Once Again (3 page)

“Shut up Miller!” came an angry voice from
behind me.

And then
he
was there.

Shoving the idiot named Miller hard in the
chest.

Miller stumbled back a few steps, looking
stunned that Lucas had pushed him.

“Whoa, man.” He righted himself, then put up
a hand in mock surrender. “I was just saying hello to the new
girl.”

Lucas got right in his face and jammed a
finger in Miller’s chest.

“What do you think you accomplish by talking
to a girl like that?”

“Dude, look,” Miller stammered. “I was just
kidding around.”

“You feel like a big shot when you act like a
jerk?” Lucas took a step closer, now nose-to-nose with the
idiot.

“Back off, Luke.” Apparently Miller-the-idiot
found his spine, though I couldn’t figure out why he thought that
was a good idea.

For whatever reason, Lucas was livid on my
behalf.

How in the world had that happened? Since
when did cute guys stick up for me, especially when they looked at
me such guardedness?

“I don’t think so, Miller.” Lucas shoved
again, and Miller had the good sense not to retaliate. “You’re the
one who needs to back off.”

“Hey ladies,” Lucas said as he spun around to
look at some of the girls who had gathered to watch the
confrontation. “Any of you want to be talked to like that?”

Most of the girls just looked at each other
or stared at their shoes.

But Lucas wasn’t finished. He turned back
toward Miller.

“Congratulations, you just made yourself look
like a pig in front of half the school.”

Never in my life had anyone defended me like
this. The fact that I’d barely met him made it all the more
unbelievable.

The fact that he was freaking gorgeous made
it
completely
unbelievable.

Then he turned to me.

“Come on.”

And he took my hand and pulled me toward my
car.

Lucas
steered me around to the driver’s side of my car with a gentle hand
on the small of my back. I was both bewildered and exhilarated by
the level of familiarity he displayed with me. And really
uncomfortable with the fact that everyone in the parking lot was
still looking at me.

“How did you know this was my car?” I
grimaced. What a lame thing to say after he’d just defended my
honor.

“You were headed this way,” he answered,
taking my backpack off my shoulder and holding it while I fished
inside the front pocket for my keys. “And this is the only car in
the row I didn’t recognize.”

Apparently, he’d decided to quit eyeing me
suspiciously.

“Um, I should thank you.” My hand closed
around my keys. “For before.” Great, Layla. That sounded so
grateful.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as
if still trying to calm down.

“Miller’s a complete moron.”

“There are idiot boys everywhere,” I said,
unlocking my car doors. “I learned to ignore them a long time
ago.”

“I’m sure you encountered plenty of jerks in
Tennessee.” He opened the back door, put my backpack inside, and
closed it. “But my mom would kill me if she found out I saw that
and didn’t step in.”

“You know I’m from Tennessee?”

“News travels fast around here,” he said.
“And I’m really sorry you had to deal with Miller’s stupidity on
your first day.”

“Not your fault. But thanks again.”

He leaned against the back door, seeming in
no hurry to leave.

“Lucas Ellis, by the way.” He extended his
hand. “I realized I didn’t tell you my last name in lit class this
morning.”

“Layla Bradford.” I put my hand in his, awed
by the welcoming feeling that enveloped not only my fingers and
palm, but my entire body. The touch of his skin on mine sent
excitement coursing through me. A random thought went through my
mind –
Hadn’t I known it would be this way?
- though I knew
it was impossible.

I’d never felt anything like it before in my
life.

“Well, Layla Bradford,” he said, not
releasing my hand just yet. Reaching around me with his free hand,
he pulled my door open.

I slid in wordlessly, and looked up at
him.

He winked and shut it. “I’ll see you
tomorrow.”

***

My mom made my favorite - fettuccini alfredo
- for dinner, in honor of my first day of school. Of course, the
conversation in our muted green eat-in kitchen was the anticipated
game of twenty thousand questions from my mom and dad about how my
day went.

“Did you like your classes?”

“Did you make any friends?”

“How was the cafeteria food?”

I answered as vaguely as I could, without
seeming too distracted. The truth was that the first day at Sky
Cove Senior High hadn’t been all that bad. And the unpleasant
encounter with Miller-the-idiot, whose first name I still did not
know, had resulted in that amazing exchange with Lucas Ellis.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it. About
him.

And I wasn’t about to talk boys with my
parents.

“Cute boys?” Apparently my mom was not on the
same page with me.

“A bit early for that, Mom.” I twirled a bite
of pasta onto my fork and enjoyed the creamy garlic flavor.

“I guess you’re right,” she said with a grin
that reached all the way to deep brown eyes that matched the dark
mahogany of her hair.

My mom was great, and I loved her dearly. But
Lucas Ellis? I just wasn’t ready to talk about him yet. It
seemed... I don’t know... like he was just mine for the moment.

Crazy, stupid thoughts.

I mentally lectured myself on my
stupidity.

“Do you have homework?” Thankfully Mom caught
the hint and moved on to another subject.

“Not tonight,” I said, taking my empty dishes
and rinsing them in the sink. “But I’m sure that will change
tomorrow.”

“Probably right,” Dad put in, bringing his
plate to the sink.

My mom and dad were older than most parents
of kids my age, evidenced by the gray sprinkled through my dad’s
black hair, but I liked to think that made them a little less
uptight.

“I’m going to get my folders organized and my
binder put together tonight,” I said as I loaded my dinner dishes
in the dishwasher. It was a good excuse to escape to my room for a
while.

Mom nodded. She knew my routine. I was a
creature of habit. And after a day of school and dinner with my
parents, I enjoyed a bit of alone time in my room with my iPod and
my thoughts.

And tonight my thoughts were all about Lucas
Ellis.

I felt brainless. He was just a boy. And I’d
known him all of ten hours.

I decided I’d made too much of the incident
this afternoon. It was my emotions getting the better of me. The
stress of starting at a new school. The strain of feeling alone and
putting on a happy face in spite of it.

I realized, though, that I hadn’t felt alone
with Lucas. Either in literature class or in the parking lot. I
felt...
at home.

How crazy was that?

I turned on my box fan. I’d been unprepared
for the fact that most houses in Maine didn’t have air
conditioning. Summers were short here, and some houses had window
units, but for the most part, people in Sky Cove just made due with
fans during July and August.

Having been raised in the south, not having
air conditioning was strange. And uncomfortable. Thus, the box
fan.

I smiled as the moving air touched me and
cooled my warm skin. I plugged my ears with headphones, and flipped
to last year’s playlist on my iPod. Songs that had been current
during the last school year pumped out of the tiny earbuds. I tried
to imagine Nashville. Adrienne. My other friends. The places I
liked to hang out.

None of it was successful at taking my mind
off of Lucas.

It was as if my life in Tennessee was a
million years ago and the present was all about him.

I flipped open my phone and fired off a text
to Adrienne.

What’s up?

She responded immediately.

OMG! I miss u!

Naturally, the texting continued, but only
marginally took my mind off Lucas.

I didn’t want to forget Nashville and the
life I’d had there. I was a teenager, after all. Wasn’t I supposed
to wallow in self-pity over the things and people I’d been forced
to leave behind? Wasn’t I supposed to be miserable in this new
place out of respect for my former home.

Yeah, that had never been my style. Self-pity
wasn’t something I allowed myself. And, unlike some kids my age,
I’d already realized that the world didn’t revolve around me one
hundred percent of the time.

But right at this moment, I’d have gladly
given in to teenage angst and drama if it would make me forget
about Lucas Ellis.

I aimed the fan toward my bed and snuggled
in, trying in vain not to picture dark blond hair and brown
eyes.

Trying not to hear that smooth, caramel
voice.

Sometime later, I finally fell asleep. And
when I did, he was still on my mind.

The next
morning, the fog still lingered, thick and heavy, as I drove to
school. Jessie was waiting in the parking lot for me when I pulled
in. As glad as I was to have company for my inevitable walk into
the front lobby, the look on her face told me that news of
yesterday afternoon’s episode had spread.

“Is it true that Todd Miller was harassing
you after school yesterday?” she asked.

So his first name was Todd. Funny, I still
only thought of him as Miller-the-idiot.

“I suppose,” I grabbed my backpack from the
backseat. “He was just being an jerk.”

“I heard Lucas Ellis put a stop to it.”

I considered how best to respond as we walked
toward the building. Clearly, Lucas couldn’t expect his involvement
to remain a secret. Not with the crowd that witnessed the exchange.
But I didn’t want to make more of it than there was. High school
reputations were a tricky balancing act, and you never knew what
was going to tip the scales in one direction. Too much interest in
the “new girl” could cause him problems.

I was also working very hard to
not
elevate him to hero status. Trying, but failing miserably.

“He was just being nice,” I shrugged.

“Yeah, well,” Jessie giggled. “Luke has a
reputation of being a nice guy, but I’ve never heard of him getting
into a confrontation like that.”

As if I needed another reason to put him on a
pedestal.

“Who is Todd Miller anyway?” We’d reached the
front door, so I lowered my voice as I pushed it open. “I hadn’t
even laid eyes on him until yesterday afternoon in the parking
lot.”

“School jock,” Jessie said. “Big star on the
football and basketball teams. I suppose that’s why so many girls
want to date him, even though he’s a jerk.”

“What about Lucas?” We shouldered through the
crowd of people in the lobby, working our way down the hall to the
door of our first class. “He looks like he’d be an athlete.”

“Luke’s a runner. Cross country, track and
field. He does 5Ks and stuff like that in the off-season. Trains
all the time. I heard he’s going to do a marathon this year.”

“How old is he?” I asked, trying nonchalantly
to scan the hall in search of him.

“He’s a senior.” The warning bell rang and
the lobby began to empty. Jessie and I headed into the classroom
and took our seats. “And I heard he’s single again.”

I should not be interested in this. I should
not
. Yet I couldn’t stop the next question from leaving my
mouth. “Again?”

“Right.” Jessie leaned closer, whispering.
“He and Kara Jennings have been on and off over the past year. But
I heard they broke up some time over summer break.”

My curiosity was put on hold when Mr. Hartley
started class, and I decided that was a good thing. The
conversation with Jessie had already revealed way too much of my
interest in Lucas Ellis.

All through chemistry, I was painfully aware
of the minutes ticking by. Every click of a pencil on a desk and
every scrape of a chair moving against the floor set my nerves on
edge. Though I told myself it was because I disliked the class, I
knew it was a lie. I was in a hurry for this period to end because
my next class was literature.

With Lucas.

Thankfully, I paid enough attention to get
the homework assignment written down in my notebook. As the bell
rang, Jessie handed me a slip of paper with her phone number on it,
and instructions to call her tonight if I had trouble with it.

Bless Jessie. Both for her fast friendship,
and her science expertise.

I went to my locker, trying not to hurry.
Rushing through the visit with Marsha and Tiffany and sprinting to
my next class would be a colossal show of stupidity. But geez, the
five-minute break between classes seemed longer than fifty minutes
of chemistry.

I deliberately slowed my steps as I
approached my lit class. The bookworms were in the same spots as
yesterday, books already out and open. The texting girls were still
up front, fingers flying across the keys of their cell phones.

One of them had bathed in a sticky, floral
smelling perfume, strong enough to make my eyes water. Sheesh. As
if a guy’s going to be attracted to you just because you smell like
a florist’s shop.

And Lucas was again on the far side of the
room, clearing his books from the desk beside him when he saw me
walk in.

It was easier today to make the walk across
the room. I didn’t feel like I was being beckoned by a guy used to
getting his way with girls. I felt like a boy who for some reason
wanted to be kind to me was inviting me.

Good grief. This could be trouble. If I
started having delusions of grandeur about a guy two social classes
above me, I was doomed to disappointment and embarrassment.