I giggled again still tickled from the look he had on his face. “You should have seen the look on your face,” I said between my merriment.

“You are so beautiful when you laugh, your whole face lights up, it makes me happy just to see it,” he said as he stroked the side of my face with the back of his hand.

The laughter stuck in my throat as a new heat began to fill me. When he looked at me like that, I felt like the most special person in the world.

Chapter 11

Once Sam and Shawn came back from their walk, we decided to enjoy my newfound freedom and go out to dinner.

We picked a local pizza place downtown that Mark swore was the best around. Now that he was no longer working at my school, there was no reason we needed to avoid the restaurants around our school.

The pizza place was loud and crowded with students when we arrived. A hush seemed to fall on the place when we pushed through the doors. It ended quickly, as the gossip hounds turned away, trying to act like they weren’t staring.

I spied Matt in a corner booth with a bunch of his cronies. Mark spotted him at the same time, I had to swallow a laugh when he pulled me close and planted a sensual kiss on my lips, leaving no question that we were together.

Sam snickered beside me. She knew exactly what Mark was doing. Shawn looked a little confused, so we filled him after we claimed a table in the back. He slapped Mark appreciatively on the back as they got up to place our order at the old fashioned counter with swivel stools.

“You look so much better,” Sam said, studying me.

“I feel better, and now that I can do your breathing trick, I feel like I’m finally turning a corner.”

“I’m glad. We all need to be in tip top shape. I can’t shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen.”

The guys came back and I was happy for their intrusion. I was sick of worrying about all the doom and gloom. I just wanted to bask in the moment like any other teenager. Soon, we were all laughing at more of Shawn’s anecdotes and the conversation flowed lightly around our table. It was hard not to notice the envious stares directed at us from the gossip hounds, probably wondering how we had gotten so close and at ease with each other. Their conversations seemed superficial compared to the ones that our group was sharing.

The bell rang for our pizza and the guys went and grabbed it along with a pitcher of soda. The pizza was excellent. The cheese was melted a golden brown and oozed over the sides with each bite we took. I ate until I was filled to the brim. The guys ate us under the table; we teased them about how much pizza they had consumed.

“Hey we’re men. We need lots of food for our bodies,” Shawn said, sticking up for him and Mark.

Once we had our fill, Mark and Shawn told us about their trip.

“We think one of the couples is headed this way,” Mark said.

“Why do you think that?” Sam asked.

“Well, when we got to New Mexico, we were able to trace the girl to her adoptive parents. She was found at a gas station right outside of a small town. It was easy to track her after that. After she was found, she was adopted by a couple that was in their mid forties and had no other children.”

“We went to their house, but she was no longer there. We pieced together that they were afraid she had gone crazy and took off. Something about her meeting some guy that she claimed she had dreamt about her whole life. They didn’t believe her and tried to check her into the psych ward at the hospital. Her adoptive parents didn’t seem overly compassionate, and it was clear that they thought she was off her rocker. Once she discovered their plans, she took off with the guy. They seemed almost relieved that she was gone. They did say that she would probably head to California. She had always wanted to move here. She even had a map of California tacked over her bed. It’s the only thing she took when she left.”

The draw of Santa Cruz obviously had a power over all of us.

“What are their names?” Sam asked.

“Lynn and Robert,” Shawn answered.

“Did you get a picture of her?” I asked, curious about what they looked like. “Was the girl Mark’s long lost sister? Did she have his warm molasses colored eyes?”

“Unfortunately no, like we said, her parents weren’t the friendliest, as a matter of fact, I would say they were downright frigid.” Shawn said.

“Well, all we can do is wait,” Sam piped in. “After all, we wound up here, so if their half as smart as us, they will too.”

We decided to hang out at my house once we left the pizza parlor. Sam and I wanted to go to our park, but the boys vetoed that. “It was just this morning that both of you were deathly ill. Just because Shawn and I have prince like reviving kisses, doesn’t mean you two shouldn’t take it easy,” Mark said glibly.

He didn’t fool us, something was going on. We let it rest though until we were all comfortably situated in my sitting room with bowls of ice cream.

“Okay, out with it. In case you forgot, Krista and I can practically read the emotions of anyone, and we can definitely tell when we’re being lied to,” Sam said.

Shawn looked at Mark, who shrugged his shoulders. “We may as well tell them, they need to be on the lookout anyway,” Mark said.

“We noticed on the way to the airport before we left, that someone was following us. We tried to pull over a couple of times to get a look at the driver, but every time we did, the car would speed by us. Neither one of us got a good enough look, but we could tell that it was a guy. It just doesn’t seem like a good idea to be walking around a park at night,” Mark explained.

“Who do you think it is?” Sam asked intrigued.

“We don’t know, like I said, we couldn’t get a good look at the driver,” Mark answered.

“Are you sure it wasn’t your imagination?” I asked. “We were pretty stressed out after my mom freaked out on us.”

“Maybe, I just think we should all be a little more cautious for the next few days,” Mark answered.

“Hey, let’s change the subject. I don’t want to ruin the good mood. Why don’t we play a game?” Shawn suggested.

We agreed we didn’t want to ruin the mood, just when things seemed to be normal again. We pushed it to the side and decided to ignore it for at least the night.

I got up and turned on some music and got out our monopoly game.

The mood began to lighten up again as Sam kept us laughing at her usual antics. She took the game lightly and thought it was funny every time she landed in jail. She was generous with her money and kept giving it away. When one of us would buy a property that was the same color as hers, she would give us hers. Shawn kept telling her she had the game backwards.

“You’re supposed to accumulate property not give it away,” he would tell her every time she gave one away. She laughed and told him that was the way she played the game.

We finally gave up on the game when Sam ran out of assets and money. I put the game away, and we lounged around chatting until my mom came up to tell us it was bedtime.

Sam and I grudgingly walked the guys down to the porch and said our goodbyes; we weren’t looking forward to the separation. I felt a little panicked that my emotional health would regress again, once Mark wasn’t with me. Sensing my unease, he gave me a searing kiss before he left.

“I will see you in the morning,” he said quietly, not bothering to mention that we probably wouldn’t see each other in our dreams tonight.

I didn’t try to hide my despair. I could control the emotions, but I was still sad over my loss.

Now that Mark was unemployed, he and Shawn were going to continue their research, trying to locate the others. Shawn had given the Boardwalk his notice; we all felt for the time being that our time should be dedicated to the search. Mark told Shawn he could crash at his house and save money that way. They planned on spending part of their morning watching the Boardwalk on the off chance that Lynn and Robert were there.

Sam and I talked long into the night. Not about the disturbing stuff, like the strange guy that might be stalking us, or the twist my dreams had taken, but about the love stuff. We joked about my talk with my mom, and Sam died laughing as I told her the trick I played on Mark. Sam then filled me in on how her walk went with Shawn.

“We talked about marriage,” she confessed.

“You did?” I asked surprised.

“After the way the separation made us feel, we decided we never want to go through that ever again. He didn’t officially ask. We just talked about it. You know how it is, we made comments like, ‘when we get married we’ll do such and such thing.’ Don’t you and Mark do the same thing?” Sam asked.

I thought about it. I did assume that we would eventually get married; we just hadn’t talked about it yet. It all seemed so sudden. It was funny to think about how fast things were moving. A week and half ago, I had no friends and no boyfriend. Now, I had the very best friend, and I had thoughts of marriage swirling around in my head. I shook my head at the irony of it all.

True to his word, Mark and Shawn were on my doorstop thirty minutes before school started the next morning. I threw myself in Mark’s arms the instant I swung the front door open. I felt no shame for my exuberant reaction when he crushed me to him. The loss of our dreams seemed more pungent this morning. We gave no notice when Sam and Shawn gave us privacy and headed for Mark’s Navigator.

“I missed you so much,” I murmured into his neck.

“Me too,” he said, leaning in to kiss my lips one last time. I wound my arms around his neck and deepened the kiss. I couldn’t tell if the ache that filled me was a normal teenager hormonal ache, or just another side effect of the loss of our dreams.

“I better drive you to school before you’re late,” he said, ending the kiss.

I sighed in disappointment.

I yelled good-bye to my mom who was already in her art studio.

The guys filled us in on their plans for the day on the short drive to school. The plan was for them to hang out at the Boardwalk for a while on the off chance that Lynn and Robert showed up. We knew it was unlikely, but we hoped they would run into the other two. After that, they planned on spending the rest of their time on the internet searching for clues on the last two.

Sam and I were envious that the guys would be doing something productive while we were stuck at school. We were tempted to skip, but knew my mom would freak if she found out. We were going to have to toe the line for awhile if we hoped to stay out of trouble.

The guys promised to be back as soon as school let out and then we would all head back to the Boardwalk before it turned dark and continue our mock stakeout.

Sam and I were both quick to notice that once again we seemed to be the center of attention. Obviously, our pizza appearance the night before had given the gossip hounds new meat to gnaw on.

“Looks like you two are quite popular this morning,” Shawn commented wryly.

“I think you should give them something to talk about,” Sam said.

“You mean like this?” I said, suddenly feeling mischievous; I looped my arms around Mark’s neck and planted my lips on his.

I meant it as a joke, but once I started kissing him, my lighthearted mood disappeared and I was lost in the kiss. After twelve hours apart, my body craved his touch. Finally, just a little breathless, I broke the kiss.

“That’ll show them,” Shawn said, chuckling. Sam joined in.

“I guess I went a little overboard,” I said, just a little bit embarrassed. God, when had I become so brave?

“It was just right,” Mark said, dropping another light kiss on my lips.

Shawn and Sam said their goodbyes. They tried to outdo our kiss, but Sam was attacked by a case of the giggles, which ruined the effect.

Sam and I were still giggling when we headed up the stairs toward our homeroom class. We found our seats and were chatting away as the room began to fill. We both felt lighthearted and were in high spirits.

“Are you feeling better?” a voice asked from behind us.

Looking up, we were surprised to see that one of the gossip hounds was actually talking to us.

“Much,” Sam replied, turning away thinking the conversation was over.

“That was a cute guy you were with last night. Have you known him long?” she asked nonchalantly.

Of course, she was only talking to us because she had seen us out with the guys. She was trying to fish for information that she could pass along to all her cronies. They were all the same; they were only interested in getting all the dirt.

“My whole life,” Sam quipped, dismissing the girl by turning back to me.

She stood behind us for a few seconds more. I could tell she was shocked that we hadn’t bowed down because she had shown us some attention. She walked off in a huff. Sam let out a snort of laughter as we watched her retreating back.

It was much the same the whole day. Everyone was suddenly interested in Sam and me. More people talked to me that day than all the other days I had been at school put together. The only one who had nothing to say was Matt, though I caught him watching me throughout the day.

The attention of all the other students got old fast and I regretted going to the pizza place the night before. For someone who preferred to fade in the background, I felt like I had a spotlight pointed at me the entire day.

Finally, the last bell of the day rang; Sam and I exchanged a look of relief. The stares had sapped all the cheerfulness out of Sam’s normal demeanor.

“I feel like I’ve been in a fish bowl the whole day,” she said, sounding annoyed.

I agreed with her. I hoped that this new popularity would wear off soon. I didn’t know how many more days I could put up with all the attention and mocking glances.

Mark and Shawn were waiting for us on the front stairs. Their day hadn’t gone the way they had planned either. They had lost track of time at the Boardwalk.

“So, we didn’t get any research done,” Mark explained to us apologetically.

“How did you lose track of time at the Boardwalk?” I asked curious.

They looked sheepish. “Um, you lose track of time when you go into the arcade and blow through fifty bucks worth of change,” Shawn muttered.

“Oh, so you get to go play games all day while were in school?” Sam said in mock anger.

They stumbled over themselves to come up with excuses. “We would have left sooner, but Shawn kept challenging me to rematches of Galaga,” Mark said, trying to defend himself.

We burst out laughing. “I was just kidding,” Sam said. “We don’t expect you to be working all the time.”

“What a way to sell me out though,” Shawn said, throwing a fake punch at Mark.