Meet Me There

by Judy Corry

  "Say it…" he prodded again. This time his fingers moved further up my sides to where I was really, really ticklish. I arched my back and tried to get away, but he didn't budge.

  When I still didn't say it, he set his hands on either side of my face and leaned down until his face was only a breath away. "Tell me you were wrong."

  My mind went blank before flashing back to yesterday, when he'd put his face this close to mine. Except this time, instead of wanting to turn my head and give him my cheek, I wanted to tip my lips up and capture his with mine.

  But that didn't make any sense.

  I'd just kissed British Boy this afternoon, how could I suddenly want to kiss Luke, too?

  Our eyes caught, and my cheeks burned with heat. Could he tell what I was thinking?

  He cleared his throat, his expression sober. "Ok, I'll stop."

  A second later he was up and helping me to stand.

  "Thanks." I patted my legs and adjusted my shirt so it fell just right over my hips. It took me a moment to gain enough composure to look at him.

  "Should we try that lift again?" Luke asked, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen between us.

  I nodded my head vigorously. "Yes. Let's do that."

  The next day, I decided to push the unsettling feelings I was having for Luke out of my mind and focus on figuring out British Boy’s true identity. I wasn't the kind of girl to go around kissing one boy, only to want to kiss another. That wasn't me. So I studied British Boy's hoodie as it sat in the passenger seat of my car on my drive to my early morning drill team practice.

  It was a bright red, SUNY Cortland hoodie. When I lifted it to my nose, it smelled like British Boy in the Chemistry lab, which, if I was to be honest, reminded me of what a dad or a grandpa would wear. Not your typical hot-guy-in-a-bottle that I wanted to breathe in all day long. Kind of like Luke’s scent at our dance practice yesterday. That was the way a hot guy should smell.

  I didn't remember Noah smelling like that either, so unless he'd started wearing a new cologne, it probably wasn't him like I'd initially thought. But I would definitely need to do a little more investigating before I could cross him off my list of suspects.

  At lunch period, I set my salad on the table and waited for Eliana to show up. I was hunched over my notepad, trying to figure out some names to add to my suspects’ list when Eliana plopped down next to me with her tray steaming with pizza and fries.

  "Where's Jess?" I asked. They usually came to lunch together.

  She took a bite of a French fry and shrugged. "I saw him walking here with Breanna Murdock. I'm pretty sure he's sitting with her today."

  "What? When did that happen?"

  "Apparently, that flirting yesterday turned into his next relationship." She stabbed another fry into her ranch, and if I didn't know any better, I'd think she wasn't so happy about my brother dating someone again.

  "How long do you think they'll last?"

  "I'm betting a week this time." Eliana said.

  "Not a fan of Breanna, I guess?" She usually bet at least two weeks.

  "Nope. Not a fan."

  "Okay, then," I squinted my eyes at her, trying to read why she was reacting this way. Was it possible she was finally starting to realize she and my brother would be perfect together?

  Instead of saying anything about it, I said, "I'll give them three days. Winner buys smoothies next time?"

  "Deal." After taking a bite of her pizza, Eliana pointed to my notepad. "What's that?"

  "It's my list of suspects for British Boy."

  "Still only got one?"

  I nodded, staring at Noah's name. "I really hope it's not him." I may have confused myself for a moment yesterday, thinking I might have feelings for Luke. But now that my head was clear and I was a safe distance from his intoxicating scent and muscles, I realized that I still wanted to find a way for things to somehow work out between British Boy and me.

  And if they were going to work out, British Boy couldn't be Noah. We'd already had our shot. I wanted British Boy to be everything I'd imagined, not someone who had faked everything. He said he'd only faked the accent because he didn't think I'd like him, so if everything else about him was real, I'd be crazy not to forgive him the tiny indiscretion and ask him to trust me with his true self.

  "Who else should we add to the list?" I asked Eliana after taking a bite from my salad.

  She looked around the cafeteria, so I let my gaze wander the room as well. British Boy was supposedly a senior, so that meant he should be in here if he didn't eat off campus.

  Eliana pointed to a table to our right. "What about Kade Isom? He's tall and has dark hair."

  I squinted to try and get a better look. "Too skinny." I may have been feeling British Boy through a thick sweatshirt, but I could tell he had a great physique.

  I looked around the room some more. My eyes caught on a cute guy sitting at a table in the corner. He had dark brown hair and beautiful caramel-colored skin. "Do you know who that is?" I asked Eliana.

  "Who?" She leaned closer to get a better view.

  "The guy in the gray and blue striped V-neck." I pointed as discreetly as I could. The guy turned his head and his eyes locked with mine.

  My heart stuttered for a second. This guy was hot!

  "He's looking at you," Eliana whispered in my ear. "Do you think it's him?"

  "I don't know," I whispered back, my blood simmering with anticipation.

  Someone stepped into my view, breaking the hot eye contact Suspect Number Two and I were having. When the view cleared again, the guy was walking toward me. And that's all it took for me to look away. He was a shorty. Buff, but way too short to be the guy I'd had to stand on my tiptoes to kiss yesterday.

  "Dang." Eliana sighed, noticing the height as well.

  I turned back around in my seat, hoping it would give the guy the hint that I wasn't interested after all.

  While we waited for the guy to hopefully pass by our table, Eliana took my pen from my hand and scribbled out the words "British Boy" at the top. Then the pen scratched along the white space above it as she wrote the words "Imposter Boy."

  I smiled at her. "Brilliant."

  I spent the next week and a half trying to figure out who Imposter Boy might be, putting names on the list, only to cross them off again after further investigation. I was beginning to wonder if Imposter Boy had lied about the brown hair and brown eye thing, just to confuse me. Because it seemed like I'd found one reason or another to take every guy who fit that description off my list. Every guy except Noah, that is.

  The thought that I'd practically thrown myself at Noah in the Chemistry lab made my stomach turn sour. I hated to think that I might have been kissing the one guy at school that I'd vowed to never kiss again.

  But I had to figure out if it was him sooner or later, so instead of looking around at every other guy in the world, I decided to put him to the test. I messaged Imposter Boy a few times since our last meeting but still hadn't received a response. But thanks to the read receipts that awesomemail provided me with, I could tell that he'd been at least reading them…most times almost immediately after I'd sent them.

  Which gave me an idea and a safe way to check if it was Noah, without actually having to ask him or sniff him.

  So before school on Thursday morning, I positioned myself in the library at a table that had the perfect view of Noah's locker through the window. I waited for him to get there and watched as he pulled out his notebook and turned around to stand with his back against his locker. He looked off into the distance, as if contemplating something very profound. I couldn't ignore the fact that it was exactly something I'd expect Imposter Boy to do. He seemed the deep-thinking kind of guy. Plus, from what Imposter Boy had told me about his dad starting to date someone, I gathered that he came from a broken home. Just like Noah. Coincidentally enough.

  Before I could talk myself out of it, I hit send on the message and watched him for a reaction. He didn't move. I he
ld my breath as anticipation bubbled in my throat. Still, he didn't pull out his phone. I didn't know whether to be disappointed or what. Maybe he hadn't felt it vibrate in his pocket? Or maybe he'd left his phone at home?

  But when I peeked down at my screen, it showed that the message had been read.

  It wasn't Noah.

  22

  Luke

  I slipped my phone back into my pocket as I walked into school Thursday morning. Ashlyn wasn't making this easy. She wasn't giving up on trying to get British Boy to meet her again. She kept sending me messages about how I didn't need to worry about her finding out who I really was. But that's exactly what I was so freaked out about. How could I not be scared? She’d barely given me a second glance since we started our daily practices, even as we were dancing, our faces a torturous breath away from each other. Anytime I tried to imagine telling her the truth, the only image that came to my mind was of her disappointed face. Disappointed because I wasn't what she was hoping for. I wasn't who she wanted.

  But how could she not know that it was me? She was so caught up with the idea of some perfect guy behind the screen that she couldn’t see what was right in front of her—right there dancing with her, trying to get her to look at him as more than just a friend or dance partner or old rival. So many times I thought she was feeling something, when we were dancing closely or when I dipped her as the music swelled through the speakers in her family room. She would look straight into my eyes and slowly come toward me. All I wanted to do was pull her closer and let my lips find hers, and whisper that I was the guy she was looking for. But instead of feeling the tiniest bit of romance, she'd step out of my arms, restart the song, and tell me to try the steps again.

  All this time I'd assumed that the truth was what was keeping me from her. But holding onto my secret was only making me crazier. I was beginning to wonder if the truth might just be the thing to set me free from this. Even after all my planning, I still didn't have her. So it wasn't like things could get worse. I might as well just tell her that I was British Boy and let the pieces fall where they may.

  I walked down the main hall of the school, headed toward my first period class. I was just about to enter my Humanities classroom when an arm linked through mine.

  "Good morning, Luke." Ashlyn smiled at me, looking the happiest she'd been in too long.

  "You seem cheerful. Something good happen this morning at drill practice?" Her smile made me uneasy. Had she figured out the truth somehow and was just being really sweet before she smacked me?

  "Not unless you can call being chewed out by your coach for dancing too sloppily good." She sighed.

  "Nope, not my kind of fun. I'm pretty sure I know what you're talking about. Just last week, my dance coach told me my muscles were made of air and that I couldn't dance to save my life."

  She slugged me in the arm. "I didn't say that last part."

  I smiled. "Fine. So what are you happy about?"

  The bright smile was back on her lips. "I just found out the best news."

  "Really?" She'd just messaged British Boy a couple minutes ago. How many other things could she have going on this morning?

  She pulled on my arm so we could stop and talk in front of the lockers next to my classroom. "As you may have noticed, I've been a little down lately."

  I nodded. "Definitely noticed that."

  "Anyway, what I didn't tell you is that I've been worried that my pen pal might have been Noah."

  I raised my eyebrows. "Noah?" How in the world did she come to that conclusion?

  "Yes, long story. Anyway, I really didn't want him to be Imposter Boy."

  "Who's Imposter Boy?"

  "Oh." She waved her hand in the air. "That's what Eliana and I decided to call my pen pal after finding out he's been lying this whole time."

  I swallowed.

  She smiled at me again. "I've been trying to find anyone who fits the little bit of information I have about Imposter Boy, because I was so desperate for him not to be Noah. But after looking at every single guy at school, at least all the seniors, I had no other options left."

  Except me, of course. Should I be offended she hadn't even considered me an option? Was I really so far off the radar that she couldn’t even give me a second thought? Ouch!

  She continued, not seeming to notice that I'd taken offense. "So this morning, I decided I needed to finally bite the bullet and put Noah to the test."

  "You told Noah about Bri—about Imposter Boy?" Oops. That was a close one. I wasn't supposed to know that Imposter Boy had once been affectionately named British Boy.

  "No, of course not! I didn't even have to talk to him."

  "Then how?"

  "I messaged him." She shook her head. "Not him, Noah, but him, Imposter Boy. Then I watched to see if he checked his phone."

  "And did he?" I asked, playing along now that I had an idea of where she was going with this.

  "Didn't even touch it."

  "And you don't think he just left his phone at home."

  "No, the message was read by the real imposter."

  I furrowed my brow in confusion. "How do you know that?"

  She looked at me like I was missing something obvious. "It had the read receipt on it." Her face brightened. "So Noah isn't Imposter Boy!"

  She said it like it was the happiest thing in the world. Her eyes were sparkling, and she had the biggest smile I hadn’t seen her wear in a while.

  "I'm glad you figured that out," I said, sincerely.

  "Me too."

  "So where do you go from here? Still gonna keep trying to solve the mystery?"

  She shook her head and adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder. "I don't think so. We had some great conversations, and I thought we were really going somewhere. But…" She sighed, her demeanor darkening with sadness. "In the end, he didn't want things to work out. And I know better than to force something that wasn't meant to be."

  I nodded, liking the way she was thinking. Maybe my plan had worked after all. She just needed a little more time to move on than I'd thought. But finally, finally, we were officially done with British Boy.

  The bell rang. Ashlyn stepped away from the wall. I was turning to walk into my class when she touched my arm. "Oh, I almost forgot. I know I've been working you hard on the dance, but I was wondering if you'd be willing to do one last thing for me on Saturday. There's this club in Syracuse that has an under-eighteen night once a month, and I was hoping we could go and try out our dance moves in a more public setting."

  "More public dancing in Syracuse? And will we be wearing our panda heads, too?"

  She smiled, and I couldn't help but smile back. "Not this time. And I promise it won't be like a dance practice all night long. We can just do regular club dancing."

  I pinched my lips together. "Are we ever going to do anything together that doesn't involve dancing?"

  "Once the competition is over with, we can do whatever you want."

  "Really?" Warmth flooded my body at those words. She was still planning to hang out after the competition ended. That had to be a good sign.

  "Yeah, you can totally teach me how to play football and find a way to embarrass me in front of a crowd of people."

  I smiled at the thought of Ashlyn running around the football field in a bunch of football gear.

  "Or," she continued. "We could even try watching a movie again sometime. Who knows, maybe it’ll turn out differently than last time."

  I gulped. Did she just say what I thought she said?

  It took me a moment to find my tongue. "I think I might like that."

  The second bell rang and the last stragglers hurried into their classrooms.

  "I'll see you later, Luke." She stepped backwards as she walked away, looking more beautiful than she ever had before.

  I retreated and bumped right into the door. My cheeks burned, and I rubbed the back of my head. "Yeah. See you later."

  23

  Ashlyn

  A
fter dancing the halftime show at the football game Friday night, I headed back to the bleachers to my spot next to Eliana, Jess, and Breanna. I found Eliana sitting alone on a blanket.

  "Where's Jess and Breanna?" I asked Eliana.

  Eliana took a sip of her soda before saying, "Breanna got annoyed that Jess was paying more attention to the game than her, so she asked him to take her home."

  "You think they're going to break up?"

  Eliana shrugged. "It wouldn't surprise me. She was pretty mad."

  I rolled my eyes. "My brother." When was he going to stop this game? "Oh well, looks like you get to take me out for a smoothie."

  Eliana shook her head and laughed. "When will I ever learn?"

  The crowd erupted into a huge cheer. I turned my focus to the field below. Number thirty-seven was running toward the goal line with the football tucked under his arm. He darted past one of Solvay High's players, ran across the twenty-yard line, and zigzagged past another player to run across the ten-yard line. The crowd roared louder and the band started playing the celebration song just as Luke crossed over the goal line.

  "Go, Luke!" I joined the crowd in cheering. Man, he was good at football. If he played like he was playing tonight, he'd have his pick of colleges offering him scholarships.

  Our kicker scored the extra point and kicked off to the other team while Luke grabbed a drink. My heart swelled in my chest when his gaze went to the crowd. I knew there was a fat chance of him actually seeing me, but my heated cheeks didn't seem to understand that.

  "Is Luke looking at you?" Eliana whispered.

  My heart hammered even more. "You think so?"

  She nodded. "I've been watching you guys together the past couple of weeks, and it wouldn't surprise me if he liked you."

  "Really?" My throat closed up on me. I couldn't breathe.

  "I wasn't going to say anything since you were so occupied with that British Imposter Boy, but I really think he does."

  I pinched my lips together, my legs bouncing as I tried to hold Luke's gaze.