The Reunion (Love Stories From a Small Town #5)

1. High School

One at a time, every hair on my body unbent from my skin as the coolness of the chain-link fence brought them to a stand.

Since I started Kindergarten eleven years earlier, the old gray tree at the elementary school that never seemed to have leaves always gave me the heebie-jeebies.

I can’t explain why, but it’s like just being near it sucked all the happiness out of my soul.

The entire world got colder and sadder as I passed through its shadow, weighing my shoulders down until I couldn’t take another breath. So, as we approached the opening on the other side of the fence that led to the giant oak, I ducked around Carolyn to be next to the street instead.

Bus exhaust mixed with fresh-cut grass, its stinking sweetness making the butterflies in my belly flutter harder the closer we got to the high school.

Shady trees lined the road to the parking lot, blocking out the bright morning sun and reminding me of what an idiot I was sometimes.

The falling apart second-hand bookbag I’d be using for another year wasn’t much of a shield from the morning chill, no matter how I pulled it across me. “You think I have enough time to run back to the house for my jacket? They always have the air conditioning jacked up the first of the year.”

Carolyn stopped scrunching her curly blonde hair long enough to wrinkle her nose at me when she checked the time. “Un-un. No way. The bell rings in like ten minutes.”

After the bus passed through the crosswalk, we shuffled across the street to the flagpole before the next one barreled through.

Ready to vomit over how nervous I was, I fake cried when we cut through the crowd of kids hanging out in the yard. “I can’t believe we only have a few classes together this year. It’s going to suck so bad.”

Swinging her purse around like a jump rope without a care in the world, she twitched her shoulder at me. “We start and end the day with the same classes and have the same lunch.” To avoid all the rich kids who hung out in the lobby, we veered off to the cafeteria entrance on the other side of the building. “So at least we can hit all the important stuff together. Right?”

The barely out-of-college band teacher that every girl fantasized about held the door open for us when he noticed us coming toward him. “Happy first day of school, girls. How was your summer?”

As she did when trying to hook a boy with her adorableness, Carolyn put on her sweetest girly voice. “Oh, it was fantastic. How was yours?”

Breaking off from us to turn down the arts hallway, he wiggled his eyebrows back at her. “I’ll tell you all about it in class.”

Pushing me into the pool of anxiety I was already drowning in most of the time, the herd of jersey-wearing football players sitting at the table turned to look at me when the red-haired giant yelled, “Bennett!”

My greatest nightmare came to life as a chorus of hands slapped the tabletop when they all started barking at me at the same time. “Faith! Faith-y! Beno! All-Star!”

“Oh, God.” Twisting my fingers around Carolyn’s, I tugged her to me as I wiggled my fingers back at them. “Don’t you dare make me go over there by myself.”

Pumping his fist into his imaginary glove as he came off the cafeteria bench, Jason wound up his best fast pitch and skipped a step toward me to release it with a breathy ‘whomp.’ “We got the softball pitcher of the year right here, fellas.”

Taking turns pointing at me, his arms punched through the air. “She allows no hits. She allows no runs. All you get is pure shutout magic and state tournament dominance.”

He held his palm by his forehead. “Up top, Ace.” I slapped his hand, and he shook it for a second as he lifted his chin at Carolyn. “What’s going on, shorty?”

Scanning the room for something more interesting to pay attention to, Carolyn shrugged back at him. “You know, just counting down the days until Christmas.”

He bent his fingers at me and peeked over my shoulder at my bookbag. “Where’s your schedule?” I pulled the slip of paper from my back pocket, and he snatched it from me. “Alright. Let’s find out what we’re working with this year.”

Leaning across his folded arms to peek around Jason, a boy I’d never seen before moved his eyes down my body and up again.

Like two marbles, layers of icy dark and light blue sucked me into them when our eyes met, making me stare a bit too long as I tried to peel through each one.

I’d never so much as been interested in a boy before. But whoever lived behind all those shades of blue lit a fire inside my chest that flooded the rest of my body in the next heartbeat.

Nothing ever happened in this rinky-dink town we lived in, so every girl was on the lookout for the cute kid from Texas who moved here earlier that summer.

I’d already heard a dozen times about his sexy accent, curly blond hair, and perfect teeth and skin, but he was so beautiful I almost died. My heart stopped for a beat or two when he smiled that way, telling me he understood exactly what he was doing to me.

From my ears to my nose, a band of heat moved over my face, making it so numb I wasn’t sure if I was smiling back at him like I thought I was.

“Sweet.” Making me flinch when he broke our connection, Jason waved the paper in front of me. “We have the same set-up except for shop class.”

Since the school system introduced me to math with letters, Jason had been feeding me answers to keep my grades up so I didn’t get kicked off the team. So, my entire body relaxed with one big sigh as I took the schedule from his fingers. “Thank God.” I folded the paper and slid it back into my pocket, trying my hardest not to steal another glance at the boy behind him and failing miserably at it. “I’m not sure what geometry is, but I think it might be Latin for Faith has zero chance of passing this class.”

Shifting his arm to rest his cheek on his palm, the new kid dug his tooth into his bottom lip as he chuckled, making me look over my shoulder to make sure someone wasn’t mocking me.

“Hey,” — I bounced my finger on Jason’s shoulder as he sat down next to him — “you wouldn’t have an extra sweatshirt in your football locker, would you?” Twisting my knees, I motioned back toward my house. “I left mine on the kitchen table, and I’m not trying to freeze to death.”

Rubbing his palms over his round belly like a crystal ball, he clicked his tongue back at me and swung his head. “Nope, sorry. Us husky boys don’t take cold like you mere mortals do.”

The bell rang, and Carolyn hooked a finger around my belt loop as she inched away to the hall. But my knees were so spongy from the new boy’s devious little side grin that I stumbled backward into her like a dummy. “Um. Catch you after homeroom, I guess.”

Fast enough to get away but slow enough that I didn’t seem like a bigger jackass than I’d already made myself, I grabbed Carolyn’s elbow and pulled her into me. “Did you see that new boy? I’m so in love.”

Peeking back at them again, she smiled and shoved her hip at me. “Yeah. He’s still watching you leave, just so you’re aware.”

We disappeared around the corner, and I caught my breath again, like whatever hold he had on me fizzled the further I got from him.

I knew he moved in right beside Jason in the rich part of town, which made him out of my league in about a hundred ways. No, I didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of being with someone like him, but I was suddenly very excited about starting that school year, anyway.