Meant to Be (The Saving Angels 1)

“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.