Read Online Once Again by Amy Durham - Free Book Online

I
wanted to beg him to stay, but deep inside I knew that to stay
would mean his death.
    I watched as Lucas put his arms around me and
held me. Even from my place on the grass outside, I could feel the
warmth and the strength of his embrace. I cried harder as he
whispered something in my ear, clinging to him with all my might.
How I wished I could understand what he was saying.
    My heart splintered in two as he turned and
walked toward the back door, the love that was inside spilling over
into my being until it bubbled over. The injustice of what was
happening washed over me in violent waves that brought me to my
knees.
    Through the window, I read Lucas’s lips as he
said one last “I love you” then walked out the door.
    The finality of the door closing behind him
echoed like thunder in my mind.

CHAPTER 11
     
    “Layla!”
    My eyes flew open and I looked around
frantically, assuring myself that I was in my bedroom. Mom stood in
my doorway.
    “Jessie’s here,” she said.
    I yanked the headphones out of my ears
and...
    Two hours? I’d only meant to unwind. How had
I managed to sleep for two hours?
    And the dream... it had been so real, so
vivid. I was trembling, and even now I wanted to sob in
despair.
    “I fell asleep,” I answered, as if she hadn’t
already figured that out. “Tell Jessie I’ll be right down.”
    At least my clothes were ready, which was
more than I could say for my hair. I dressed in a matter of seconds
and pushed my feet into my boots, pulling the bottoms of my
boot-cut jeans over the tops. Running across the hall to the
bathroom, I twisted my hair into a messy knot and secured it into
place with a large clip. It wasn’t my first choice for a hair-do,
but it looked good enough, sort of casually elegant.
    I pulled a few wavy strands loose to hang
around my face, then brushed a bit of pink blush across my cheeks.
I grabbed my eyeliner pencil and spruced up a bit around my eyes.
Apparently, I’d cried during the dream, because the liner I’d
applied before my impromptu nap was all but invisible.
    Satisfied that I looked acceptable, I ran
down the stairs to find Jessie. She was waiting in the kitchen,
having a lively conversation with my mother about our cross-country
team.
    I groaned to myself. I’d only barely managed
to convince Mom that Lucas was just my friend. If Jessie brought up
that Lucas was meeting me at the game Mom would be all over me
again.
    “Hey Jess,” I said, picking my purse up off
the table. “Ready?”
    “Sure.” Jessie was all smiles, and thankfully
she ceased her talk about the cross-country runners before Luke’s
name was mentioned.
    The football stadium was packed, the stands
overflowing with people, most of them kids from Sky Cove. Our
opponents, from nearby Camden, made up a smaller portion of the
crowd.
    Jessie and I found seats near the top of the
stands on the Sky Cove side. Marsha and Tiffany found us soon
after. With the sun now below the horizon, the air felt chilly and
crisp, but not at all unpleasant. Perfect football weather. Of
course, I knew next to nothing about football, other than what a
touchdown was. But I quickly figured out that, for most of the
students here, the game was more of a social occasion than a
sporting event.
    I had to make myself refrain from looking
around for Lucas. It would be too obvious, to my friends and
probably to everyone else.
    But it was so hard not to. Not only because I
looked forward to being with him, but because the feelings from my
dream were still hanging around, nagging at my heart. In the dream,
I had been devastated by Lucas’s departure. Heartbroken by his
tearful “I love you” as he left.
    And though I knew it had only been a dream,
it was proving difficult to convince my emotions that the real,
live Lucas was fine and exactly as he had been at school today.
That he hadn’t decided to skip town for my well being the way
dream-Lucas had.
    Or that he hadn’t decided being friends with
the new girl was