Dream Kiss (Sweet N' Sour Kisses Read online

  “If you ask me, no one at Layton has potential.”

  I wanted to say, don’t be bitter, but instead, I said, “Ahhh. I’m sorry Ali. You should totally let Duncan set you up with some guys at Davis High. He said he would.” I put my arm around her.

  “I don’t want to like anyone anyway.”

  “Yes you do. It’s fun. All the tingles. The anticipation.” I threw my arms out to the side.

  “It’s only fun if something eventually comes of it. You have to believe something will come of it to make it fun, otherwise it’s just torture.”

  She was right about that. But who didn’t have hope that something would come about with their crush?

  Everything was looking up, even the warm weather. Daffodils and tulips colored the ground and the grass was greening up. I sat in a lawn chair on my deck, pants raised to my knees, trying to get some early color on my blindingly white legs.

  Summer was just around the corner, only two weeks away. It was hard to believe. I brushed my fingers through my hair and wondered how things might change over the summer. I didn’t want things to change, but they inevitably did. Maybe this time it would be for the better.

  Ali, Zack, Tate, Connor, Duncan, and Katherine all came over on Friday. We were having a Battle of the Bands. We had two games set up and four teams.

  Off we went on our tour. Everything seemed right in the world. Maybe this was payback for all the awful that I’d had to endure with Luke. And after kicking Ryker to the curb, I felt pretty confident.

  Thoughts of Logan filled my mind more than once that night, and when they didn’t need me to play the drums, sing, or play the guitar, I would retreat into a texting conversation with Logan. I was going to figure out who he was. I had to.

  Chapter 3

  After school on Monday, Logan texted me.

  Hey. Did you have fun today?

  I did. U?

  Not so much. I wasn’t with you.

  I held back a laugh.

  At least I’ll get to see you tomorrow.

  I wanted to ask him where he was going to see me, but we’d been texting so long, it seemed like the time for that had passed. I knew he knew that I didn’t know who he was, but I didn’t want to remind him of that fact. I didn’t know what to write that wouldn’t give that away. I started breathing hard.

  You still don’t know who I am, do you?

  I’d waited too long and felt totally stupid. I pressed my eyes closed and leaned my head back. A hard ball seemed to lodge itself in my throat. I couldn’t lie. I had to tell the truth. I swallowed hard.

  With class sizes the size of whole schools, how do you expect me to know which one you’re in? I pushed out a breath of air. That was dumb.

  LOL. I knew it. After a month of you not acknowledging me in class, I figured you didn’t know who I was. Hello. You’ve seen my pics on Facebook.

  I know. I’m sorry. A sick, heavy feeling invaded me. I felt so stupid.

  I’m glad you were honest with me. And I feel better knowing you weren’t ignoring me. Tomorrow at some point during school, I will be waiting for you, just inside the class we have together. I can’t wait for you to see me and know that it is me.

  Me either.

  See ya tomorrow.

  I fretted all evening about what I should wear for our meeting. Even though I knew he’d been watching me all this time, I still wanted to knock his socks off. A bit of fear niggled at me. Why hadn’t I ever noticed him? What if he was crazy? My mind flitted through my classes. I couldn’t think of any that he could be in. But then again, the classes were really big and did I think I really knew all the people in each class? I went to sleep with faces flashing before my eyes.

  As I approached my first class the next day, I wished I could peek in before actually walking in to see if he was in there. My gut ached. What if I couldn’t recognize him? I was such an idiot. I wondered if he looked as good in real life as he did in the pictures he’d put up on Facebook. It would be those hazel eyes that made me recognize him. I was sure.

  I stood with my back to the wall of lockers outside the classroom, taking a few calming breaths before entering. There was a big possibility that I was about to meet him, and I wanted to appear casual.

  Someone grabbed my arm just as I had mustered the courage and calm to enter the room. “You feeling okay, Brooke?”

  All peace left me in a flash. My heart pounded. His deep, masculine voice vibrated in my ears. I blinked and took a breath in. No. It was only Conroy. I wondered vaguely if he was going to ask me to sign up for the 5K again.

  “Huh?” I swallowed hard, trying to recognize what I was feeling as he ushered me into class.

  “I asked if you were feeling alright.” He squeezed my arm and smiled.

  “Oh, yeah. Just a little nervous about the quiz today.” I looked around the room, trying to find Logan’s eyes. I resisted the urge to pull away from him. What if Logan was in this class and he saw Conroy holding onto my arm?

  “You? Seriously? You’ll ace it, just like always.”

  “I do not always ace tests. I’m terrible at them. But thanks for the vote of confidence.” I scanned the room. No hazel eyes. He wasn’t in the class. I let out a big breath of air, relieved that I wouldn’t have to explain Conroy.

  Leaving first period, I made my way to Spanish. I took my usual route but, feeling off kilter, it took me longer than usual. I swept the halls for anyone that could be Logan. I wanted to recognize him before he saw me. What if he had me confused with someone else? Maybe he wasn’t interested in me at all. Maybe he was trying to friend everyone in the whole school. His friend list was huge after all. But then again, all those friends did interact with him. Everyone was on his page.

  I peered around the final corner before Spanish class, took a deep breath and grabbed my backpack straps before stepping into class.

  “Brooklyn,” a male voice behind me said.

  I turned, right there in the middle of the doorway. It was like in the movies when everything slows down as someone turns to meet their fate. It was him. Logan. His bright, almond-shaped eyes and deeply brown skin resembled all the pictures I’d seen of him online, but the pictures distorted him in some way. I froze, unable to believe my eyes, and just stared. He looked even better in person than he did online.

  “You know, in some cultures, it’s deemed rude to stare.” He raised his eyebrows and put his large, strong hands on my upper arms, moving me out of the doorway and into the classroom. A bunch of kids poured in now that the entrance wasn’t blocked.

  I shook my head. “S-s-sorry.”

  “You’re early. I’m usually here way before you.” He smiled. “Where are you going to sit today? You actually have a choice and won’t be stuck in the front.”

  “Uh…uh.” I couldn’t seem to form the words. I couldn’t even think the words.

  “I suggest the back today. I heard we’re watching a video.” He ran his hand over his thick brown hair.

  I nodded, and I think I eked out a smile. He bobbed his head in the direction he wanted me to go and somehow I turned and went up one row and he went up the next. He sat in the last seat in the row next to mine.

  I finally found my words. “How did I not know you were in this class? I’ve been looking for you ever since you Facebooked me after prom.” I blushed. Had I really just said that?

  He grinned sheepishly and ducked a little.

  I gaped at him. “Oh my gosh! You’ve been hiding from me, haven’t you?”

  “Not exactly—but after we texted that first time, I could tell you had no idea who I was. Here I had been so nervous about talking to you practically all year, and you had no clue I even existed. I guess I just wanted to mess with you a little bit. I didn’t hide, really. I just tried not to stand out.” He shrugged, but the grin was still there.

  I couldn’t help laughing. “Come on! It’s not my fault I didn’t know who you were… it’s not like you’ve ever talked to me—what?” I stopped talking when
he pulled an awkward face.

  “Actually—”

  “No…no way.”

  “Yeah. It was a few months ago. I got totally brave one day and waited for you to walk down the hall. When you passed me, I said, ‘Hey, Brooklyn,’ but you didn’t even look my way. My friends badgered me about that for months. They told me you must think you’re too good for me if you wouldn’t even say hello.”

  I hid my face in my palm. A few months ago? Right in the middle of all that craziness with Luke, probably. “I’m so sorry. Really, I had no idea—I would never just snub anyone like that—” I would have explained more, but Señor Trujillo interrupted us.

  “Okay, clase. Hoy vamos a ver una película. Saquen sus cuadernos y tomen notas durante la película. Pay close attention, because you’ll need to write a summary of the plot of the film—and the entire thing is in Spanish.”

  Everyone in the class groaned. I pulled out my notebook obediently, and beside me I saw Logan take out his. After a few minutes of watching the film, I felt a light tap on my elbow. I looked up. Logan was staring straight at the screen at the front of the room, but his hand rested coyly at my elbow, holding a note.

  We passed notes during the rest of the movie. I never even caught the name of the protagonist. Whoops. We filled three whole sheets of paper with conversation continuing our game of twenty questions. We only got to ten, but it was fun learning about him and what he liked. Favorite food: lobster. Favorite color: all, he doesn’t want to make any color feel bad. Where he would go if he could go anywhere: Lakers basketball game. Favorite subject: PE. Favorite time of the day: when he gets to see me.

  Just before the end of class, he added one more note to the sheet.

  Sit with us at lunch tomorrow? We don’t have Spanish, so I won’t get to see you otherwise. Plus, I want to introduce you to my friends.

  I stared at it nervously for a moment. What would his friends think of me? Apparently they already thought I was full of myself. The thought of meeting them sent a nervous flutter through my stomach.

  Before I had a chance to write an answer, the bell rang, and everyone stood up to leave. Logan stayed back and so did I.

  “Come on, Brooke? What do you say?” He was grinning, and I found I couldn’t turn him down.

  “All right.”

  The next day at lunch, I stopped to help a girl who’d been bumped and lost all her food on the floor. To my surprise, Logan suddenly appeared next to me with napkins cleaning up the squishy spaghetti from the floor. His arm grazed mine, sending a rush of heat through me. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. Fire raged in my chest. This guy was awesome. Once it was all cleaned up and on her tray, he took it and slid a five dollar bill into her hand, pushing her hand to her side in a gesture that was supposed to help hide his good deed.

  She gave him a timid smile and turned back to the lunch line.

  He grabbed my arm and moved me toward a table, then stopped abruptly. “Wait. Do you need to get a lunch?” He looked toward the lunch line.

  “No,” I said, holding up my sack lunch.

  “Oh, good. I didn’t want to make you starve—smart move on bringing your own. I forgot a lunch once and when I got to the table, I had no idea what it was on my plate. I thought something actually moved on it.”

  I bumped softly into him. “Very funny. School lunch has actually improved quite a bit since elementary. At least most things are identifiable and no longer blobs on the tray.”

  We had apparently reached the round table full of his friends, because he snatched a chair from a neighboring table and offered it to me. Everyone at the table stared at me as I sat. I looked at my hands, clasped on the table. He sat in the chair next to mine.

  “Guys, this is Brooklyn.”

  Nods and heys were seen and heard all around. He pulled me into a side hug like I belonged and every inch of my skin prickled with happiness.

  “She tends to be shy around new people, but don’t let that fool you, she has a lot to say.”

  Again with the nods. They weren’t sure what to think of me. And frankly, I wasn’t sure what to think about them. My shoulders rounded forward, and I pulled my sandwich out of my lunch sack. I was starving and not about to let them keep me from eating.

  “What’d everybody get today?” Logan asked, searching through his sack and pulling out a sandwich. “Looks like I got roast beef and cheese.”

  “PB and J,” a girl with short, white blonde hair said, waving it in the air.

  “PB and J is Susana,” he said to me. We locked eyes and that little pixie girl would forever be PB and J to me. I took a bite of my sandwich to ward off a laugh.

  “Brooklyn here has… tuna salad?”

  “No way. Chicken salad.”

  “You have something against fish breath or something?”

  I couldn’t help it. I looked at his lips. When I finally averted my eyes, I noticed he had seen me. A tantalizing grin spread on his face as he glanced at my lips, too. I turned away. The rest of the table told what sandwiches or non-sandwiches they’d received in their lunch bags, and now I had eight people in my life that I would forever know as a type of sandwich.

  “I don’t know how you can stand eating a turkey sandwich every day, Mason.”

  Mason, turkey sandwich, shrugged his shoulders. “I like it. Why not?”

  Everyone at the table shook their heads and PB and J said, “Variety, man. It’s the spice of life, ya know.”

  “I just don’t like a lot of things. Turkey on white—now that I like. Dependably good.”

  Logan leaned in, put a hand on mine and whispered in my ear, “Mason likes predictability and shuns spontaneity of all kinds.” His breath tickled my ear, and it was hard not to pull away and laugh. I didn’t want his hand to leave mine, so I gave up on eating for the next minute or so that it sat there, enjoying the warmth.

  Inevitably, his hand left mine, and I was able to finish my lunch. I caught sight of Ali and Connor and smiled at them. Ali gave me a thumbs-up, but the look on her face didn’t match the enthusiasm she was trying make me feel. I hated that to eat with him meant excluding Ali.

  “Don’t you think, Brooklyn?”

  I realized too late that Logan was asking me a question. “Sorry. What?”

  “We were talking about going to parties this summer, and I said that parties thrown outside are the best and therefore summer was the only time to have the most amazing party. Mason thinks outdoor parties are overrated and uncomfortable. He thinks a space with couches is the only area that can offer the ultimate in party experience and so parties should therefore happen in the winter.”

  I laughed, not sure what to say. On the one hand, I liked parties that were held outside because I loved being outdoors, but Mason was right, it was rarely comfortable. On the other hand, indoor parties were always comfortable, but there was never a fire to roast marshmallows over either.

  My hesitation must have been a bit too long because everyone was staring at me, expectant, and Logan reached under the table and patted my leg. I’m sure it was meant for encouragement to speak my mind. I glanced his way and he said, “So, what do you think now that you’ve had time to think it over?” His smile was overpoweringly genuine.

  “Outside for the summer, for bonfires, and inside for winter. Couches are a must.”

  “Compromise, eh? I like that. Work with the elements.”

  “You got that right, Brooklyn,” Susana chimed in. “With these two, you’ve got to placate both of them or pay the consequences of their debate every second.”

  Was she agreeing with me already? She nodded at me and raised her eyebrows. “Good call.” The others at the table recounted monumental arguments the two had had.

  Both defended themselves and before long, the table was loud with conversation. Logan made sure to draw me into the conversation often, and I never felt left out. The bell rang, and Logan stood up. “I’ll throw that away for you if you want.” He reached for my empty bag.

  �
��Sure.”

  Everyone said their goodbyes and included me. I had a hard time not smiling like an idiot. It seemed they’d accepted me without much effort. With his other hand, Logan grabbed my elbow and led me away from the table. His touch sent sparks shooting up my arm.

  I took a deep breath and told myself to calm down thinking about Ali’s warning about falling for guys before I got to know them. Why had I fallen so fast for this guy? Maybe because I felt like I did know him. Our never-ending game of twenty questions really forced me to learn so much about him, and what I’d learned so far, I really liked. We had texted every day since exchanging numbers, which was over a week ago, if just barely. We only had a week and a half of school left. Could this be a summer romance like the ones I’d seen on TV? Did I want that?

  He walked me to class. “You won everyone over in less than a half an hour. That’s got to be a record.”

  I laughed lightly. “You were the one that got them to like me. Thanks.” I thought about all his lead-ins: “What do you think, Brooklyn?” “I’m not sure Brooklyn would appreciate that.” “Should we do that, Brooklyn?” He made me feel like my opinion really mattered and because of that, the others thought so, too.

  He hugged me, and heat spread through my body. “I’m gonna be late.” He made a gesture like he was texting me as he faded off down the hallway.

  I slowly blew air out of my almost closed lips and tried to cool my body down.

  I had to admit that I really liked this guy. I had no second thoughts. There was something about the way he talked to me that made me feel like my heart was doing swan dives into my stomach and splashing around.

  After school, Ali was waiting for me by her car as usual.

  “Hey—we missed you at lunch,” she said, opening her door and sliding in.

  “Oh, yeah, sorry about that. Logan invited me to sit with him—I guess I forgot to tell you.”

  “Well, that’s all right, I guess. But I was thinking, maybe tomorrow it would be fun to go to Arctic Circle…” she trailed off when she saw me biting my lip. “You’re eating with him again, aren’t you?”