At First Sight (19 page)

When I tuned in again, Megan was ranting at Riley, who wasn't saying much. “Oh
yeah?” she fumed loudly. “Well, I guess I made a mistake too! Here I thought you were something special, and you're actually just another immature high school guy after all. I'm thinking I might as well just give up and go out with college guys. A whole bunch of them hit on me last night, you know… .”

There was more, I guess. But I didn't hear it. That was the good part. The bad part was that the reason I couldn't hear Megan anymore was that the kiddie group had just started charging into the planetarium. And I got swept in there right along with them.

“Excuse me!” I exclaimed, doing my best to fight the tide of twerps. “Please, I'm not supposed to be in here… .”

But it was no use. Finally, I gave up and just went along with it, figuring I could leave once the kids settled in their seats.

When I finally got myself turned around and aimed toward the door, I stopped short. Riley was standing there just inside the doorway!

Judging by the expression on his face and the way he was holding up both arms and trying to dodge the short people who were surrounding him, I guessed he'd been caught up in the kiddie tsunami too.

Then he spotted me. His arms dropped to his sides and he just stared. Then he started fighting his way through the crowd—but in the opposite direction this time.

I waited, my heart pounding. Eventually he reached me.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

For a second we just stared at each other. I wasn't sure what to say. Finally the silence was too much for me.

“I heard what happened,” I blurted out. “Just now. With you and Megan.”

Yeah. Tactful, I know.

He grimaced. “You did?” he said. “Oh. Yeah. Guess you were right when you said she was just another faker.”

Had I said that? I couldn't really remember.

“Sorry,” I said, hating the pained look on his face.

“Don't be. It's my own stupid fault. I was so into the idea that I'd found her this time that I ignored my own doubts about her, not to mention some major signs. Like how much she and I
didn't
have in common, and—”

“Move it!” a little girl from the kiddie group ordered us, giving Riley a shove. “I'm supposed to be in this row!”

“Sorry.” Riley stepped aside, letting her pass. Then he shot me a look. “Should we get out of here?”

I glanced at the doorway, which was still crowded with kids pouring in. “Yeah, good luck with that,” I joked weakly.

“Hmm. Maybe you're right. Let's just get out of the way until things thin out.” He led the way to a less-populated area near the front of the room.

Then I turned to face him again. I was starting to feel nervous. But I had to ask him the next question.

“So,” I began tentatively. “About what you and I were talking about before she got here …”

His expression was troubled, and for a second I thought he was going to cut me off again. “Yeah,” he said instead. “About that. The reason I was so freaked out about seeing you here—well, aside from the obvious …”

I chuckled self-consciously. “You mean having me randomly show up at another girl's big date?”

“Yeah, that.” He smiled briefly, then went serious again. “But the main reason is because, well …” He took a deep breath. “It's because I've liked
you
all along.”

“You—you have?” Somehow, this time I knew he wasn't talking about being just friends.

Riley nodded. “I mean, I never believed for a second that you were Planetarium Girl,” he said with a smile. “One look at all this was enough to convince me of that.”

He reached out and touched my hair. Okay, I know hair doesn't technically have
nerve endings or anything. But even so, the touch made me shiver.

Then I came back to my senses, realizing what this meant. I opened my mouth to explain, to tell him about how I'd had my hair pulled back that day. My hands even twitched, getting ready to demonstrate.

But then I stopped myself. What difference did it make, anyway? I wanted to hear where he was going with this.

“So why didn't you say something before?” I asked.

He sighed. “I guess I should have—especially once all my friends started saying what a cute couple you and I made.” Was it my imagination, or did his cheeks go a little pink when he said that? The light wasn't too great in the planetarium, so it was hard to tell. “But as an artist, I just felt like I had to follow through on the whole mystery muse thing, you know?”

“I guess,” I said. “It
is
a pretty awesome song.”

“Thanks.” He shot me a bashful smile. “Anyway, when Megan came along, she seemed to fit the part and have all the right answers. And I guess by then I was maybe
feeling a little desperate thinking I might never find that girl.”

“So you decided she was The One.”

“Pretty much.” He shot me a sidelong look. “At least until yesterday.”

“Yesterday?”

“At the mall. Spending all that time with you, having a great time—well, I was starting to wonder if I was making a mistake. If maybe Planetarium Girl wasn't The One after all.”

My breath caught in my throat. “Really? Then why …”

“I already had these plans with Megan. And I was still kind of stuck on the muse thing, too. And maybe what I was feeling for you sort of, you know, scared me a little.” He gave an adorable little sheepish half smile at that. “So here I am, feeling completely stupid.” He reached out and took my hand, squeezing it. “I was being stupid all along. It shouldn't have been so important to track down that girl I met here that day. Maybe I should just be happy that my crazy obsession didn't chase away the coolest girl I've ever met.” He hesitated, searching my eyes with his own. “Did it? Will you give me another chance, Lauren?”

I was way too overwhelmed to speak right at that second, even to point out that, duh, I was here, wasn't I? So I just nodded, hoping my eyes told him the rest.

I guess they did, because he smiled, looking happy and relieved. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out the guitar pick necklace.

“Okay, this might seem kind of weird, since I was about to—well, you know.” He laughed softly. “But I really hope you'll accept this. It means a lot to me, and well, I think it'll look perfect on you.”

“Oh, wow, I mean, um, wow,” I stammered, totally touched by the gesture. “I mean, of course. I love it! Thanks.”

Okay, I never claimed to be a poet or anything. But Riley didn't seem to mind. I turned my back and held up my hair. He fastened the chain around my neck, letting his hands linger on my shoulders for a second.

My heart was pounding as I turned around to face him again, touching the guitar pick nestled at my throat. He stared at me. His hands reached for me …

The lights cut out. Startled, I let out a
yelp and leaped forward—right into Riley's arms.

He had jumped a little too, but was already laughing. “Whoa,” he whispered to me in the dark. “We should stop meeting like this!”

I started laughing, too. Was fate a crazy thing or what? “Tell me about it!” I exclaimed softly. Above us, there was a sudden explosion of light and sound.

We were both still laughing when his lips found mine. My eyes fluttered shut, and I saw stars, even though I wasn't looking up at the planetarium screen. Kissing him felt like swirling through the galaxy without a spaceship. Or maybe not exactly like that. But it did leave me breathless and a little dizzy. And I knew this had to be the most romantic moment in the history of the universe. You know, the one currently expanding right over our heads.

Finally, we came up for air. But he kept holding me, rocking me softly back and forth. I felt his breath tickle my ear as he started to sing to me. It was the song—
my
song. I was so starry-eyed by all that was happening that I thought I might burst with joy… .

“Pardon me!” a stern voice hissed from somewhere behind Riley's right shoulder. A second later a tiny but surprisingly strong flashlight beam shot into my eyes, nearly blinding me. “Do you mind? What do you two lovebirds think this is?”

The flashlight spun around to focus on Riley, allowing me to see the face behind it. I gasped. It was her! The very same Stern Scientist Lady who'd caught us together on that fateful day almost two weeks earlier!

“Um, sorry?” Riley was stammering. “We didn't mean—”

“I can't believe it!” the woman cut him off, sounding surprised and disgusted. The flashlight flickered from his face to mine and back again. “
You
two?
Again
? Ugh! I give up!”

She spun on her heel and stomped off into the dark, muttering to herself. Her tiny flashlight lit the way.

Just then a supernova exploded up on the screen. Or something bright happened, anyway. I wasn't looking up; I was watching Riley's eyes widen with amazement.

“So it really was … ,” he began.

I laughed, pulling him toward me and kissing him again before he could finish. What did it matter? The important thing wasn't him knowing I was the real Planetarium Girl. It was that we were finally together.

Just as I'd imagined at first sight.

Catherine Hapka has written more than one hundred and fifty books for children and young adults. In addition to reading and writing, she enjoys horseback riding, animals of all kinds, gardening, music, and traveling. She lives on a small farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania, with a couple of horses, three goats, a small flock of chickens, and too many cats.

LOL
at this sneak peek of

Language of Love

By Deborah Reber
A new Romantic Comedy from Simon Pulse

How did I get myself into this mess?
I stared up at the ceiling looking for an answer. Of course, I knew it wasn't up there. In fact, I already knew the culprit behind my predicament was none other than Molly Harris, my BIF. In Molly's case, BIF stood for “bad influence friend”—the friend who gets you to do all kinds of things you wouldn't normally do but do anyway because that friend holds some sort of voodoo power over you.

To further complicate matters, Molly was my BFF, too. We'd been friends forever, or at least as far back as second grade, when Molly moved onto my block and I had an instant ally in my very testosterone-filled neighborhood. There were boys to the left, boys to the right, and one particularly annoying little boy in the bedroom next to mine.

Molly had me at hello with her shiny blond hair, cornflower blue mischievous
eyes, a grin that makes you believe anything is possible, and a confidence that says she'd be president someday if it weren't for the countless scandals she's bound to have a hand in between now and thirty. We'd been through it all together over the years, and though she could certainly be a bit, shall we say, self-involved, at her core Molly was a good person. When it came down to it, I knew she'd always be there for me.

To be fair, Molly didn't get me into this mess alone. In fact, I actually started it. After all, I'm the one who decided impersonating a Hungarian national was a good idea. But I was just having fun. This? This situation I'm in now? Not fun.
Definitely
not fun.

It all started today after school. I met up with Molly at her locker, where she was pulling on her raincoat and reapplying her lipstick, and we figured out a plan for the rest of the day. As usual, Molly's mom was on a business trip—Hong Kong or Tokyo (it's hard to keep track)—and her step-dad wouldn't be home until at least eight o'clock. The plan was to hang out at Molly's house, get some Thai takeout, and catch up on a backlog of seriously good reality TV.

We hopped on the number four bus for the first leg of our journey to Molly's neighborhood of Wallingford, which she'd moved to right after her parents' divorce in fourth grade. The bus was packed, so we squeezed into the rear, claiming a tiny piece of real estate for ourselves and our overstuffed backpacks. We added to the hot air fogging up the bus windows by trading horror stories from the school day—Molly's uncomfortable standoff with a substitute in gym (Molly refused to wear her swim cap) and my continuing inability to bring up my cultural studies grade.

By the time we stepped off the bus at Virginia and Third, I was sure we'd been teleported to the Gulf of Mexico during hurricane season. Having lived in Seattle our whole lives, we were more than used to the rain. And like every other Seattleite, we never carried umbrellas, the thinking being there was no storm that couldn't be weathered with a decent raincoat and a pair of Wellies. Except for, apparently, today. And since we had ten minutes until our bus connection, we decided to seek refuge in the corner Starbucks. The added bonus?
Caffeine
.