Free Taken by Storm by Angela Morrison Page B

trestle?”
     
    “No. We’re seniors.”
     
    “Oh, right.” i hadn’t thought of that.
     
    We arrive at her locker. She opens it, turns to face me. “If I’m just a diversion, that’s fine.” She touches my lips with her fingertips. “Maybe it’s better.”
     
    “What do you mean?”
     
    “The religion thing.” She chews on the lip i sucked on last night, want to suck on right now. “I can’t get serious with you.”
     
    Serious? My life is nothing but serious. i nod anyway. “Right.”
     
    “And I don’t think it’s sick.”
     
    i nod again.
     
    “I think it’s natural.” Her forehead wrinkles. “Comfort. Affection. You need that now worse than ever.” She turns around and rummages through her junk, picks up her physics text.
     
    “It’s trig next.” i lean over her shoulder, inhale her hair, and take the book from her.
     
    She turns her back on her trashed locker and puts her hand on my chest. “For me it means something.”
     
    i pull her math text off the top shelf and replace it with the physics book. “Got it.”
     
    She takes it without looking. “I wouldn’t kiss you”—her voice drops to a whisper—“if I didn’t care.” The stillness in her face seeps into me.
     
    i put my hands on her shoulders. “You really okay with this? With me? If you’re going to get zapped by a vengeful god—”
     
    “Last night I decided”—her eyes close—“I want to care more.”
     
    i take her face in my hands, kiss her eyelids and then her mouth, long and slow right there in the hall behind her locker door with her trig book smashed between us. i hope Troy is watching and gets the message. DeeDee, too. i hope the whole freaking world is watching.
     
    Leesie’s god.
     
    My Isadore.
     
    Take that.
     

chapter 18
     
    HOMEWORK
     
    MICHAEL’S DIVE LOG—VOLUME #8
     

    Leesie follows me home after school. i bring the laptop out of the bedroom, set it up on Gram’s coffee table. Leesie spreads out my books and hers, coaxes me through a bunch of overdue assignments. i struggle with dumb stuff, can’t concentrate long, get really stuck on English. Nothing to write. i sit on the couch, holding my laptop, staring at a blank white page in a sea of blue. Leesie works beside me, her pen scratching away.
     
    i give it up and Google Cozumel Diving Deals . It’s taking forever. i lean over and kiss Leesie’s cheek.
     
    She elbows me away. “I’m working here.”
     
    “Sorry, i was just checking.” i inhale. She’s got her hair trapped again.
     
    She stops writing, squirms. “What?”
     
    i put my hand on her rib cage. “i just wanted to make sure you’re real.”
     
    She sighs, leans back, and lets me kiss her. “Real enough?” She strokes my face.
     
    “You’re not going to dump me tomorrow?”
     
    “Dump you?” She picks up her pen and bends over her notebook. “You’ve never been dumped.”
     
    “Are you always like this? So committed?”
     
    She stops writing and swallows. “I’m never like this.”
     
    i put down my laptop, pick up my dive log, flip it open, get lost between the pen and the page, studying Leesie’s smooth, pink lips. “Am i your first? Kiss?”
     
    She turns red. “Am I that bad?”
     
    “Let me check.” i kiss her—lose my writing stuff in the cushions between us. “Fast learner.”
     
    She pulls away. Finds my dive log. “What does a diver write about in Washington?” She looks hopeful. Wants me to share.
     
    i tuck the log away safe, reach for her again, but she fends me off.
     
    She winks at me. “You’re not my first.”
     
    i can’t see her with any of the guys at school, especially Troy. “Who?”
     
    “You are nosy.”
     
    “And you’re not? Come on, you know everything about me.”
     
    “I know nothing about you.”
     
    “Everything worth knowing.”
     
    “Not all the girls you’ve kissed.”
     
    “You want names?” i pick up the laptop. The screen shows a page of promising hits. “i