Free Canary by Rachele Alpine Page B

know who Brett was, I added, “Brett’s my brother.”
    â€œLet’s give Brett a break. Come with me today.”
    I couldn’t hide a smile anymore. I wanted to jump and celebrate, but instead I said, “Sure, that would be great. Let me tell him and change. I’ll be ready in five minutes.” I pushed the door all the way open, allowing him in, and turned to run upstairs, giving him a full view of my Disney-princess-clad ass.
    But I didn’t care.
    Jack had come to pick me up. He’d kissed me the other night, and now he was waiting for me to get in the truck with him. I danced into my room, shaking my butt in the mirror to imaginary music, and threw my hands in the air.
    Jack Blane liked me. It was as simple as that.

Chapter 16
    Suddenly, almost as if had you had blinked you might have missed it, I became JackandKate, a name merged like movie star couples’.
    I wasn’t plain Kate, new girl Kate, or Coach Franklin’s daughter Kate. I was something more, something powerful and brilliant. I was Jack’s Kate.
    I was ecstatic. The two of us together as a couple was a monumental event to me, giant as the erupting of a volcano dormant for decades or the burning of a piece of toast and finding Jesus’s image in the charred remains.
    But to everyone else, our new relationship seemed simple. Ali even commented, “It was as if one day you were together—poof. You were never anything but together.”
    It was simple, that coming together. Jack picked me up each morning for school, waited outside my classroom, and came over to our table with some other guys on the team and ate lunch with me. By the end of the week, we were a couple. When he asked me Friday after school in front of my house, it was easy to say yes to being his girlfriend.
    I’d never really wanted to be a part of a couple
before. The idea of having a boyfriend didn’t cross my mind much except for a few short-lived crushes on boys in my class who quickly proved to be either gross or
uninteresting. Mom used to ask which boys I thought were cute, but I always ignored her, embarrassed to be talking about stuff like that with her and more interestedin sports than boys.
    But with Jack, it was different. I wanted to be with him. I wanted to be one of those girls who had a boyfriend, who was attached to him, who talked about nothing but him.
    My life with Jack clicked. Our lives merged, one day blending into the next, all with such an easy movement that I didn’t even notice the transition. It seemed there wasn’t a time before there was a time with Jack.

    www.allmytruths.com

    Today’s Truth:
    Don’t expect anything. It’s never what you think it’s going to be.

    Being with Jack isn’t just
    his hard urgent kisses that leave me
    starving for more.

    Or
    his blue-green eyes,
    as if viewing earth from space.

    Or
    his smile,
    which grows across his face when I walk over.

    Or
    his smell,
    a mix of
    deodorant,
    fruit bubble gum
    and laundry detergent.

    Or
    the way he always asks to kiss me,
    pausing as if worried I might say no,
    even though there is nothing I could ever say
    except yes.

    Or
    his laugh,
    loud and stretching across a room,
    causing people to turn to see what they’re missing out on.

    Or
    his jersey,
    the practice warm-up I wear over jeans,
    his name on the back so everyone can read
    who belongs to him.
    Or
    the way he says my name
    when I pick up the phone,
    as if hearing my voice is what he waits for all day.

    Or
    the late-night phone calls,
    the early-morning drives to school,
    all my time spent with Jack so I’m never thinking about who I miss.

    Or
    the way his hand hangs around me,
    when we’re at a party, after a game, or with friends,
    as if he’s letting everyone know I’m with him,
    and I eagerly claim the position.

    Or
    the pride I feel
    when people learn I’m dating Jack,
    that I’m with Jack,
    that Jack is my