Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1)(70)
He didn’t miss a beat. “Why is she torn?”
“Because she thinks she’s falling for the guy.”
“Who wants to be a potato farmer.”
I laughed. “Yeah. You know, not everyone can be a Bollywood star.”
“Tree root.” Dev’s arms tightened around me and, before I could really trip, he half-lifted me over something that had caught on the toe of my Keds. He then continued like nothing had happened. “And I didn’t star. I was a background dancer. Which, by the way, still beats potato farmer.”
I tried to make a dismissive gesture with my free hand. “Whatever. You can keep telling yourself that.” I took a deep breath and the earthy-pine scented air steadied me. “You know what I love the most about this book?”
“What?”
“The author isn’t a musician, but she gets it. That magical feeling you have when you’re playing and everything falls together and you’re nothing but the music.”
He squeezed my shoulder and hand, but this time it wasn’t to get me around an obstacle. “That really is an awesome feeling. I love that someone else gets it.”
We walked silently for a minute, the campers fading away and it was just me and Dev walking through this pine-scented darkness. Just as I was about to say something, Mrs. Forrester’s voice broke through and shattered the spell. “Good job, guides. Blindfoldees, you can take off your blindfolds now.”
I reached up to slip off the blindfold. With the few lanterns surrounding the clearing, it was dark enough for my eyes to adjust almost immediately, focusing first on Dev and then shifting quickly to the moonlight reflections of the pines in the lake behind him.
“No trees, as promised,” he said, and I blinked back to his face.
“That must have been really hard for you,” I shot back teasingly. Dev let go of my arm and hand and suddenly, the night’s chill washed over me.
“Before we switch and finish the rest of the trip around the lake, we have a mini science experiment for all of you.” The campers groaned and Forrester waited until they quieted down before continuing. “Tonight, we’re going to learn about triboluminescence.”
“Cool,” Dev said under his breath.
I tilted my head at him and mouthed “Geek” before turning back to face Mrs. Forrester. That was a new addition from the trust walk when we were sixth graders.
“Triboluminescence is what causes things to spark when you crush them, releasing extra electrons. You’ll cover that in your science classes next year, but for now, we’re going to watch triboluminescence in action.”
Mr. Hamm started walking through us, handing out candies as he spoke. “All sugar-based candies triboluminesce when you bite into them, but the wintergreen flavoring makes for a very visible spark because it’s fluorescent.” He shook his head at one of the boys who was about to pop the candy in his mouth. “Don’t eat these until we tell you to, because you’ll need to watch your partner if you want to see chemistry in action.” He gave me and Dev each a little white mint and moved on until everyone had a piece of candy.
“Everyone have their mints?” At the nods from all of us, Forrester said, “We’re turning off the lanterns. I need you to face your partners and wait for my signal to bite down on the candy. This is going to be the only time that eating with your mouth open is acceptable, by the way.”
I turned slowly to face Dev and the words “chemistry in action” ran through my head again at the way his moonlit profile made me feel like I had a chemical reaction going on in my heart and lungs. His eyes locked with mine before his attention slipped to a spot closer to my ear. He reached out, his hand almost brushing my cheek, and I froze, like Maeve on Midwinter night. He pulled a pine needle out of my hair and twirled the needle between his fingers before letting it flutter to the ground. Dev seemed as breathless as me.
He has a girlfriend, the little voice in my head reminded me.
The last lantern clicked off, turning the clearing into a giant shadow. Some of the girls giggled and I heard a friendly scuffle behind me.
“Okay,” Mr. Hamm said, his voice effectively silencing the group. “On the count of three, bite into your mints. One,” I took the mint between my fingers and watched as Dev did the same with his. “Two.” I brought the mint up to my lips, seriously regretting turning down the lipgloss advice as Dev’s gaze dropped to my lips. “Three.” I watched as blue light sparked from Dev’s mouth and the cold around us disappeared as I watched his lips move. His hand accidentally brushed mine in the dark.
Sparks flew. Oh, hell, sparks flew.
43
There was nothing like sneaking out after breakfast and moving around a camp parking lot trying to get a signal on my cell phone to kill the magic left over from the trust walk. I squinted at the number of bars on my phone and sat on a stump at the edge of the lot.
“You’re breaking up again.” Em’s voice was static-y but her annoyance was clear.
I stood and watched the bars jump up. “Sorry. Camp Sundew hasn’t moved into the twenty-first century. Better?”
“Much. So, you were saying?” She switched to speakerphone on her end and the sound of her closet squeaking open came through the line.
“You were right. Kris was…” I searched for the right words, “not as wonderful as I thought he would be. It was like he only liked me because I matched some sort of checklist for him after Grace’s makeover.”