by Amy Durham
And did he expect me to just sit there because he said to?
I was pretty certain that was how most girls reacted to him, so why should he think I’d be any different?
Well, I was different, and I was going to prove it by going over and taking the other empty seat with the bookworms.
But when I took a step, it was toward him. Despite the argument in my head, my feet took me in his direction until I was sitting in the very seat he’d cleared for me.
When had I become so weak?
I dropped my backpack on the floor, and stared at it, wondering what in the world I was supposed to say.
“I’m Lucas.”
Man, his voice was nice. Deep and mature, there was no hint of the cracking and squeaking of many guys my age. Nope, this was the voice of a boy solidly on the other side of puberty. Smooth and dark, like melted caramel.
“Hi,” I said, angry with myself for sounding sheepish, even to my own ears. “Layla.”
He nodded and leaned toward me, the wariness in his expression still present. He tilted his head, as if he needed a closer look. “Nice to meet you Layla.”
I knew I was blushing. I hated that. I could feel the heat creeping into my cheeks as his eyes scanned back and forth across my face. It made responding verbally to his compliment almost impossible.
I managed a muttered “thanks”, just as the warning bell rang and the teacher, Mrs. Chadwick, started class.
I glanced at Lucas once more, as Mrs. Chadwick took attendance, and found him looking at me with an expression that same expression… oddly curious, knowing. I couldn’t look away. And when he made no move to say anything, I broke the staring contest by opening my notebook.
Forty-seven minutes later, the bell to end class rang. The texters from the front of the class immediately went for their cells. Rolling my eyes, I reached toward the floor for my backpack, and my hand brushed Lucas’s as he bent to pick up his.
Electricity streaked through my arm, and I barely resisted the urge to wrench my hand away. Lucas’s eyes met mine, and though I felt certain he hadn’t felt the same punch I did, I was pretty sure my face was plastered with shock.
How embarrassing.
“Why are they even in this class?” I nodded toward the girls with the cell phones, hoping my question would put a stop to the awkward moment.
“They probably got stuck here when the other electives filled up.” He shrugged and grinned. Not only was it the first pleasant look I’d gotten from him, but his smile was a total killer. “Not a lot of kids choose to take a class where you have to read books.”
But apparently he did. Which was both a selling point and a mystery.
We stepped into the hallway at the same time, and before taking off, he looked back at me as if he wanted to say something. In that moment of hesitation before he spoke, the words began falling again, faster this time.
I stood, rooted to my spot. From the end of the hall someone called his name, and Lucas turned to join them.
Paralyzed, I didn’t move as the words fell into place.
No matter what I have to do.
CHAPTER 2
Though I tried not to, I worried about lunch all through the next two periods. I should’ve asked my new friend Jessie what time her lunch break was, but being overwhelmed with everything, I hadn’t thought about it. As a result, U.S. History, which under normal circumstances I would’ve enjoyed, was a blur, and the geometry class had seemed much more difficult to endure than it would have otherwise.
What if I had nowhere to sit and no one to talk to?
I imagined the worst-case scenario. Standing in the cafeteria, lunch tray in hand, looking at a room of full tables, the occupants staring back at me with no hint of invitation in their eyes.
So I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Jessie, along with Marsha and Tiffany, waving to me from a table in the center of the cafeteria.
The banana was the best part of lunch, as the turkey sandwich was pretty dry and the steamed broccoli was mostly tasteless, but I did meet a few other people at lunch. A couple of boys at our table seemed overly attentive, as if jockeying for position on the new girl’s priority list. They were decent guys, and I was pretty sure they didn’t often get the opportunity to try and impress girls. I felt bad, in a way, that they didn’t make an enormous impression, but I couldn’t recall any names by the end of the day.
Walking to my car, I thought to myself that as far as first days at a new school went, this one hadn’t been completely terrible. It was also worth noting that a late-August afternoon in Nashville, Tennessee would’ve most likely been sweltering. But here in Sky Cove it was warm without humidity, and the breeze was almost balmy as it lifted my hair off my shoulders.
Groups of kids were gathered at various locations in the parking lot. The traditional end-of-the-day debriefing I figured. I was almost to my car when one group of particularly athletic looking boys called my name.
I stopped, looked over my shoulder. I recognized none of them. Apparently they’d heard about me.
“Hey Layla!” the one with the short brown hair yelled.
I just stood there, unsure of how to respond. I didn’t even know their names.
“Lay-la,” he said again, putting the emphasis on the first syllable.
Great.
The other guys snickered. A slight crowd started to pile up.
“Lay Lay Lay-la,” he went on.
I began to hope the ground would open up and engulf me.
“Lay-la, why don’t you come over here and lay this.” A not-so-subtle pelvic thrust accompanied the last word.
I felt like a statue, and a complete idiot, rooted to the pavement, unable to move. I shook my head and rolled my eyes in disgust, thinking it would be best to just head to my car and ignore the display of ignorance. Even though a part of me – a part that never, ever found the nerve to come out – wanted to let loose with a series of stinging insults, all of which would be way above this moron’s vocabulary level.
“Shut up Miller!” came an angry voice from behind me.
And then he was there.
Shoving the idiot named Miller hard in the chest.
Miller stumbled back a few steps, looking stunned that Lucas had pushed him.
“Whoa, man.” He righted himself, then put up a hand in mock surrender. “I was just saying hello to the new girl.”
Lucas got right in his face and jammed a finger in Miller’s chest.
“What do you think you accomplish by talking to a girl like that?”
“Dude, look,” Miller stammered. “I was just kidding around.”
“You feel like a big shot when you act like a jerk?” Lucas took a step closer, now nose-to-nose with the idiot.
“Back off, Luke.” Apparently Miller-the-idiot found his spine, though I couldn’t figure out why he thought that was a good idea.
For whatever reason, Lucas was livid on my behalf.
How in the world had that happened? Since when did cute guys stick up for me, especially when they looked at me such guardedness?
“I don’t think so, Miller.” Lucas shoved again, and Miller had the good sense not to retaliate. “You’re the one who needs to back off.”
“Hey ladies,” Lucas said as he spun around to look at some of the girls who had gathered to watch the confrontation. “Any of you want to be talked to like that?”
Most of the girls just looked at each other or stared at their shoes.
But Lucas wasn’t finished. He turned back toward Miller.
“Congratulations, you just made yourself look like a pig in front of half the school.”
Never in my life had anyone defended me like this. The fact that I’d barely met him made it all the more unbelievable.
The fact that he was freaking gorgeous made it completely unbelievable.
Then he turned to me.
“Come on.”
And he took my hand and pulled me toward my car.
CHAPTER 3
>
Lucas steered me around to the driver’s side of my car with a gentle hand on the small of my back. I was both bewildered and exhilarated by the level of familiarity he displayed with me. And really uncomfortable with the fact that everyone in the parking lot was still looking at me.
“How did you know this was my car?” I grimaced. What a lame thing to say after he’d just defended my honor.
“You were headed this way,” he answered, taking my backpack off my shoulder and holding it while I fished inside the front pocket for my keys. “And this is the only car in the row I didn’t recognize.”
Apparently, he’d decided to quit eyeing me suspiciously.
“Um, I should thank you.” My hand closed around my keys. “For before.” Great, Layla. That sounded so grateful.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if still trying to calm down.
“Miller’s a complete moron.”
“There are idiot boys everywhere,” I said, unlocking my car doors. “I learned to ignore them a long time ago.”
“I’m sure you encountered plenty of jerks in Tennessee.” He opened the back door, put my backpack inside, and closed it. “But my mom would kill me if she found out I saw that and didn’t step in.”
“You know I’m from Tennessee?”
“News travels fast around here,” he said. “And I’m really sorry you had to deal with Miller’s stupidity on your first day.”
“Not your fault. But thanks again.”
He leaned against the back door, seeming in no hurry to leave.
“Lucas Ellis, by the way.” He extended his hand. “I realized I didn’t tell you my last name in lit class this morning.”
“Layla 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 successful at taking my mind off of Lucas.
It was as if my life in Tennessee was a million years ago and the present was all about him.
I flipped open my phone and fired off a text to Adrienne.
What’s up?
She responded immediately.
OMG! I miss u!
Naturally, the texting continued, but only marginally took my mind off Lucas.
I didn’t want to forget Nashville and the life I’d had there. I was a teenager, after all. Wasn’t I supposed to wallow in self-pity over the things and people I’d been forced to leave behind? Wasn’t I supposed to be miserable in this new place out of respect for my former home.
Yeah, that had never been my style. Self-pity wasn’t something I allowed myself. And, unlike some kids my age, I’d already realized that the world didn’t revolve around me one hundred percent of the time.
But right at this moment, I’d have gladly given in to teenage angst and drama if it would make me forget about Lucas Ellis.
I aimed the fan toward my bed and snuggled in, trying in vain not to picture dark blond hair and brown eyes.
Trying not to hear that smooth, caramel voice.
Sometime later, I finally fell asleep. And when I did, he was still on my mind.
CHAPTER 4
The next morning, the fog still lingered, thick and heavy, as I drove to school. Jessie was waiting in the parking lot for me when I pulled in. As glad as I was to have company for my inevitable walk into the front lobby, the look on her face told me that news of yesterday afternoon’s episode had spread.
“Is it true that Todd Miller was harassing you after school yesterday?” she asked.
So his first name was Todd. Funny, I still only thought of him as Miller-the-idiot.
“I suppose,” I grabbed my backpack from the backseat. “He was just being an jerk.”
“I heard Lucas Ellis put a stop to it.”
I considered how best to respond as we walked toward the building. Clearly, Lucas couldn’t expect his involvement to remain a secret. Not with the crowd that witnessed the exchange. But I didn’t want to make more of it than there was. High school reputations were a tricky balancing act, and you never kne
w what was going to tip the scales in one direction. Too much interest in the “new girl” could cause him problems.
I was also working very hard to not elevate him to hero status. Trying, but failing miserably.
“He was just being nice,” I shrugged.
“Yeah, well,” Jessie giggled. “Luke has a reputation of being a nice guy, but I’ve never heard of him getting into a confrontation like that.”
As if I needed another reason to put him on a pedestal.
“Who is Todd Miller anyway?” We’d reached the front door, so I lowered my voice as I pushed it open. “I hadn’t even laid eyes on him until yesterday afternoon in the parking lot.”
“School jock,” Jessie said. “Big star on the football and basketball teams. I suppose that’s why so many girls want to date him, even though he’s a jerk.”
“What about Lucas?” We shouldered through the crowd of people in the lobby, working our way down the hall to the door of our first class. “He looks like he’d be an athlete.”
“Luke’s a runner. Cross country, track and field. He does 5Ks and stuff like that in the off-season. Trains all the time. I heard he’s going to do a marathon this year.”
“How old is he?” I asked, trying nonchalantly to scan the hall in search of him.
“He’s a senior.” The warning bell rang and the lobby began to empty. Jessie and I headed into the classroom and took our seats. “And I heard he’s single again.”
I should not be interested in this. I should not. Yet I couldn’t stop the next question from leaving my mouth. “Again?”
“Right.” Jessie leaned closer, whispering. “He and Kara Jennings have been on and off over the past year. But I heard they broke up some time over summer break.”
My curiosity was put on hold when Mr. Hartley started class, and I decided that was a good thing. The conversation with Jessie had already revealed way too much of my interest in Lucas Ellis.
All through chemistry, I was painfully aware of the minutes ticking by. Every click of a pencil on a desk and every scrape of a chair moving against the floor set my nerves on edge. Though I told myself it was because I disliked the class, I knew it was a lie. I was in a hurry for this period to end because my next class was literature.