by Skye Genaro
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This story is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Introduction:
In Echo Across Time, Echo promises she'll give Becca a ride to McKyla's party, but when Echo doesn't show up, Becca goes without her. What choice does she have? Lucas is going to be there, and Becca is convinced this is the night they'll kiss for the first time. But as she gets closer to the big moment, boys she used to date are popping up everywhere, and her plans are nearly derailed.
*******
Echo and I are officially splitsville. She promised to pick me up for McKyla's party after she and Connor got back from one of their weird mystery dates, and now she's a no-show. She even went all out and gave me her I know I've let you down in the past and I seriously owe you! promises.
Now it's almost nine o'clock and I'm stuck at home without a ride. I tried to text her, of course. Four times.
You're coming, right?
My soulmate is waiting!
Where are you??!!
And when I knew she'd abandoned me:
Found a ride. You. Suck.
Echo didn't respond, not even once. How hard is it to stop sucking your boyfriend's face and shoot a text to your now-former BFF?
Enough about her. Tonight is all about McKyla's party. Not because I'm testing a new Wiccan love potion but because Lucas Mill is going to be there.
I cannot get enough of Lucas. All last week, he waited for me outside Advanced Biology, and we've been sitting next to each other in Civics. We've found out we're so much alike it's scary:
We both eat Dijon mustard on our French fries, never ketchup.
We both got the same questions wrong on our last Civics test, giving the same wrong answers.
We both had a lisp when we started kindergarten and went to the same speech therapist. (That's some serious serendipity, right there.)
We went to the same elementary school but never knew each other, even though our parents were friends at the time.
There's only one good reason for all these coincidences: Lucas Mill is my soulmate.
And tonight I am going to kiss him.
I found a ride to McKyla's with Allison Murray. She's one of my clients and I like her a lot, even though she never pays me outright. The last time I gave her a potion, she tried to barter for it by giving me the boots right off her feet. As if I wanted to wear secondhand boots, and what was she going to do, walk barefoot through school the rest of the day? She's a good chick, though, and I was happy for the ride.
McKyla's driveway is jammed by the time we get to her house, and Allison has to circle the block before we find a place to park. When we walk in the house, my eardrums start to throb. Sak Noel is roaring from the speakers, and I get psyched because Lucas loves Sak Noel. Meeting up with a guy for the first time always makes me feel heady, like anything could happen. Now I'm walking into the crowd, looking for my soulmate, listening to the perfect soundtrack.
McKyla's house is enormous—two stories plus a basement rec room—and is spread out like a maze. Kids are packed in as thick as a mosh pit and I silently curse myself for not wearing super tall heels. I'm so short, I can't see beyond the t-shirts right in front of me.
"I see Katie and Elaine. You want to come?" Allison shouts and waves toward her friends. Everyone has to scream at the top of their lungs just to hold a conversation.
"I'm supposed to meet someone," I say and take off into the crowd. I duck under flailing arms—somebody's idea of dancing—and head to the stairs leading to the second floor.
I stop halfway up. From up here, I can see over the crowd. Lucas should be easy to spot, not just because he's well over six feet tall, but because looking across the room is like looking down at one of those world maps, where each country is printed a different color. Except here the countries are cliques, each occupying their own sector, careful not to bleed across each others' borders.
The Emos hang together in band t-shirts, showing off their newest piercings, dancing slow and moody to the fast beat. Like they're being all contradictory or ironic or something. The football team huddles close enough to elbow-jab one another, but not so close to touch; that would be weird. The stoners move together as one mind, peeling away from the crowd, digging out glass pipes and lighting up before they get to the back door.
Looking out over all the kids and their people, and their people's people, all linked tight as a chain fence, I can't help but worry Lucas maybe decided not to come. Rumors would fly about how Becca Kendrick, the freaky Wiccan chick, had crashed the party and was spotted standing alone staring at the tops of everyone's heads.
A group of guys spills out of an adjacent room. There, in the sea of baseball caps, one stands a head taller than the rest. Dark hair sprouts out the back of his cap. Lucas's head pops up like he knows he's being watched. He sees me on the stairs and smiles, and something in my chest does a little fluttery dance.
Lucas weaves through the masses until he's on the other side of the banister. From my perch, I'm looking at the top of his cap. He has to tilt his head back to talk.
"Hulu has lice!" he shouts.
I shake my head. "What?"
He shouts the same, nonsensical words, and when it's clear I have no clue what he's trying to say, he does the sweetest thing. He cups his hand around the back of my neck and pulls me close so he's talking right into my ear. "You look nice."
"Thanks. You too."
My neck warms. I've never fully appreciated how gorgeous he is. He's a foot taller than me, but from up here, I see he's got this crescent-shaped smile, and his brown-black eyes sparkle. His lids are a deep color and something about them makes me melt.
******
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About the Author
Skye Genaro graduated college with a degree in microbiology and has a background in market research in the technology sector. She left that predictable and stable world behind and dove into a more adventurous life that includes rock climbing, whitewater rafting, foreign travel and writing fiction for a living. Skye lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband.
You can visit her online at http://skyegenaro.com/.
