Free Reunited by Hilary Weisman Graham Page A

heart at the center of the flame.
    Summer had never danced like that, not even in the privacy of her bedroom. And here was this girl, dancing so freely in front of hundreds of strangers. Summer stared at the fire, surprised by the sudden onset of hot tears spilling down her cheeks, tingeing her lips with salt. She buried her face in her arms in case Alice was still close enough to the Pea Pod to hear.
    Yesterday, when Jace had dumped her, she’d felt nothing but anger. But now that he wanted her back, it was as if those other feelings she’d held inside burst open. So why was she crying now? If Jace truly wanted her back, that was a good thing. Wasn’t it?
    Summer wiped her eyes and lay back on the scratchy plaid padding. Life had been so much simpler the last time she’d gone camping with Alice and Tiernan, when the closest any ofthem got to boys was in their fantasy world. She could picture it all so clearly in her mind, the three of them staying up past lights out, whispering their Level3 dream dates to each other in the darkness. In Tiernan’s fantasy, she and Luke usually spent the night club-hopping in New York while Ryan whisked Alice away to a romantic dinner in Paris on his private jet. Or was it London?
    But unlike Tiernan and Alice, who were constantly coming up with new scenarios and exotic locations for their fantasies, Summer’s dream date with Travis was always the same. She could still remember every detail; she’d lived it so many times in her head. The date started with the two of them meandering down Main Street in Walford, arm in arm, laughing, talking, window-shopping. And at the end of the night they’d wind up back at Summer’s house on her porch swing while Travis serenaded her on guitar. Then after he was done, a kiss. Never a full-on make-out session—just a sweet solitary kiss and a whisper, nose to nose. I love you.
    I love you. She and Jace had said it to each other a million times. But never once had it felt like it did in that silly daydream.
    Stupid Jace. Summer wanted to believe him. She really did. But she couldn’t get over the feeling that there was something he wasn’t telling her. Some detail he was leaving out. According to Jace, the reason he hadn’t mentioned going to Melanie’s party on graduation night was because he hadn’t wanted to make Summer feel bad about the fact that he was out celebratingtheir breakup while she was home, crying in her pillow. But for some reason Summer couldn’t shake the aftertaste of her initial doubts. It was like the way a bad dream could ruin her whole day, no matter how many times she told herself it wasn’t true.
    Summer pulled her journal from her purse. It was the only chance she had to sort out all the turmoil in her head. She flipped past her diary entries, poems, fragments of poems, and random doodles looking for a blank page. To a stranger, her journal probably looked like the ramblings of a lunatic. But Summer liked the way her mind spilled out onto the page in all its unedited messiness. It didn’t have to be prettied up for anyone but herself.
    She wrote feverishly, until her hand hurt, filling ten pages by the time she was done. Most of what she’d written was about Jace. But the lines she liked best were the ones about the girl by the fire.
     
    Her eyes are closed,
    But she is open.
    Spinning, Smiling, Alive,
    Burning as bright as the fire at
    her back.
    Dancing, just for the joy of dancing.
    Dancing for no one but herself.
     
    “Knock, knock,” said a voice from below. Summer peered over the edge of the bunk just as the back door slid open. Outside the van, Tiernan stood next to the motorcycle dude they’d seen back in the parking lot of Lucky’s. A shark-tooth necklace hung off his collarbones. They both had beers in their hands.
    “Good. You’re awake,” Tiernan said.
    Summer closed her journal and tossed it back in her bag. If Tiernan was hoping to get busy in the Pea Pod, she was sorely mistaken.
    “This is