Free When Cicadas Cry by Laura Miller Page B

serious. You just looked at me for a couple seconds, and then you looked down at your milk, as if you were reading its ingredients or something.”
    I swipe my hand across my eyes and then let my fist fall to my heart. “The ingredients? Wow! And you still let me dance with you later?”
    She laughs. “You’re lucky that it was only my first week here, and by that time, I was beginning to think that was the customary greeting. It’s like no one knew whether they should befriend me or run from me.”
    I pull her even closer and press my lips to her neck. “No, sweetheart, we’re just shy around beautiful creatures, that’s all.”
    I can feel her laugh, but I just keep kissin’ her neck.
    “Did I stick out?”
    “What?” I ask.
    “When I first got here, did I look different or something?”
    “Sweetie,” I say, lookin’ into her eyes this time, “everybody who isn’t from here sticks out.”
    She drops her stare, and her voice hitches a little.
    “No, but seriously,” I say, regaining her attention. “You’d probably stick out anywhere.”
    “What does that mean?” She looks at me as if she’s almost hesitant to ask.
    “It means that no matter where you are or what you’re wearin’ or who you’re with, people would notice you. You’ve got like this...bubble around you.”
    “What?”
    “Yeah,” I say, “I can’t explain it. It’s just, when you smile at me, it’s like I think if I can just get nearer to you—if I could just get inside that bubble—then everything in the world would be right. And I can’t be the only one that thinks that.”
    “Rem,” she scolds with a smile, “you’re probably the only person in this world that thinks I live in a bubble.”
    “No,” I say, shakin’ my head. “I can’t be. But if you are right by some messed-up, out-of-kilter way of thinkin’, then I’m the luckiest man in the world because I see a treasure that no one else can see.”
    She leans into me and sweetly kisses my cheek.
    “Wait,” I say, “you remember the first time you saw me?”
    She looks into my eyes. “Of course.”
    I just smile, and I’m still smilin’ several seconds later.
    “Rem,” she whispers, standin’ on tiptoe and restin’ her lips near my ear. At the same time, a shiver runs up my spine. “You wanna know why?”
    “Yeah,” I barely get out.
    “You took my breath away, too.”
    I feel my smile growin’.
    “And you know what else?” she whispers, kissin’ my cheek and then lookin’ into my eyes.
    “Yeah?”
    “I really like you, too.”

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Fourteen
    Present
     
    Rem

     
     
     
    I’ m in the grocery store, pickin’ up some bread and some beer—two of my staples. I’m starin’ at a small section of the bread aisle. I’m tryin’ to eat healthier. Tryin’ is the key word. I try to remember the bread Ashley always used to get. She was probably one of the healthiest people I knew—though I know that’s not sayin’ much, if you consider my circle of friends. But Ashley would eat things that just sounded strange, like sushi and quinoa and stuff like that, which I eventually just equated to healthy. They didn’t sell that stuff anywhere around here, so we’d have to go to the city to get it. It didn’t taste like much to me, and I always had to have a bowl of cereal afterward because I was still hungry. But I ate it because she said it was “healthy,” and mostly, because it made her smile.
    My eyes scan the labels: white, wheat, oat, potato. Potato? What? Hell, they’re makin’ bread out of everything these days.
    “I heard she left town because he caught her cheatin’ on him.”
    A girl’s voice permeates through the wall behind the bread. It sounds as if she’s in the next aisle. And it doesn’t sound as if she’s tryin’ to keep whatever she’s talkin’ about a secret.
    “I heard it was because he cheated on her,” I hear another girl say.
    I don’t recognize the voices or know who they’re