Free Meant to Be by Tiffany King Page A

school.
    “All right, it was nice to meet you, Sam.”
Bye honey, I’ll see you guys after school.” With one last wave she
drove off.
    “Your mom’s very nice,” Sam commented, as we
headed toward the tree where we sat yesterday morning.
    “Thanks, I think so too.”
    “So, I’m dying to know….was I right?”
    It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure
out what she was talking about. “Yeah, it was him, and the dream
was fantastic all the way up until the end.”
    “He thinks there’s more to our
connections…”
    “Whoa backup, when did you talk to him? Can
you talk to each other in your dreams now?” confusion colored Sam’s
voice.
    “I didn’t have a chance to tell you. I talked
to him this morning. He came over after we woke up from the
dream.”
    “Oh my gosh, you have to tell me everything.
Was he everything you expected? Is the connection between you still
strong? What did you talk about?”
    I laughed. “Slow down, I’ll tell you
everything.”
    “Ouch!”
    I was interrupted by a sharp stinging pain on
the side of my head. Something had struck me hard on my right
temple. Looking down, I saw a softball lying on the grass beside
me.
    “Sorry about that,” a guy said, jogging up to
me.
    He didn’t look sorry though; on the contrary,
he looked quite pleased with himself.
    “Do you want me to kiss it and make it
better?” He said in a suggestive voice.
    “Oh, brother!” Sam said with disgust.
    “What’s it to you fridge ? He said with
contempt as he turned to look at Sam.
    “So, what do you think, will a kiss make it
better?” he asked, trying to lay on the charm.
    “No thanks,” I said with disgust, and turned
my back on him.
    “Hey, what’s your problem? I was just trying
to be friendly.”
    “I have enough friends,” I said dismissively,
waiting for him to leave.
    Instead he looked at me with a nasty look on
his face. “Oh I get it. You’re not into guys,” he said, looking
suggestively between Sam and me.
    “Go bother…..” my words caught in my throat
as another person joined our group. I looked up to see Mark
standing beside me, and he was not happy.
    He had caught the end of the exchange, and I
could feel the anger vibrating off of him.
    “Maybe a trip to the Dean’s office will clean
up your language,” he said.
    “Is that a threat?” the boy asked in a
mocking voice. “Maybe the Dean would like to hear how you’ve taken
an interest in our new student. Everyone’s talking about how the
two of you were ogling each other in class. No, I don’t think
you’ll be talking to the Dean anytime soon,” he said in the same
mocking voice as he turned and sauntered off.
    Mark started to go after him. “Don’t,” I said
in a low voice, putting my hand on his arm.
    My touch stopped him in his tracks. The
connection was as strong as ever. “Everyone’s watching, you have to
walk away and act like nothing happened,” I said in a low voice.
“Otherwise our secret will be out sooner than we wanted.”
    Mark looked at me one last time, glancing at
the spot where the softball had struck my head.
    “It’s fine. I’ll go to the nurse’s station
and get some ice,” I said. “Besides, the nurse and I are already
friends.”
    Mark reached up his hand, as if to touch the
sore spot.
    I took a step back. “No you can’t, I said
glancing around. “Everyone’s still watching.” Please go to class,
I’ll meet you later,” I pleaded, suddenly choking back tears. The
pain in his eyes was almost too much to bear.
    Finally, he walked away and I let out a bent
up breath. “So much for keeping it a secret,” I said to Sam in a
shaky voice.
    Sam had remained silent during the whole
confrontation, but I could tell she was going to burst if I didn’t
fill her in on all the details.
    “Come on, I’ll explain on the way to the
clinic,” I said, grabbing onto her elbow, for once my emotions
behaved.
    By the time we reached the clinic, I had
given Sam a basic idea of what