Free Love Match by Monica Seles Page A

friendship thing was fun. She didn’t spend all her time worrying about impressing him or saying the right thing oreven wondering what his motivations were. She wasn’t even thinking about kissing him, although his blue-tinted lips were kind of cute.
    Okay, maybe she was thinking a little bit about kissing him.
    Cleo’s yell brought an abrupt end to that thought. “Maya! It’s almost curfew!”
    Maya grabbed Travis’s arm and looked at his watch. They only had fifteen minutes to make the ten-minute drive back to campus. Add in the time it would take to work their way out of the crowded club and wait in line for the valet, and they were pushing it. “We’ve got to go.”
    â€œIt’s okay, girls,” Renee said. “We’re cool. I blow curfew all the time. Nobody cares. Cleo, go back to that girl on the dance floor. She looks lonely without you.”
    Maya calmed down. Renee was right. She’d missed curfew once before and hadn’t even gotten a slap on the wrist.
    â€œNo,” Cleo insisted. “We’ve got to go. I’m not the daughter of an ambassador, the son of the school owner, the newest ‘it boy’ on campus, or the up-and-coming tennis star. Curfew means something different for me.”
    There was no anger in Cleo’s accusation. She was just stating the facts. But it bothered Maya all the same.
    â€œYou won the Invitational,” Maya reminded her. “If anyone here is an up-and-coming sports star, it’s you.”
    â€œAnd yet, nobody’s inviting me to private receptions,” Cleo said.
    Maya relented. “Okay, we should go. We can always continue our night on campus. Although Cleo won’t be able to bring her new friend.”
    â€œNo worries.” Cleo held up her cell phone. “I got her digits. You don’t really think I’d just pull a Cinderella because the clock struck curfew, do you?”
    The girls laughed as they made their way through the club. En route to the exit, it was agreed that Diego would ride back with Renee and Cleo, leaving Maya alone with Travis and his pouty blue lips.
    As they exited into the cool night air, Maya wasn’t surprised to find Travis’s arm wrapped around her again. It felt more natural now that they were friends talking about the kinds of things she talked about with her other friends.
    Travis held the door open for her as she climbed into the car, waving to the cameras that flashed all around her as if she were a real celebrity.

Chapter 7
    â€œOh. My. Frickin’. Goddess!”
    Maya looked up from her history textbook. She’d been trying to fit in some extra homework before classes. She was still behind due to her week at the Open and her impressive social schedule. Cleo’s outburst caused her to lose her place in her reading, but that wasn’t important. A stage-five freak-out was happening on the other side of the dorm room.
    â€œI’m on the Wall!” Cleo’s hands waved wildly toward her computer screen. “I’m on the frickin’ Wall!”
    â€œOh, Cleo,” Maya said. “I’m so sorry.”
    The Wall was a gossip site that followed all the hottest of the hot in movies, TV, and music. Occasionally a sports celeb made it onto the site, like that one time Maya found herself providing a little extra color for a story about Nicole. She wasn’t looking forward to repeating that experience.
    â€œWhatever,” Cleo said. “Oh, I know I’m supposed to beabove these gossip rags, but it’s totally different when you see a picture of yourself in an article that’s already gotten thousands and thousands of page views. That’s pretty sweet. I’m on the frickin’ Wall!”
    Maya forced a smile. “Well, that’s wonderful, Cleo. About time someone noticed your accomplishments. You deserve some press.”
    â€œThanks,” Cleo said. “But the article’s not