Midnight Sun(23)

I stare over at my BFF. She shakes her head an emphatic no. But she’s doing that thing she always does when she lies, twisting a chunk of hair around her finger. So maybe yes?

“If you ever say that again, I’ll kill you!” she bellows. Garver grins and runs back over to her.

Morgan’s still glaring at him, and I worry for a second that she’s really going to punch him. But then he starts spaz dancing around her again and she starts cracking up. She watches his antics for a chorus or two, but after a while, it’s like she can’t help herself anymore. She starts dancing along with him. Garver looks like he’s in heaven.

I turn back to Charlie. He leans in toward me again. Here comes that kiss. The one I’ve been waiting for my entire life. Finally. I want to remember every last detail of this moment forever and ever.

Except at the last second, I hear Zoe’s voice in my ear instead of feeling Charlie’s lips on mine. “I think I finally figured out where I know you from,” she says, giving me a knowing smirk. “You weren’t by any chance in Miss Eslinger’s class in first grade, were you?”

The truth is, yes. We were both in that class. She must know it’s me, Vampire Girl. I refuse to let her make me admit it, though. I’ll tell Charlie about my XP when I’m ready, not because Zoe Freaking Carmichael is bullying me into it.

I shake my head and don’t say anything. I can’t. I’m worried my voice will betray how much I’m freaking out on the inside.

“Huh,” she says, giving me an even closer look. “That’s funny. Because you look just like this poor little girl in that class we used to call Vampire Girl. She got sick and never came back to school. I forget her name.”

Before I can think of a way out of this, Charlie rolls his eyes at Zoe, then turns back to me and laughs. “So that’s why you kept eyeing my neck out on the dance floor. And here I thought it was because you were so into me.”

“What can I say? You’re pretty irresistible, especially to us vampires.” Even in my state of semipanic, I can’t help but notice that his neck does look pretty awesome. Smells good, too, I think.

Zoe opens her mouth to say something else. But then her eyes register Charlie’s arm draped over my shoulder and my hand stuck in his back pocket. She stomps away without another word. I can practically see steam coming from her ears.

“What the heck was that all about?” Charlie says.

I shrug. “Your ex-girlfriend is weird.”

“She was never my girlfriend!” he protests before he notices my wide grin. “Oh. You’re teasing me, huh?”

I giggle. “Maybe a little.”

He starts leaning in toward me again. I hold my breath again. Close my eyes again. Wait again. Still no kiss.

This time his lips land next to my ear. “Do you wanna go somewhere?” he whispers.

I open my eyes, grin up at him, and nod. As if there’s any answer but yes. I would go to the moon with Charlie Reed right now if he asked me to. We head out of the party to go make our own private one.





11

The nice thing about a small town is that you can get anywhere you want to go fairly quickly even if you are on foot: the train station, the ice cream shop where Morgan and Garver work, school (if you attend one outside your bedroom, that is), and, in this case, the marina. I have to hand it to Charlie—it’s definitely the most romantic spot in all of Purdue.

The moon glints off the water as we stroll along the dock hand in hand. Boats sway in the wind. Sails clang against masts. Stars sparkle overhead.

Charlie points at one of the boats. It’s flying a blue flag with the iconic CAL written across it in gold script. “Fun fact: I was supposed to go to Berkeley on a swimming scholarship,” he tells me.

Here’s just the opening I’ve been waiting for. Now I can say, Fun fact: I actually am that poor little girl Zoe was talking about before…

But then I look into his eyes and see that he already seems to be bummed out enough without me adding to it. So instead, I say, “Supposed to? As in you’re not going anymore?”

“Nope,” he says. “I had to have surgery and they didn’t know if I’d even be able to swim again. And no scholarship means no Berkeley.”

I stare at my reflection rippling in the water and remember the Dear Gabby line about everyone having their own poop sandwich. Turns out she’s right. Even Charlie Reed, the most perfect-seeming individual in the world, apparently has one. “Couldn’t you get a loan or something?” I ask.

He shrugs. “Technically, I guess, but my dad’s business has been kinda shaky lately and I didn’t want to put him under that pressure. Besides, swimming was, like, my whole life. I’m still trying to figure out who I am without it. So to waste my parents’ money when I don’t even know what I want to major in seemed pretty selfish.”

“Wow, I’m really sorry to hear that.” It’s sad that Charlie lost his scholarship, but even sadder that he seems to think he’s not worthy of a college education without swimming. “How did it happen? I mean, how did you get hurt?”

We keep walking and he doesn’t respond for a good minute. I start to think he didn’t hear me, but then he finally says, “A freak accident. I fell down some stairs and…”

He stops walking as he trails off. Then he turns to me, takes a deep breath, and starts over. “Actually, that’s not at all true. That’s just what I tell everyone. I was drunk at Owen’s house and he bet me I couldn’t jump off the roof into the pool and I clipped the edge and I’m an idiot.”