Free Love Struck by Shani Petroff

squirmed her way out from the middle of the group, a look of disgust on her face. “If you ever come to your senses, Cole, and realize how gross she is, come find me.”
    â€œNever going to happen,” he said.
    â€œWe’ll see,” Gabi replied with an all-knowing, gloating lilt to her voice. Maybe she was in an altered state of mind, but it still was chilling to hear.
    The space Gabi left was quickly filled. Everyone wanted to get as close to me as possible. And they all started talking to me at once. Cole, Courtney, other people I knew from school, strangers, everyone. They all had wonderful things to say. But the compliments weren’t making me feel good. They were making me feel lousy—especially after what had just happened with Gabi. I just had to reverse that love spell.
    Only I couldn’t do it on my own. I needed someone who could actually control their powers at will. I needed Lance Gold. He could fix everything—the love spell, my best friend hating me, my teen parents. He was a major do-gooder. Maybe he would even re-reconsider going out with Gabi.
    I had to get back to Lance. After all, weren’t guardian angels supposed to help people?
    And at that moment, nobody needed more help than me!

chapter 18
    â€œDid Lance do his appearance yet?” I asked Cole.
    â€œWho cares?” he said. “You’re the only one worth seeing.”
    â€œTotally,” Reid agreed. Several others echoed that sentiment.
    â€œCole, come on. I want to know,” I said. “Is Lance still here?”
    â€œYeah, I guess so,” he answered, kicking his foot against the ground. “The crowd got a little crazy after you came out onstage. Lance’s manager made him stay backstage, and security told us unless everyone simmered down, the event would be canceled. It seemed like they still planned to have it, but most of us didn’t care about it anymore. We just wanted to find you.” He paused. “Why do you want to see Lance? Do you like him? Better than me?”
    â€œOf course not.” It was true. I didn’t like Lance better. But at the moment I did need him more than Cole. “We just came here to see him, so I thought we should.”
    â€œWe’ll never get past all that security. Let’s do something else instead. Like go to the music store. There’s a ton of songs that could have been written just for you.”
    â€œOooh, like Mara’s Daughters’ ‘Mysterious Love,’ ” Max said.
    â€œOr ‘Beautiful Wonder,’ ” someone else yelled out.
    The next thing I knew, everyone was calling out names of songs that reminded them of me.
    I couldn’t even have a private conversation. Everyone just butted in.
    And nothing anyone said was of any importance. Well, other than Cole. He made one good point. We’d never get past all that security around Lance. It was true. There was no way we would. But I could.
    I just needed to ditch the army following my every move.
    â€œOkay, everyone. I’m so glad you’re all here,” I said to the crowd. “But I need a little time alone. So why don’t we all meet up in the food court in an hour.”
    â€œNo way,” Jaydin said. “What if you take off again? We can’t take that chance.”
    â€œI promise I won’t,” I answered her.
    â€œSorry,” some sixth-grader from my school said. “Don’t hate us for it. But we’re never leaving you. We can’t. We love you.”
    Just perfect. What was I supposed to do?
    I turned to Cole. “I need to get away from these people,” I whispered.
    â€œWhat did she say?” Courtney asked.
    Cole took my hand. “What she said,” he told Courtney and the crowd, “is that this is no way to treat someone as awesome as she is. She wants the royal treatment.”
    Max started to bow.
    â€œNot like that,” Cole said. “What I mean is have a little