Airel.

So now we were sitting. James and I were looking at each other like caged animals. Kim and Michael chatted it up like old grade school friends. My heart was beating faster than I thought possible and I tried not to think about the guy who sat a few feet from me. I could see his eyes sparkle as he talked.

The way he held his gla.s.s of water... every movement was flawless, like he was some bil ionaire"s son who spent hours learning how to hold and drink from a gla.s.s in the most perfect way. But there was more to him... something fine and sinewy and cat-like. I had to look away and try not to breathe hard.

Looking at him was like drinking from some forbidden pool and I could not get enough, ever.

"So, Ariel." He said my name! I tried to look as calm as I could, but I responded clumsily. "What are you and Kim up to today?" He gazed into my eyes, and for a second I felt like I knew him or that maybe he knew me. It was so weird how he seemed so familiar.

Don"t just sit there, answer him! "We"re going to the mal and then we thought we might go see a movie." I was amazed. I talked like a normal girl, no hint of a stutter or of my voice cracking. Yay. I even sounded calm and col ected. "What about you guys? What brings you to our favorite cafe?"

"Wel , James here offered to show me around. My dad and his dad know each other from high school. I used to play with this guy when we were like four." He smiled at James, who was loosening up, or so it seemed.

"Yeah, we even got my sister to eat mud after we convinced her that it was chocolate!" James smiled and hit the table as he laughed, making the forks and knives clink a little. He was shorter than Michael and had dark wavy hair. He glanced at Kim every now and then to see if she was stil staring at him.

She was.

Kim was not shy. She was not subtle, sensitive, or secretive. She didn"t play games because she wasn"t sure of herself-no, she played games on her terms, for fun. She liked James and she would not hide it, even if she could have. "You should so come with us! We could use your opinions as guys. It"l be fun. We"l show you around." Kim"s big, fat mouth. I could have kil ed her. I wasn"t just terrified to the bone... I prayed fervently that they would decline her offer. What had happened to girl time? Besides, what guys wanted to hang out with a couple of girls as they went shopping?

Michael smiled and looked at James. I was relieved to see on James" face a hint of the same horror I was feeling. Michael took a sip from his gla.s.s and grinned crookedly. I began to melt, but recovered quickly.

"That could be cool. We wouldn"t mind, right, James?" he elbowed his friend, the quarterback. "James here isn"t much for conversation and he drives even worse. It would be nice to hang with somebody interesting." James half-smiled and looked over his shoulder for the escape hatch.

I hear ya buddy. I"m looking for it too. I had to interject. "That is," I said a little too eagerly, "unless you already have plans. Ya know, like, I don"t know, playing... catch, or... something." I trailed off, yet again.

Michael Alexander, brutal y handsome, answered my plea with a rejection: "No plans."

"Cool!" said Kim, sealing my fate for the day.

Chapter VI.

We pul ed into the mal parking lot, cruising for a parking s.p.a.ce. I hated walking half a mile just to get to the doors. Michael and James fol owed us and I saw his big white Chevy disappear from my rearview mirror. I figured Michael had just pitched it into the first open spot or even took up like four s.p.a.ces way out in the middle of nowhere just so his baby wouldn"t get dented or whatever. Typical guy.

"I can"t believe you just invited them like that. And you think it"s funny! Sure, laugh it up," I said through gritted teeth.

"Airel, they are like the hottest guys in school." She busted out the baby talk: "Come on, lighten up!"

I real y, truly, and honestly wanted to harm her right then and there, but I knew I had to drop it or the teasing would only get worse. She"d start in on how short I was soon enough, so I brought up James. Yeah that worked wel . She began talking without breathing. James, James, James.

They had built the Boise Towne Square Mal in stages over the last twenty years, with the last renovation finishing up not too long ago. It had a much cooler entrywaynew towers, skylights, and al the old-looking wooden handrails had been replaced by sleek metal and gla.s.s. It felt like we final y had a mal I didn"t need to be embarra.s.sed by.

By the time we found our s.p.a.ce and parked, the guys had walked up to my car. Kim was rattling on and on about James" ma.s.sively gorgeous arms.

Michael opened my door for me, scaring me nearly half to death. The poor guy was just trying to be a gentleman, but here I was, nearly blasting him with the pepper spray keychain my dad had forced me to carry around with me.

Kim was in ful -on flirt mode now, talking at-not with-James.

Michael was making me nervous, walking by my side as we headed toward the front entrance. James and Kim lagged behind a few feet.We went to the new Borders bookstore-my favorite place. I loved to sit there by the window, sipping a coconut latte, reading a good book. I preferred a good thril er, and liked to take a weeknight every once in a while just to be by myself.

"So... how long have you lived here?" Michael looked down at me with his big, beautiful eyes. I kept it together and decided that I should make the best of the situation. What choice did I have anyway? Kim had planned out our day now. Michael, clueless to her wily ways, was al agreeable to it.

So I dove in. "I pretty much grew up here. I guess I like it wel enough, but I haven"t real y lived anywhere else." I pul ed on a strand of hair as I talked. I was very aware that I was doing it and that I only did it when I was nervous. I hated knowing my own habits while being total y unable to stop them.

"Cool. I moved around a lot. My dad"s job takes him al over the country. I hope we stay here for a while." Michael spoke smoothly and he didn"t seem uncomfortable or out of his element at al . The thought of him not living here, possibly moving away, sent a shock through me. Why should I care? I only just met the guy and ever since, he has made me sick-literally! Ah, but he was gorgeous.

"What does your dad do?" I couldn"t emotional y afford to get attached to someone who might move in a year. Who am I kidding? The chances are slim that he would even remotely think about me as anything other than a friend. He was angelic, and I was-wel , average. One thing I knew was that a guy fel in love with what he saw. This guy could have anyone he wanted, plus he was good looking and kind-the whole package. Yet somewhere below the surface was fire. It kind of scared me, but not in a bad way.

"He"s a private investigator. He handles high-profile cases, so he"s out of town a lot. You remember the kidnapping last year? The Smithson"s? They had a six year old daughter who was taken. He found her after the feds gave up."

"Wow-that must be a cool and bad job, al in one. I think I remember that story on the news." I kept making smal talk. I found out his mother died of cancer when he was a baby. His dad never remarried and the two of them were close. He had lived in Oklahoma, California, Texas, New York, Chicago...

and that was the short list. So far, he said, Boise was the nicest town he had ever lived in.

"The streets are so clean and the buildings are al new. When we were in Oklahoma City, it was like a dump. Dirty rivers and everyone honks their horn when they drive. Chicago"s al right, but it"s dirty too, and then there"s al the gangs and crime. You can"t drive down some of those streets-it"s just not safe. Everything here in the west is much different, much better." His eyes lit up as he talked, looking at me. I thought that he might be good at making friends just because he always had to make them every time they moved. Different schools, towns, and cities, and having to adapt to it, probably made it easy for him to make friends.

We walked around the mal and I went into American Eagle to look for a new top. I didn"t notice that Kim had dragged James into Vanity. I did, however, notice every time Michael said my name. He would hold up a t-shirt and say, "Airel, this would look great with your eyes... Airel, this is way cool... Airel...

Airel."

My head was swimming. Every time he said my name, a smal shiver ran its way up my spine. Before I knew it, I was smiling, laughing, and for some reason, completely comfortable around him. He had a way of making me feel like I was the only person in the world. We ditched Kim and James. I sent her a text to let her know we were hungry. After an hour and no reply, Michael and I went up to the food court. I had a craving for Panda Express and their orange chicken... yum.

Michael didn"t care for it, but went to the Great Steak and Potato Company and got a prime rib sandwich. I liked that he didn"t just get what I got to be polite or act like we had so much in common. I liked Dr. Pepper and he liked orange soda. I know, orange? What was he-a kid?

He looked intently at me, very seriously, and said, "Airel, you are the strangest girl I"ve ever met." I stopped chewing and looked up at him. I hated, seriously hated the idea of some boy just staring at me. That kind of thing just creeped me out. But this was not just any boy or any guy. This was Michael Alexander. For some reason, he was looking at me, almost worshipful y-except, since it was him, I didn"t mind so much.

Was I about to let him off the hook? Not a chance. "What, did I take too big a bite or something?" He was laughing, which didn"t exactly put my wandering mind at ease. "You never saw a girl eat before?" He just sat and laughed, which settled down comfortably into a smile that was just like my favorite book. He"s totally flirting with me. And I liked it. He was funny and could hold a conversation. Most boys my age were boring and couldn"t hold a conversation beyond sports or cars.

When Michael laughed, it was wonderful. It rang out across the food court, striking the heart of every woman and girl within earshot. His strong jaw made him seem so much older, yet stil so young. It was an interesting combination. I could feel myself start to giggle, then he looked at me again and I had a revelation. That was it! It was his eyes! In them was his open soul. He did not waver, didn"t blink. He just held my gaze and locked me in. I wanted to look away, but I couldn"t. His eyes, blue and calm, like a morning after a terrible storm.

"No, you"re not like other girls I"ve known. I mean, you"re sure of yourself, confident... without being a sn.o.b. And... I think you have absolutely no idea...

how beautiful you are." If anyone else would have said that to me, I would have laughed in his face. It would have been cheesy, dumb, overkil . But when he said it, when I saw the look in his eyes-I knew that it wasn"t just some dumb line, it was what he believed.

He thought I was beautiful.

Chapter VII.

Okay, I was impressed. Or maybe I was weirded out that Michael spent over four hours shopping with me.

Kim and James were off somewhere together. I was sure he was going to kil Michael later for leaving him with her. And if Michael was just putting on a good face to make me think he was having a decent time, he was doing a good job.

I got a text from Kim saying that they were ready to go and if I was up to it, James wanted to see a movie. Shocker. He was having fun. One thing about Kim, if you were around her long enough, she was like a drug... very addicting. Poor James was getting an overdose and after today, he would be a hopeless case.

"I think your friend has a thing for James," Michael said under his breath as we walked out of the mal and into the late afternoon sun.

It was shaping up to be a nice day, with a few lumbering, puffy, clouds just hanging around like ancient G.o.ds.

"You think? She"s liked him ever since she first saw him. But she"s not a cheerleader and he"s the star quarterback. I think if it wasn"t for you dragging him along today, he wouldn"t have ever looked twice at her. It"s funny how things happen." I saw a hint of something in Michael"s eyes. Was it anger? No.

Frustration?

"He"s a good guy. He"s not like you would think... not the usual jock." His blue eyes looked down as if he was losing himself in a nearly forgotten memory that was now rising to the surface. "But yeah, Kim is cool. A little gabby." He gave me a playful glance. "But overal -cool."

I laughed and said, "That"s why I love her. She"s her own person. Not like the lifeless drones dragging their black skinny jeans and chains al over school. Nothing says, "I"m my own person," like dressing al alike, thinking just because you"re weird you"re an individual."

"Whoa, easy!" Michael held up both hands in surrender.

Oops, too deep. I had a bad habit of over-thinking things. My dad said I was an old soul. Judging from experience, it was not exactly a good way to keep a guy. Most guys wanted to think they were the smart one in the relationship. I was never one to hold back just because the underdeveloped guy couldn"t hang. I had driven away more than one potential boyfriend that way and I cringed. Hold the phone. Relationship? So we spend a day with the guy and you"re thinking relationship? Stop it Airel. Over-thinking...

"Sorry, I just get worked up about stuff. I do have my own thoughts and ideas, but in this world that is kind of a turn-off for most guys."

Michael was silent as I unlocked the car door. He was different in a good way. I mean, a real y good way-but nothing seemed to faze or shock him. I bet I could go into talking about the meaning of fear and the hold it has on our society. Oh yeah, that"s totally hot... guys dig that. I could talk about how the media plays on our fear to keep us in line and he would respond with the idea that not everyone could be control ed. Ha, ha. Yeah. Then I could maybe throw in how there is stil a silent majority that would not hold their peace for much longer. And then we"d be talkin", baby... about nothing.

But al of a sudden he broke the silence, picking up the thread I had clumsily dropped on him. "No, you"re right. I cal them robots-al trying to be different by being exactly whatever their master made them do. Like a col ective consciousness." He smiled and looked into my eyes. In that moment, I total y forgot what we had been talking about. I even forgot where I was. "So what do you want to see?"

"Uh-what?" Great, I"m stuttering like an idiot. "Oh. The movie?" Yeah, duhhh...

"Yeah, what did you want to see?" He had a smal smile on his face as he moved closer to me, into the gap between my open door and the car.

"Hey, Airel!" Kim hol ered as she ran toward the car with James in tow. "You aren"t going to believe the deal I got. They had a buy one get the second one half off! I mean, I only needed one, but you have to get the second one if it"s half price... I mean, come on!" I breathed a deep sigh of relief that she showed up right then. Things were moving pretty quickly.

"So James, you"re stil alive." Michael shot a smile toward James, who just nodded. Kim told us al about the deals and the food and everything else that she had seen and experienced. James even seemed to be enjoying himself. He wasn"t much of a talker, which was fine with Kim.

"Okay, what are we seeing? Are we in the mood for scary, funny, or a boy movie?" I looked at Kim.

"Boy movie? What"s a boy movie?" Michael asked, tossing the keys to his truck to James. Clearly, he intended to ride with me.

"Glad you asked. It"s an action shoot-em-up with pointless gore and violence. Guys like it because it makes them feel like the dominant male they al wish they could be." I smiled and looked at him and shoved my hands in my back pockets.

Michael didn"t even hesitate. "Or, we could see a girl movie. In case you were wondering, that"s a movie with a sappy love story where two people hate each other, fal in love, then one betrays the other-in most cases the guy is the jerk-then they have fifteen minutes of sad time where they reflect on their relationship. Then they get back together in the end. Girls like it because it makes them feel like there"s a dream man out there for them, and one day they"l fal in love just to be disappointed to find that in reality there is no perfect guy. But who wants to think about that?" Michael smirked with chal enging playfulness.

There was a lengthy silence as we al looked at each other.

"Comedy!" James and Kim said in unison.

I laughed, and for the tenth time today I actual y felt good. It was nice to be with friends, old and new.

Chapter VIII.

We made it to the theater before anything disastrous could happen. After I parked, Michael opened my door for me, and on the way to the ticket booth, he grabbed my hand and held it, and would not let go. I was glad, but terrified. On one side of this shiny new coin, he was not shy about his affection for me, and didn"t feel like he needed to ask permission for anything. On the other side, what the heck was he doing holding my hand without asking permission?

We bought our tickets and went in to the theater, but not before Kim and I had a conference in the bathroom to compare notes. She insisted on digging for al the dirt on me and Michael from the five minute trip over to the theater and dished me al the dirt that I didn"t real y want to know about her and James.

"Guess what? Guess who his favorite band is? Just guess!" She was giddy. It was cute. They were both crazy about the exact same music. We walked out holding hands and giggling. Luckily, that discouraged any more handholding by Michael as we found our seats. But, of course, I let him sit next to me. I couldn"t be rude. Besides, I wanted to sit by him.

Darkness fil ed the movie theater as the previews started rol ing. It was girl, girl, boy, boy, Kim on my left, Michael on my right and James next to Michael. Kim didn"t seem to mind or maybe she just didn"t care. Michael was making jokes about the different movies that were coming out and leaned over, whispering in my ear, "Do you want anything? Popcorn or a drink?"

Just the sound of his voice in my ear made the hair on my arms stand up again. Not to mention the goose b.u.mps. "Sure. Diet Pepsi and popcorn.

Thanks, Michael."

"No problem." He slipped out and James fol owed..

"They went for a junk food run," I whispered to Kim "Good, I"m starved." Then she changed gears again, almost giving me whiplash. "So. I see you and Michael are getting friendly..." She had a glint of sarcasm in her voice.

"He"s nice, but he"s a little out of my league, if you know what I mean." I didn"t dare even think about anything more with Michael other than friendship...

even with the handholding. It could have been a fluke. Or maybe I"m being neurotic.

If there"s one thing I"d learned about guys, it was that they can hurt. I was going to be as cautious as possible about al of this. Michael was friendly with everyone, anyway, and I had no reason to believe he was seriously considering me as one of his many, many options.

"Come on, he likes you. Anyone can see that. Don"t worry about anything, just leave it to me." I gave her that don"t even think about it look and hit her in the arm. "Ow, so mean!"

"Ha! You deserved it. Now don"t try anything or I"l tel James you"re a stalker."

"So? I am." Kim laughed, adjusting her purse. She flipped out her phone and left a movie theater check-in on Facebook, moving quickly on to Twitter. I guess a girl"s got to stay in touch with her peeps, but Kim was a little overboard. I was on Facebook too, but that was only because Kim had set it up for me. If I didn"t get on it often enough, she would hack in and post stuff on my behalf-just another reason why I could never lose her.

Michael came back up the stairs and slid in next to me. He handed me a large soda and smiled. "Big enough for ya?"

"Yeah, ya think? Holy BUCKET." I giggled like an idiot and turned my face away . What was this guy doing to me? "Where"s James?"

"He had to go to the bathroom. He should be back soon. Unless he"s running scared from ... ahem..." He pointed with his thumb over to Kim who was busy checking her reflection on her phone.

"Ha, she would find him," I whispered in his ear. I could smel his shampoo and feel the warmth of his skin next to mine. His arm brushed mine and I almost embarra.s.sed myself by screaming. It probably would have come out real y weak, given the heart palpitations I was having to deal with.

James came back a few minutes later and took a handful of popcorn. Sheesh, help yourself, pal. The movie started and I scrunched down in my seat, wondering what I was doing. Was I a glutton for pain? Did I just like to have my heart broken? Just the thought of...