening.

“You guys ready?” Jessie asked, looking to
Luke and me. Over her shoulder Marsha and Tiffany looked on.

“Sure,” I said, looking up at Lucas. I had no
idea if he was planning to go with us.

“Did you drive?” he asked me.

I shook my head. “I rode with Jessie.”

“You want to ride with me?”

The girls giggled, in that way only girls can
do.

Marsha shouted, “Of course she does!” and
Jessie and Tiffany immediately agreed. Jessie promised to save us a
seat at their table, and also to bring my purse, which was still in
her car.

Luke and I didn’t hurry as we walked to his
Bronco. Having arrived at the game late, he’d had to park a good
distance away, in the parking lot of the elementary school on the
other side.

He took my hand again and led me through the
crowd of people in the direction of his car. When we’d left most of
the noise behind us, he leaned closer to me.

“I thought about you this afternoon.” His
voice was soft, almost unsure, as if testing my reaction.

“While you were running?

“Yes. Sometimes I - ” he broke off.
“Sometimes I let my mind wander while I run.”

“And you thought about me?” I was rather
stunned by his admission.

“I wondered what you were doing, how you were
feeling, what you’d look like tonight.” One corner of his mouth
lifted in a smile.

Breath became difficult to draw. Was there
another guy on the planet who was this good with words?

“So,” he went on. “How did you feel this
afternoon?”

“If you mean was I excited about the game
tonight,” because no way could I get into the dream business, “I
was.”

“That’s good.” He squeezed my hand. “So was
I.”

When we reached the Bronco he proved himself
a gentleman once more and opened my door. He cranked the ignition,
and in minutes we arrived at The Pizza Place.

We drew looks from the gang when we walked
in, although the looks no longer lingered into stares. I supposed
seeing us together had become common.

Music blared from overhead speakers while
kids laughed and chattered. The scents of tomato and garlic filled
the room as surely as the exuberance of the crowd.

Jessie and the girls had secured a table
inside, and Lucas and I joined them there. Soon after, Corey and
Will, Luke’s cross-country teammates took a seat at our table. The
voices inside the restaurant were almost as loud as they were at
the game, a constant stream of talking and laughing that you could
almost feel.

Words began to form in my mind again, forcing
the buzz from all the talking to the background. They flitted
through my consciousness, seeming random and meaningless at first.
The feeling was as disconcerting as it had been at school that
first day, and though I tried to focus on what I was seeing, I
found it impossible to pinpoint the origin of the thoughts. It was
as if they weren’t mine, as if I were somehow picking up on the
thoughts of another person in the room.

The idea was so implausible I almost laughed
at myself, but that didn’t stop me from looking around the room.
Aside from the people at our table, I saw various faces I
recognized from school even though I didn’t know their names.
Others I remembered, such as Lance the head-nodder and Miller the
idiot.

I closed my eyes, and once again the sentence
formed behind my lids.

It won’t be long now, my love.

The words might’ve sounded mysteriously
romantic under other circumstances, but as it was all they did was
creep me out. The vibe it gave me felt almost threatening.

Luke touched my arm, and I opened my eyes.
The haze lifted from my mind, and I rejoined my friends, deciding
the anti-social moment was nothing more than over-excitement.

The conversation bounced from school romances
to who got caught cheating in Calculus and everything in between. I
discovered that Lucas seemed just as comfortable in a large group
as he was one-on-one. There was no hand holding at the table, but
he was attentive and polite, getting up to refill my drink twice
and discreetly refusing to let me chip in my share on the
pizza.

It was then I realized that this had turned
into a date.

Some girls might have been disappointed that
he wasn’t more obvious about it, but for me, the fact that he kept
things just between us made them all the more special.

I had no choice but to admit to myself that
our friendship was moving in the romantic direction. And all the
caution and self-preservation in the world could not keep me from
being ecstatic about it.

“Drive you home?” he asked in a soft whisper
at my ear, as things began to wind down. “Or would you rather ride
with Jessie?”

My heart swelled to the point that I thought
my chest would no longer be able to contain it. I had never known a
more perfect night.

“I’ll go with you.”

“Will it be okay with your parents if I drive
you home?”

“Yes. My mom thinks you hung the moon.”

“That’s good,” he said. “Though it’s not your
mom I’m most interested in impressing.”

We said our goodbyes, and no one seemed
surprised when we left together, though Robbie and Lance eyed us a
bit more than everyone else. I couldn’t find it in me to feel
guilty. After all, I hadn’t exactly lied to them. And it wasn’t as
if I’d turned them down and then accepted an invitation from
Lucas.

I realized then why he’d been so careful to
not
ask me to be his date. It was so the things I’d told the
other boys when I turned them down would still be true.

He insisted on walking me to the door when we
arrived at my house, and exchanged polite hellos with my mother,
who had waited up, and was, of course, thrilled to see him.

She excused herself – my mom was cool like
that – and headed off to bed.

Luke stayed where he was beside the front
door.

The quiet of my house after the noise at the
game and the pizza place was a welcome invasion. I took off my
sweater, hanging it across the back of a chair, enjoying the way
the cool September air felt against my skin.

“I’d hang out with you a little longer,” he
said, “but I don’t know that I could stay awake.”

“You haven’t stopped all day,” I said.
“School, your meet, the game.”

“It’s been a good day. A better night.” He
picked up my hand, held it in both of his. “Can we do this again
sometime? Maybe just the two of us?”

I laughed. I was helpless to stop it. This
whole night had been amazing and ridiculous and astonishing, and my
mind just couldn’t keep up.

Lucas was interested in
me
. In
that
way.

“Is this where you tell me you’re not ready
to start dating?” he asked with a smirk. “That you’re still getting
to know everyone?”

“You heard that?” I asked, my giggling
finally dying down a bit.

“Told you before, news travels fast.” He
grinned, crossed his arms over his chest, and leaned against the
door, waiting for an answer.

“I was honest when I said those things,” I
said. “When I said them to Robbie and Chris and Lance.”

“Lance asked too?” He seemed surprised.

I nodded. “Yesterday.”

“And you told him the same thing?”

“Yes. And it was true when I said it to him.”
I leaned against the doorframe, putting myself a bit closer to him.
“But it wouldn’t be true if I said it to you right now.”

“Is that a yes?” He reached out and tucked a
wisp of hair behind my ear. “Will you go out with me? On a proper
date?”

My skin tingled where his fingers brushed
against my cheek. All the breath in my lungs backed up and I had to
remind myself to breath.

“I’m not sure how it could be more proper
than tonight,” I whispered when I found my voice again. “But, yes.
I’d love to go out with you.”

“A proper date means just us,” he smiled.
“And something a bit more grand than a loud ballgame and a crowded
pizza parlor.”

“Okay.” I refused to let my mind start
imagining what he might have in store.