young-adult-fiction

Oh my God, cheese burn!

I knew that Jessie and I were going to be okay; I knew we were all going to be okay. And I had faith that wherever our individual paths led us would be exactly where we were always meant to be. For a girl that had never believed in anything, this realization meant everything.

He__ promised her forever, but now that there was another option, would he want to take it? He__ said not, but Bessina had butterflies taking up residence in her stomach at the thought. She had to know for sure.

The little being also contributed to the amazing glow ricocheting from sprawling fronds to soaring trees to fallen leaves as its creativity advanced in a display of twirls and spins that astonished the boys. And they followed their little friend further and further into the forest.

I took care of the next guy in line while I checked out the girl who was boxing up a pecan pie and decorating it with some sort of fancy ribbon. Watching her wouldn__ be a hardship. She made the retro waitress uniform look good. If she looked as good from the front as she did from the back, maybe I would ask her out.She turned around and handed the box to the customer at the counter and my world turned sideways. It was Delia. My little sister__ annoying best friend. The girl who was practically a member of my family. When had she become hot? I blinked, hoping maybe I__ seen wrong. Nope. Same blonde hair with hot pink stripes, which I__ always thought was stupid. Now, wearing the Pie Princess tiara and some sort of glittery lip gloss she looked wild and kind of sexy. And that was just wrong.

I am the shadow of the flame.

I didn't care, because I loved him, and that was the end of every argument and the beginning of every promise.

If I could have looked into the future to see what I would have become, I wouldn't have become the person I was always meant to be. ~ lw

Are we talking hell hounds and flames here?" Des asked, pacing at the end of our beds.I repeated the question and gave a heaving sigh of relief when Jameson said I had the wrong idea."He's going to 'lead us into temptation.'""That doesn't sound so bad," Des said with a cheeky grin.

Too long, much too long.

My mom believed that you make your own luck. Over the stove she had hung these old, maroon painted letters that spell out, __ANIFEST._ The idea being if you thought and dreamed about the way you wanted your life to be -- if you just envisioned it long enough, it would come into being.But as hard as I had manifested Astrid Heyman with her hand in mine, her blue eyes gazing into mine, her lips whispering something wild and funny and outrageous in my ear, she had remained totally unaware of my existence. Truly, to even dream of dreaming about Astrid, for a guy like me, in my relatively low position on the social ladder of Cheyenne Mountain High, was idiotic. And with her a senior and me a junior? Forget it. Astrid was just lit up with beauty: shining blonde ringlets, June sky blue eyes, slightly furrowed brow, always biting back a smile, champion diver on the swim team. Olympic level. Hell, Astrid was Olympic level in every possible way.

Why don't you check out those teenagers in the middle row? They've been going at it like dogs in heat ever since the previews. They're probably both werewolves. And even if they aren't, you should throw them out on principle alone.

The voice blurs and fades, like a faint cry riding on the tails of the wind. I yawn and stretch, rolling over. I fold my pillow under my head and wait for the voice to return. When I hear nothing but the sound of my own breathing I allow myself to drift back into a dreamless slumber.

Enough with the sadness! This dream is not for cry-babies..._ he said, his face beaming with a wide smile.

He grinned, a very dark and evil grin_ the kind of grin that the Grinch had before he stole Christmas.

A quick thought shot through my mind. Could I really drown in a dream? I remembered the movie the Matrix. If you died in the matrix, you died in real life. I wasn__ about to take a chance...

He stood frozen, staring at me as if he didn__ know how to do anything else. I couldn__ focus; it was like all the world__ blue had originated from his eyes. It was all there, the color of midnight, the sky, the ocean, and blue raspberry lollipops. Why had I spent so much time pretending they weren__ remarkable?

We stand there for a moment, staring at each other, savoring it. And then all at once, we slam together. Mia's legs are off the ground, wrapped around my waist, her hands dipping in my hair, my hands tangled in hers. And our lips. There isn't enough skin, enough spit, enough time, for the lost years that our lips are trying to make up for as they find each other. We kiss. The electric current switches to high. The lights throughout all of Brooklyn must be surging.