At First Sight by Catherine Hapka

Author:Catherine Hapka
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2010-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

Eleven

As I was standing there frozen with indecisiveness, Rachel turned and spotted me. She looked surprised, then waved. Giving Marcus a smack on the arm to alert him, she made her way toward me around the table.

“Hey,” I greeted the pair when they reached me.

“Hi, Lauren,” Rachel said. “I didn’t know you’d be here tonight.”

I smiled ruefully. “I didn’t either until my friend Britt talked me into coming.” Hearing Britt’s distinctive laugh during a brief break in the music, I glanced over my shoulder. I could see her through the archway. She was still back in the other room, tilting her head back to smile up at Tommo. “There she is. Over there with the tall blond guy.”

“You mean Tommo?” Marcus said. “How’d she get mixed up with that clown?”

“She met him on the field trip to the Smithsonian the other day.”

“Oh, you mean you were on that trip too?” Rachel made a face. “Wasn’t it a snooze?”

“Um, totally.” I couldn’t help being surprised for a moment. Didn’t she already know I’d been on that field trip? After all, that was where Riley and I had met… .

But she wouldn’t have any way of knowing that, I reminded myself. Not unless they talked about me after I left last night, maybe. Because all he told his friends while I was there was that I was his new music buddy—he didn’t say anything about me being Planetarium Girl. And as I’ve already figured out, he doesn’t seem to want to believe that himself, so why would he mention it? His friends probably assumed we just met at the concert.

“Have you seen Riley yet?” Rachel asked.

That yanked me immediately out of my own thoughts. “Um, no?” I said, my heart beating a little faster. “Is he here?”

“Marcus!” a girl shrieked, descending upon us like a banshee. She was grooving to the music, waving both arms over her head and shimmying her hips. “Come on, you gotta dance with me, baby!”

“How can I say no to a beautiful woman?” Marcus replied, immediately starting to wriggle his own hips as he allowed the girl to pull him off toward the other room.

As they disappeared into the mob on the dance floor, Rachel laughed and shook her head. “In case you haven’t noticed, Marcus is the life of the party,” she said.

“I noticed.” I returned her smile, but I wasn’t really thinking about Marcus. “Um, did you say Riley’s here?”

“Yeah, somewhere.” She cast a look around, then shrugged. “Haven’t seen him in a while, actually. He’s probably hiding out from the hordes of groupies that’ve been panting after him since he posted his little love quest on Facebook.”

It only took one look at her wildly rolling eyes to guess what she thought of the fake Planetarium Girls. “That quest of his,” I said hesitantly. “You know—for The One, or Planetarium Girl, or whatever …”

“‘Whatever’ being the operative word.” Her eyes were still rolling. “I can’t believe he’s serious about the whole thing. Especially after seeing some of the girls who’ve replied.

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