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He glanced over his shoulder at Noelle, who was giving us a no-nonsense stare from above. "Unless we want to die a slow death at the hands of Noelle Lange," Upton said.
I giggled. "I'll be right there!" I shouted to her.
She rolled her eyes, groaned, and went back inside. Upton smiled down at me, his arms draped around my waist. "So, this is goodbye?"
"Good-bye for now," I clarified.
"All right then." He reached up and cupped one hand around the back of my neck, his thumb caressing the supersensitive skin below my ear. Shiver city. "Good-bye for now, Reed Brennan."
Then he kissed me and kissed me and kissed me, until our feet had sunk into the wet sand, and my lips went from tingling to numb, and I had memorized exactly how perfect I felt in his arms.
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THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ
I stared out the window as the private jet lifted from the ground, tugging us smoothly into the clear blue sky. The island dropped away beneath me, and I felt the weight of everything that had happened there falling away with it. A new year, a fresh start. That was what Mr. Lange had said. I was definitely down with that.
"Some vacation, huh? " Noelle said, leaning her head back against the leather seat.
We were sitting across from each other, the only passengers on the plane aside from her mother, who was seated near the back with a sleeping mask covering her eyes. Tiffany and Amberly had left earlier that morning, so this time we had the comfy jet all to ourselves.
"It was definitely exciting," I said wryly.
"Putting a positive spin on things," Noelle said with a smile. "I like it."
My iPhone beeped and I lifted it from my lap. Upton had been
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texting me ever since I left him on the beach that morning, with funny little updates on what he was doing. This one read, simply:
Up and away. U?
I quickly texted back.
Me too.
"God. Who knew Upton
could be so clingy?" Noelle joked.
"It's not clingy. It's cute," I replied. The phone beeped again.
Damn. UR getting further away. I can feel it.
My grin widened. I texted back.
Toughen up or its gonna b a long 2 months!
I hit send, then silenced my phone, tucking it back into my bag. When Upton and I had kissed good-bye on the beach, I had told myself that it was our last kiss. That I had to go back to Easton and live my life as if Upton and I had never happened. That was how I had decided it should be. Besides, Upton had always been a player. Whatever we had been through together, no matter how much he swore he wanted to keep in touch, I had to be realistic. I knew there was a good chance he was going to forget all about me the second I walked away.
But apparently that was not the case. And it felt nice.
"So, your parents are meetingyou in New York?" Noelle asked.
"And my brother, Scott," I said, a thrill of anticipation running through me at the thought of actually being with my entire family at the same time. I only had one day before I had to be back at Easton for second term--not enough time to go all the way back to Pennsylvania. So my family had decided to drive out to New York, and Mr. Lange had offered to put them up in a hotel for a couple of nights so we could all