Meant to Be (10 page)

“No, it all just seems to be happening so
fast. I’m not sure what I feel, but I do know that I want to be
with you all the time.”

Relief covered his face. “I was afraid I was
rushing you,” he said as he pulled me into his arms.

Looking around, I could see that we were in
the shadows of the trees and that it was hard to see more than a
few feet in front of us. I could see that Mark was also aware of
it. He pulled back slightly and cupped my face in his hands.

This was the moment I had been waiting for
since I first laid eyes on him yesterday. That’s not true, this was
the moment I had been waiting for my whole life.

“So, you like to read?” He asked pulling
away. I flushed when I realized he was standing a few paces away
from me. I must have read the signals wrong; this is what I got for
never hanging out with other people. I didn’t even know when some
guy was about to kiss me or not.
What a dork
, I thought,
hoping he had missed the fawning look I was sure must have been on
my face.

Swallowing the disappointment that was welled
up in my throat, I tried to focus on the question he had asked
me.

“Yeah, I love to read,” I said, trying to
inject some enthusiasm into my voice.

I found out that he liked to read as much as
I did.

“Favorite book?” Mark asked.

“Easy, the sixth Harry Potter book.”

“Really? More than the last Harry Potter
book?”

“Definitely, the sixth book was the most
interesting.”

“How about you, what’s your favorite
book?”

“Well, like you, I like the Potter series,
but I still like some of the classics like the
Outsiders or
Where the Red Fern Grows
. ”

“Those books were banned from my house after
I read them the first time,” I said with a smile.

“Why?” Mark asked surprised.

“Because, I cried buckets after I read them,
and walked around gloomy for weeks. After that, my dad would look
at all my books before I read them to make sure no one died in
them.”

“How did you slide the Harry Potter books by
him?”

“Well, those didn’t turn sad until the last
few. He screened the first couple, but after that he gave me free
reign on them.”

“Favorite food?” he asked, changing
gears.

“Easy, chocolate,” I said with a smile.

“Not favorite sweet, favorite substantial
food?”

I laughed. “Chocolate is substantial.”

Mark smiled also. “Okay favorite food after
chocolate?’

“Hamburgers and fries,” I said without
hesitation.

“Junk food junkie, we’re a match made in
heaven.”

“What’s your favorite food?”

“Well, I like burgers and fries too, but I’m
actually a pizza man. I love every kind of pizza imaginable.
There’s a great pizza place downtown that I’ll take you to
sometime.”

I felt my pulse speed up at the thought of
going out with him. Sure I was with him now, but the thought of
actually going out on a date was exhilarating.

We continued to toss questions back and forth
as the path weaved between the trees.

I found out that we both preferred cats over
dogs, we liked the same comedies, and we both loved bike riding. He
was the easiest person to talk to and we continued to talk as we
looped the trail a second time. This time when we reached the
shadows of the trees, I did not stop walking. It was obvious that
he didn’t want to kiss me. Maybe he was afraid he would be
disappointed if he did, or maybe he was waiting for me to make the
first move, I just couldn’t tell. Though we didn’t kiss, the
conversation between us flowed easily, and we soon discovered that
the connection shared between us during our dreams was even more
prevalent in reality.

Chapter 6

The next few days passed in a blur. It was a
novel thing to suddenly have three people to talk to that I felt so
at ease with. My friendship with Sam was blooming, and my mom was
amazed at how close we had become.

“You guys act like you’ve known each other
your whole lives,” she commented on Friday morning while we ate
breakfast.

“She’s just easy to talk to and we have so
many things in common,” I replied.

“Have you told her about your dreams?”She
asked surprised.

“Um...” I was hoping she wouldn’t ask that
question.

The four of us had decided that we were going
to keep our dreams between us. The idea that we had the same dreams
seemed crazy enough to us, surely anyone else would think we were
loony. None of us had any desire to wind up in a padded room.

“No,” I mumbled, finally answering her
question.

I hated lying to her, but I was doing what
was best for her. I could already see the tension lines that had
surrounded her eyes the last couple of weeks beginning to ease up.
I knew a large part of this was because I was finally making
friends, and of course she thought my bad dreams had gone away.

The dreams were still the same, but each
morning when I woke from them, Mark would call me on my cell. We
didn’t talk about the dreams; instead, we would discuss other
things, like our hopes and dreams. Neither of us were surprised
that most of these were the same. It was as if he was the other
half of me. By the time we hung up each morning, I was pretty much
over the heartbreak of the dream, and when my mom woke, all signs
of the dream were gone.

“So have the dreams changed?” my mom asked,
as if she had peeked in my head and read my thoughts.

“Yeah, they’re better now,” I lied, finding
no loop hole for this one.

“I better get ready for school,” I said as I
headed up the stairs. “Need to know,” I chanted the overused words
to myself.

Sam was waiting in the usual spot when mom
pulled up to the school.

“Hi! Mrs. Miller,” she called as I stepped
out of the car adjusting my skirt.

“She’s a sweet girl, you should ask her if
she wants to come over for dinner tonight,” she said as she waved
at Sam.

“Okay. I’m sure she would like that; her
parents are working on a big court case, and they’ve been stuck at
the office late every night. I know Sam gets lonely by herself at
night.” Lying blatantly for the first time, I knew for a fact that
Shawn spent all of his free time with Sam and I’m sure she was far
from lonely.

“Why don’t you see if she wants to stay over?
Don’t you have plans to get together tomorrow, anyways?” she
asked.

“Yeah, we’re going to the Boardwalk. Sam’s a
ride nut, and she wants to try the roller coaster.”

Shawn and Mark were going with us too, but
that obviously fell under the need to know category. Now that the
newness of finding each other was beginning to fade, we were all
anxious to figure out what tied us together. At first, I had felt
apprehensive about going to such a public place, afraid we would
run into students from school, but Mark and Sam both laughed at my
concern.

“They wouldn’t be caught dead at the
Boardwalk. If it doesn’t have the word country club or Gucci in it,
they’re not interested,” Sam had said. “Most of them have houses on
the beach and spend their weekends partying and drinking.”

“I’ll ask her. Thanks mom,” I said, closing
the door behind me.

Sam and I headed up the wide staircase
leading into the school. After the incident on Tuesday, we were now
in the habit of waiting for the bell to ring on the bench outside
of the school library. We had dubbed it ‘our spot,’ and ate lunch
there every day.

As we climbed the many stairs, I noticed Mark
coming toward us. Even though I had talked to him just a few hours
ago, I couldn’t stop the excitement that raced through me at the
sight of him. I drank in the sight of him and felt goose bumps pop
up on my arms.

He nodded briefly to us as we passed as if we
were just merely students. I wasn’t hurt. We had kept our distance
at school and the gossip about us had eased up. By Thursday, most
students were busy gossiping about some poor sophomore who was
gaining weight. Rumor had it, she was pregnant. I felt sorry for
this unknown girl, but was relieved that the spotlight was off of
us.

Though we pretended to be indifferent, we
were both hyperaware of each other every second of the day. Every
time I caught a glimpse of him throughout the day, my palms would
sweat and my head would spin. Each time our eyes met it was like
the first time. With each passing day we became more sensitive to
each other’s presence.

We continued to meet at the park every day
after school and I felt like he knew me better than I did myself.
There were no secrets between us. Each moment we were together was
spent catching up on all the years we were unable to talk in the
dreams. Sam and Shawn were always with us and made good chaperones.
Not that they had anything to chaperone. Mark had yet to kiss me,
and by Friday I was beginning to think he never would. Sure, he
would touch my face or hold my hand, and each of these caresses
always gave me the same warm feeling of familiarity that made my
heart race, but I would give anything to feel his warm full lips on
mine. I wanted to ask Sam for her opinion, but was too embarrassed
to admit that maybe Mark didn’t want to kiss me.

Though we had all discussed it exhaustively,
we were still no closer to figuring out the bond between the four
of us. Sam and I had been surfing the web endlessly, searching for
some link that would tie the four of us together. We found a few
short articles related to my rescue when I was a toddler, but we
were unable to gain any new information from the archives. Without
the internet or amber alerts, the authorities had no luck locating
my parents, and after a few months they had given up. Shawn and Sam
had both wound up with the state, but Shawn, like me, had being
adopted. Out of the four of us, Sam by far had it the worst. Not
that you would have been able to tell, she was definitely the most
upbeat one in our group. I think she was just glad to finally have
people she cared about that felt the same way about her.

“So, my mom wants to know if you want to stay
over tonight?” I asked Sam as we waited for the first bell to
ring.

“Definitely, it will be my first
sleepover.”

“Mine too!” I quipped.

We both burst out laughing. We were nothing
but a bunch of misfits. My mom was right; we acted like we were
long lost sisters, which was one idea the four of us had
discussed.

“No way,” I had protested loudly. “I would
know if I was related to you.” I said looking at Mark.

“Not us,” Mark stated. “I mean you and Sam.
Maybe you’re sisters or something like that.”

“I thought about it,” Sam said. “But our
coloring and build are way off.”

“Sam’s right. I don’t think we’re related,” I
added. “The connection has to be something else.”

“Is Mark meeting us at the park today?” Sam
asked, breaking into my thoughts.

“No, not today,” I answered with
disappointment clouding my voice. “He has a staff meeting this
afternoon. He said he would try to come over afterwards for awhile.
My mom’s going to an art show so it will be safe.”

“Your mom’s really taken to the art
thing.”

“Well, she hasn’t started any projects yet,
but she’s definitely into learning about it,” I replied with a
laugh in my voice.

The bell rang.

Still laughing, we gathered up our books and
walked down the busy hallway toward homeroom. We were both on a
giggly high from the anticipation of our first sleepover. It felt
good to be like a normal girl for once.

The morning classes passed quickly. We spent
the time passing notes back and forth to each other. Getting good
grades in school came naturally for both of us and neither of us
had to pay much attention in class. We only bothered tuning into
the lessons when we knew the teacher was watching us.

After lunch, we both headed off to history
class. Though Sam was a good distraction, I was still keenly aware
of every minute that passed until I would be with Mark again. My
heart acted as an internal clock and every beat seemed to count the
minutes for me.

When we entered the room, he was already
there. I noticed that he was missing his usual smile. I looked at
him questionably. He shook his head slightly. I sighed,
ugh
.
This whole secrecy thing was becoming a big old pain in the butt. I
hated waiting on things and hated surprises even more. The next
hour stretched out endlessly ahead of me.

“What’s up with him?” Sam whispered, leaning
toward me.

I shrugged my shoulders, trying to act blasé
about it. Something was obviously bothering him, but I would have
to wait until later to find out, and we didn’t want to give the
gossip hounds anything new to talk about.

The next fifty minutes crawled by. I checked
my watch almost every minute and it seemed to be moving
backwards.

I gnawed on my thumbnail as I waited for
class to end. Maybe he had decided to break off the relationship
with me, and that was why he had not taken our relationship to the
kissing stage.

Briiiiiiiiiing

“Finally!” I mumbled to Sam. “I never thought
the class would end. I’m going to try to talk to him once everyone
leaves the room.”

I gathered my stuff slowly as I waited for
the room to empty. Finally, the last student left the room.

I approached Mark, noting that he still wore
the same grave expression.

“What’s the matter?” I asked concerned.

“I had a meeting with the Dean this morning.
It appears Matt followed up with his threat.”

I gasped. “What did he tell him?” I asked,
disgust rimming my voice.

“Well, Mr. Peterson asked me point blank if I
was interested in a student. I couldn’t lie to him. At first I was
going to deny it, but I decided to come clean. He was unhappy with
my answer, and expressed that was why he had qualms about letting
me pursue my thesis here in the first place. He feels that the age
gap between me and the students is too narrow. I tried to explain
that it wasn’t a problem, there was just something special about
you.”