Three days is too long. Daniel doesn’t come online. Doesn’t pick up the phone. I’m not even sure we’re still going up to Lake Winnipesaukee, but I ask my parents if I can go anyway, and they agree. All I can do is wait and home Daniel comes to pick me up. I spend hours in front of the mirror, debating what I should wear. I pick high-waisted jean shorts, and a plaid short, but then I can’t decide whether I should wear my black one piece swim suit or my bikini. On one hand, I guess I’d feel more comfortable with the one piece. But on the other . . . Everyone wears bikinis. And yet I feel awkward when I put it on.
I decide on the bikini with a pair of swim shorts. A safe compromise. Before I pack my bag, I also brush on a thin strip of cerulean blue eyeshadow. Basic. And then I sit at the kitchen table, dressed and boiling hot from the two pairs of shorts I am wearing, hoping Daniel will come. Debating whether I will just swim in the extra T-shirt I packed after all and switch back to the plaid shirt after.
He comes.
His brother drives a blue car, with the slightest hint of green and grey. Daniel is sitting on the left side, in the back, and Mike has a friend in the passenger seat. He’s wearing a black shirt that conforms to his muscles, and deep brown hair. He smiles as me, and so does Mike, like both of them know that Daniel likes me.
“Hey,” I say, and Mike sniggers.
“You’re gonna get married,” he says, then turns around like he didn’t say anything.
I turn to Daniel.
“Why did you avoid me?” I ask. “You didn’t even give me a chance to say anything back.”
“Neither did Raven,” he says.
“Speaking of Raven, did she ever call you?” I ask. “Or say anything?”
“Yeah,” he says. I can’t tell whether he’s relieved or disappointed for the change in subject. “We talked for about an hour the day after she told me. She talked with Eternal too.”
“So um, what’s up now?” I ask.
“I dunno, really. She wouldn’t tell me. But I guess it will eventually go on the group.”
“So why Dreamliner?” I ask.
Daniel shakes his head. “It all makes sense,” he says. “Because Eternal likes planes. And the Dreamliner is a Boeing 787, and I guess she likes the name. I should have seen it.”
“But now we need to talk,” I say, changing the subject back.
Daniel turns away. “It was obvious anyway, wasn’t it?” he asks, and I laugh.
“To be honest, I thought you were just naturally flirtatious, and then naturally romantic. Besides, I don’t believe in love at first sight. I dunno.”
“Neither do I,” he whispers. “That’s why I’m scared it’s fake. And I don’t want to do that to you.”
My mind wanders off, searching somewhere else, for scenarios where love at first sight could be something more than attraction. It only happens for real in movies or books.
“Maybe we were in love in another life,” I say. “And we knew it when we saw each other.”
We both laugh. But then there’s an awkward silence between us. And I know why. It’s because I still haven’t told Daniel whether I like him or not. But to be honest, I just don’t know. I don’t know if I’m ready to move on yet. He’s enchanting, that’s for sure. It would be just so easy to fall for him in some other time of my life. But I feel guilty. It’s too soon. And yet, I wish I could say just say that I liked him too. Or even that I fancied him.
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365 Cups of Coffee
Fiksi RemajaWhen she moves to Granite Falls, New Hampshire, Aspen Laurent knows she is running away. After witnessing a mass murder at her high school just months prior, she is harboring not only a terribly vivid memory of the bloodshed, but a secret as well, o...
