Read Meant to Be Online

Authors: Tiffany King

Tags: #Romance, #Love, #Angels, #Paranormal, #Young Adult, #dreams, #teen, #YA, #fallen angels, #tiffany king, #meant to be

Meant to Be (9 page)

BOOK: Meant to Be
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I winced as the cloth touched my head. The
side of my head was definitely tender to the touch.

“I’ll get you some ice. Do you want to stay
here for a while?”

“No, I don’t want to miss homeroom two days
in a row. Can I take the ice with me?”

“Of course you can.”

Sam and I said our goodbyes and headed out
the door.

“Are you sure your head’s okay?”

“Yeah, it only hurts if I touch it. What a
jerk that guy was,” I commented.

“Oh, you’ll see many of those around here.
Most of the students here were born with a silver spoon in their
mouth, and are used to getting whatever they want. Having mommy and
daddy bail them out of trouble is the norm. You and Mark will have
to be careful. That guy was Matt Farrell, and he’s a number one
jerk. He seems to get a high out of messing with people. His dad’s
loaded, so he’s used to getting his own way.”

“Keeping our feelings secret seemed so simple
this morning,” I muttered as we walked through the classroom
door.

The rest of the morning passed without
anymore incidents, and even though I heard no more comments, I
could still tell that many of the students were speculating about
what had happened that morning.

Though I knew I should be concerned about
what they were discussing, I was more anxious to see Mark again.
Now that I knew who he was, and had spent part of the morning with
him, I didn’t like being separated from him at all. Which left me
wondering how Sam felt not being with her guy all day? She had
filled me in with a few sketchy details in-between classes on how
she had been able to find her dream guy. I was able to glean the
basics, like the fact that he was our age, but graduated early and
was taking college courses. I intended to find out more after
school.

The hours seemed to be going in slow motion
as I waited for fifth period to arrive. In my head, I was mentally
counting down the minutes and was relieved when fourth period
ended.

Grabbing my stuff, I hurried off to meet
Sam.

We both opted to eat inside, hoping to avoid
another scene. We settled on a bench outside of the school
library.

“How was fourth period?” Sam asked, as she
unwrapped her tuna sandwich.

“It was fine. I was supposed to be reading,
but I was too anxious to focus on the book. It’s a good thing I’m a
speed reader, or I would fall behind in class,”

Sam didn’t have to ask me why I was anxious,
she already knew. It was nice that we shared so many common bonds;
it saved us from having to explain every little detail.

I took a big bite out of my own sandwich,
just as the person I had been obsessing about all day walked around
the corner. I sucked in a quick breath, causing the bite of
sandwich to go down the wrong tube.

Coughing out of control, I reached for my
bottle of water to try and wash the sandwich down and stop the
coughing fit. Mark reached over, patting me on the back which made
the situation worse. His touch flustered me; already choking, I
could not handle losing the limited air I had in my lungs.

“I don’t think she can breathe with you
touching her,” Sam commented, in a dry voice.

Mark looked at me. I confirmed Sam was right
by a nod of my head.

“I’m Sam,” she said, holding her hand out,
giving me an opportunity to pull myself together.

I was disgusted with myself. So much for
acting cool and collected, I thought as I wiped the tears from my
eyes.

Mark reached out to shake Sam’s hand. I could
tell by the way he raised his eyebrows that he experienced the same
connection with Sam as I did.

“I’m Mark, or for you, Mr. Russo for the next
few months of school,” Mark said with a smile.

I finally stopped choking like some
idiot.

“Better now?” he asked with a twinkle in his
eye.

I could tell that he liked the fact that he
had such an impact on me. It wasn’t like I could hide it though;
just sitting by him had my heart racing to a tempo I was slowly
getting used to.

“Will you meet me at the park after school?”
he asked me in a more serious voice.

I felt warmed by his words. He acted like he
wanted to be with me every bit as much as I needed to be with
him.

“Yeah, I can meet you, but Sam has to come
along too. That way it won’t be a lie if I tell my mom I’m going to
the park with Sam. You will just happen to be there,” I said with a
smile, as I found another loop hole in the need to know
category.

“Is that okay with you?” I asked Sam.

“Sure, Shawn wants all of us to get together
anyways.”

“Who’s Shawn?” Mark asked, momentarily
confused.

“Sam’s boyfriend; I mentioned him briefly to
you this morning,” I said subtly, reminding him that they had a lot
in common with us.

“That’s right,” Mark said. “Well, I better
head off to class,” He reached out to brush back the hair that
covered the lump on my head. He frowned when he saw my injury.

“That guy’s lucky I’m an intern. I could have
laid him out when I saw him chuck that softball at your head. It
was all I could do to control myself. Does it hurt?” He
inquired.

“No,” I lied. Truth was it had been throbbing
for most of the day.

I could tell that Mark saw right through my
lie. He glanced down the hall to make sure we were alone and then
bent over to press his lips against the bump.

Once again, my breath caught in my lungs. I
was sure I would never breathe again. His lips erased all the pain,
and instead warmth spread throughout every vein in my body.

By the time I could breathe again, he was
gone.

“Wow! That was intense. I could feel the heat
radiating off the two of you.” Sam said, with laughter in her
voice.

“Not to change the subject, but I have a
question for you. Why did Matt call you
fridge
earlier?” I
asked.

“Oh, it’s a joke all the guys have. When I
first moved here, a lot of them asked me out. I of course turned
them down, so to cover up their bruised egos, they started calling
me
frigid
, which eventually led to
fridge
. They’re
jerks. Even if I wasn’t taken, I wouldn’t give them the time of
day,” Sam said with disgust.

I agreed with her. All these years I had
thought going to a private school would be great, but when you were
surrounded by a bunch of spoiled people, it leaves a lot to be
desired.

The bell rang as Sam and I gathered up our
trash and threw it in the receptacle. I knew the next fifty minutes
would be tough. Everyone in the class would be watching Mark and me
to see if we
ogled
each other. I’m sure it would make their
year if we made a spectacle of ourselves.

Sam and I grabbed the same seats we sat in
the day before. I pulled out my notebook and sat ready to take
notes. I felt everyone’s eyes boring into me when Mark walked in
the room. I kept my eyes firmly on the paper in front of me and
thought of him as Mr. Russo.

He started right into the history lesson, and
soon the scratching of pencils on paper could be heard throughout
the room as all the students took notes on the day’s lesson. He had
an engaging voice and everyone was soon listening to him with rapt
attention as he lectured about Europe during the turn of the
century. If he ever decided to pursue a career in education, he
would make an excellent teacher; even the gossip hounds were silent
as he grabbed their attention with his warm voice.

He walked up and down the aisles as he
lectured, and each time he passed me, my breath would catch and my
heart would race. His voice soothed me like none had ever done
before. I could have listened to him talk forever. His voice seemed
to hold the nourishment my body craved.

Before I knew it, the bell rang. I finally
looked up and met his eyes. I could tell the class had been just as
tough for him.

He gave me a half smile as I gathered up my
belongings. As Sam and I passed him, once again I felt him press
something in my hand.

I did not open my hand until I left his
classroom, but when I did, I saw another note and a small wrapped
chocolate. I smiled. I had mentioned my addiction to chocolate
during our morning talk. I placed the chocolate carefully in my
bag.

Sam looked at me with interest.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I think I’ll save
it. It’s the first thing he’s ever given me,” I said, feeling
slightly self conscious.

I opened the note as Sam and I walked down
the hall. There were only six words on the paper.

I can’t wait to see you.

My palms grew sweaty. It was hard to believe
that he liked me even though it was quite obvious just how ordinary
I was. It would be one thing if I was as cute and bubbly as Sam. I
felt a slight feeling of panic, wondering if he would change his
mind.

The rest of the day passed quickly and I was
pleased that I was at least able to concentrate more attentively on
my afternoon classes than the day before. I would have hated to try
to explain to my mom if my grades took a nosedive.

After the last bell rang, Sam and I both
pulled out our cell phones to call our parents. I turned on my
phone and saw that I had a voicemail from my mom. Hitting the
button to retrieve the voicemail, I listened to the message.

“Hi, honey. I hope you don’t mind. I heard
there’s an art seminar this afternoon in Aptos and I wanted to go
check it out. I hate to abandon you two nights in a row. I promise
we’ll catch up tomorrow night. Call me if you have any
problems.”

Well, that worked out perfectly. No need to
lie or find an alibi. I was free to meet Mark with no guilt. I felt
giddy at my good fortune that we could spend the whole afternoon
together.

“They said it was fine,” Sam said as she
dialed another number. She stepped away and I discreetly turned
away to give her a little privacy.

“Shawn says he will meet us at the park.”

“Great, let’s go,” I said in an impatient
voice. I was ready to see Mark again. It had only been two hours,
but I felt a small distinct ache from the separation.

We walked swiftly to the park.

Mark was already there sitting on the top of
a picnic table under a big shady oak tree. It should be a sin to
look as good as he did, I thought as I once again admired his
physique.

He stood up as we approached.

“Hey Sam, how’s it going?”

“Oh you know, my best friends dating our
teacher’s intern. I’m dating some guy I dreamt about my whole life
and oh yeah, I share some kind of mystical connection with my
friend and the intern,” Sam quipped in a dry voice.

Mark and I burst out laughing.

Put that way, the whole situation seemed like
some crazy story you would read about in the Enquirer. Sam was
right, in the last thirty six hours our lives had taken a drastic
turn.

A few minutes later, Sam’s whole face lit up
as she spotted someone walking toward us from the parking lot. She
got up and practically bounced to his side, not bothering to even
contain her enthusiasm. Sam gave him what I could only describe as
a scorching kiss and then dragged him over to us.

“Krista, Mark, this is Shawn,” Sam said with
shining eyes.

I reached out to shake his hand. The now
familiar electricity flowed between our hands. I was expecting it,
but it was obviously a shock for Shawn.

“Wow,” he said.

“Told you,” Sam said, laughing at his
expression.

He was expecting it when he shook Mark’s
hand, but it was clear that he was as confused as the rest of us
over the bizarre situation.

For the next hour, we sat at the picnic table
comparing stories. Shawn, like me, had been adopted at a young age.
His adoptive parents split up five years ago, but he was fine about
it. He felt his adoptive mom never wanted children and only went
along with it to please his adoptive dad. “My adoptive dad was no
gem,” was all he said when I tried to ask him about it.

Out of the four of us, Mark was the only one
who had been raised by his biological parent. We had no idea why,
if we were all tied together in some way, why the rest of us had
been abandoned.

Sam then filled Mark in on her past. She
appeared to be glossing over a lot of the details, but we saw
through them and I reached over to pat her hand. I already knew
from small tidbits Sam had given me that her childhood had sucked.
Eventually we ran out of steam and our conversation trailed off. We
sat in silence for awhile analyzing all the information we
lacked.

“I’m going to go read my book for awhile,”
Sam said. “I need a break from all this seriousness.” She and Shawn
got up and walked toward the jungle gym and climbed to the top.

Mark and I sat in silence. With Sam and Shawn
gone I suddenly felt self-conscious. What if I couldn’t think of
anything intelligent to talk about? Sure, I had a high IQ, but I
was way out of his league when it came to schooling, he was light
years ahead of me. I studied the leaves that had fallen from the
red oak trees that were scattered throughout the park. During all
my research of California, I had seen that in parts of northern
California, the trees grew so big and wide you could drive a car
through them. My silent pondering was interrupted when Mark finally
broke the silence.

“Do you want to take a walk around the park?”
he asked. “It’s bigger than it looks. There’s a trail that wraps
around back there, behind all the trees.”

“Sure,” I answered. He could have suggested
walking to Florida, and I would have gladly followed him.

We set off following the trail. Mark reached
over and grabbed my school bag with one hand, and my hand with the
other. We walked in silence for a few minutes.

“Was my note too much?”

I stopped walking and turned to look at
him.

BOOK: Meant to Be
3Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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