Free Autumn Unlocked (Summer Unplugged) by Amy Sparling Page B

at him and he grabs the back of my head, pulling me into a kiss. "This look is because I have something to tell you," he says with oodles of mystery dripping off his words. I swallow. The smile on his face should be a good sign, but knowing that he has something to tell me just makes me want to freak out and throw up. What if it's something bad?
    " Wh-what is it?" I ask in a whisper.
    He draws closer to me, slipping his arm around my waist. "I love you, Bayleigh," he says in the first time I've ever heard his voice say those words in that order. My heart pounds inside my ribcage as he continues, "I do. I've known it for a long time but it took me a while to get brave enough to tell you."

Chapter 2
     
     
     
    The first day of my senior year is exactly as miserable as I thought it would be.
    My best friend Becca has four classes with me, which would normally be the cause of celebration, but today it is anything but. She spends every waking moment gushing about her new boyfriend Braden, and how freaking sweet he is and how adorable he looks when he eats Pop Tarts every morning and how he holds her hand in the hallways and his palms are kind of sweaty but that's okay with her because she just likes being close to him.
    I should be happy for her—I mean, I am happy for her—I would just prefer if she didn't remind me every five seconds that her boyfriend is across the hall in math class and mine is forty-five minutes away.
    Not to be braggy or anything, but her boyfriend hasn't said the L-word yet and mine has. I haven't told her this because she would freak out. Plus, this new level in my relationship with Jace is special—I don't want to share it with anyone else yet.
    Somehow, I manage to make it through my first day of senior year without dropping dead from love-struck longing for Jace. I send him a text when I get home, telling him exactly that but I know he won't get it for another hour or so. He's been booked solid with giving motocross lessons at the dirt bike track.
    Even though my mother cooled down a lot after my summer punishment of being forced to stay with my grandparents in the middle of nowhere out in the country, she still hasn't given my computer back. Apparently catching your daughter red-handed taking a photo of herself shirtless to send to an ex-boyfriend is all it takes for a parental freak-out. I can't say I blame her, but it's not like I didn't learn a lesson.
    I definitely did.
    Jace never asks me to send him dirty photos. I smile as I toss my backpack on my bed, thinking that I should add that to the long and ever-growing list of reasons I love Jace. He respects me and he doesn't need a digital image of my boobs to prove it.
    I don't have much homework, so I rush through it and then practically run down the hallway to find my mother in the living room, hard at work trying to untangle a knot in my brother's shoelaces.
    "Hey… Mom…" I say with an overly sincere happiness in my voice and a goofy smile on my face that shows all my teeth.
    "What do you want?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.
    I clasp my hands behind my back in an overly dramatized way of being polite. "Could I pretty please use the computer?"
    Mom rolls her eyes and nods toward the bookshelf where my confiscated laptop now resides. "Go for it."
    I know it's silly and kind of childish, and I know that in a year I will be eighteen and an adult, but—it is nice when Mom and I get along. All I have to do is be sweet to her, show her respect and not be the bitch I used to be. I'm not saying that's easy, but…it's really not that hard. I thank her and head to my computer, my desperation to check Facebook almost overwhelming me.
    "You know what?" Mom says as I lif t the screen and sit down on a wobbly barstool in the kitchen.
    "What?" I ask.
    Mom crosses her arms and watches me with a weird look on her face that I can't exactly make out. "That summer at your grandparents really helped you. I've seen a change in you ever since you got