My "romantic life" consisted of watching cheesy teen soaps and sneaking the occasional drugstore romance novel, but wasn't the kind of thing I wanted to share.
And I definitely wasn't telling him that I'd never kissed anyone anywhere before. "Lots," I told him, going for breezy. "There was a secret tunnel connecting my school to the boys' school down the road. So it was all underground making out all the time."
"I knew it," he said, making me laugh. "So these boys you were sneaking off to meet in tunnels. Was there a...special one?"
Since there hadn't actually been any boy, much less a special one, I wasn't sure what to say. Finally I settled on, "I didn't have a boyfriend, if that's what you're asking."
"I was trying not to be that tacky about it, but yes, I was asking if you had...or if you have a boyfriend."
My heart was pounding fast now. This time I couldn't tell myself he was being friendly, or that this was "just Dex." Boys don't ask if you have a boyfriend unless they are interested in you.
And then something else occurred to me. I could tell him I did. Invent some long-distance guy, someone I e-mailed and Skyped with. And that would be that. Dex and I could be friends, nothing more. He might feel a little disappointed, and maybe he'd pull back a little.
Just the thought of that hurt. I hadn't known Dex very long, but I liked him. Genuinely. Hanging out with Romy was fun, but it wasn't the same as the time I spent with Dex.
I'd been quiet too long. "So that's a yes, then?" he asked, his voice every bit as light as mine had been moments ago. But I heard the hurt creeping around the edges.
Tell him yes. Tell him yes.
Turning around, I let the beam of my flashlight fall on the floor. "No. I don't have a boyfriend."
I thought I'd seen every one of Dex's smiles. The goofy one, the ironic one, the delighted one. But the grin that broke across his face was a whole new specimen: the sexy one.
"Oh, thank God," he breathed, and then he was crossing the cave and pulling me to him.
CHAPTER 26
Dex was taller than me, and as he pressed me against him, he actually hauled me up on my tiptoes. His arm was around my waist, his other hand plunged into my hair, and he was kissing me. I mean, really, really kissing me.
I was kissing him back. And I was good at it.
I didn't know if it was the spell, or if I was some kind of kissing prodigy. Everything I'd worried about-weird head movements, awkward lip placement, the Spit Dilemma-none of it was an issue. Dex and I kissed like we'd been doing it forever. That buzz I felt every time I touched him was still there, but now it was wrapped up in all these other feelings, feelings that seemed a lot more potent than any magic.
My fingers curled against his shoulders, the material of his jacket as soft as it had looked, and I shivered.
When we finally broke apart, his eyes were bluer than normal. He seemed dazed-and I wasn't feeling particularly clearheaded either. "Izzy," he murmured.
I pulled back. "It's a spell."
Dex blinked twice, shaking his head. "What?"
I was still trying to catch my breath. Trying to keep myself from jumping back into his arms. "This place. It's got some kind of love spell thing happening. That's the only reason we...we, uh..."
I was moving back toward him, my hands already itching to grab his lapels. One of his fingers curled around my belt loop, pulling me in, but before our lips could meet again, I slammed both of my palms against his chest. "You don't really want to kiss me," I blurted out.
"I...I'm sorry, what?"
Stepping back, I crossed my arms. "This cave. Someone did a love spell here. That's what all this-" I went to point to his hand, but it was empty now. Somewhere in the middle of...everything, Dex had dropped the heart charm. Clearing my throat, I rushed on. "Anyway, love spells are, like, crazy powerful. They can...seep into places. Make other people feel the effects of the magic. That's what's happening to us."
I was babbling and I knew it, but I just wanted to find something I could say that would erase the dawning horror on Dex's face.
"So...we kissed because of magic?"
"Right," I said, relieved. "So it doesn't mean anything."
His expression twisted, and now he didn't seem horrified. He seemed...angry.
"Is this something else you learned on the Internet?" he asked, his voice cold. "The effects of love spells on people who don't like each other?"
Confused, I shook my head. "I do like you."
Dex laughed, but it was a laugh I'd never heard him use before. It was sarcastic and harsh. "Of course you do. As a friend, right?" And then suddenly, all the anger seemed to drain out of him. He ran a hand over the top of his head, ruffling his hair. "Look, it's fine. We kissed because magic made us do it. Whatever. Let's just...let's just go."
He moved toward the tunnel and made what I thought was another harsh laugh. But it wasn't. It was a cough. Then a wheeze. And suddenly he was sliding to the floor, his shoulders and chest working, but no air coming in or going out.
I rushed over to him, thrusting my hands into the pockets of his jacket, but he shoved me off.
"I know things are weird with us, but now is not the time!" I shouted. In the dim glow of the flashlight I could see the skin around his lips turning blue. Dex made another wheeze, but this one sounded like it was trying to be a laugh. "Car," he mouthed.
I was bolting out of the cave the second the word was out of his mouth. Ducking to keep from whacking my head, I crawled faster than anyone has ever crawled before. By the time I got out to the car my hands were shaking. I yanked open the door and started pawing through the glove box. All that got me was a box of tissues and some hard peppermints.
Every bad word I knew was spilling from my lips as I thrust my hands between the seats. Finally, my fingers closed over metal, and I could've wept with relief when I pulled out Dex's inhaler.
When I got back to him, the wheezing had given way to a terrifying silence. Fumbling, I shoved the inhaler at him, sinking back on my heels when I heard him take several deep pulls on it.
It took much longer than it had that day on the football field, but after several agonizing seconds, Dex started breathing again. Color rushed back into his face, and he closed his eyes, shaking.
"Well, that was different," he whispered once he could finally talk. He opened one eye. "Never had an asthma attack from making out. You are one heck of a kisser, Izzy Brannick."
I would have hit him, but I was so glad he wasn't dying that I just patted his shoulder instead. "I think it was the arguing rather than the kissing."
"Heh," he breathed. "Maybe." Both eyes opened. "I'm sorry, by the way. I shouldn't have gotten so pissed, but-"
"Forget about it," I said. "And...maybe it wasn't just the magic that made me kiss you. But, Dex. I can't...we can't..."
I didn't know what else to say. That seemed to sum it all up. I couldn't. We couldn't. My life was full of ridiculously dangerous stuff. And Dex, in his own way, was ridiculously brave. I thought about the clothes he wore, the unabashed affection he showed toward me, Romy, even his Nana. Every day of his life, Dex was uniquely himself, and he didn't care what people said about it. And I knew that if he really knew what my life was like, he'd want to be a part of it. That was the kind of guy he was-all in.
And being "all in" with me would get him killed.
"It's fine," Dex said, breathing more slowly. "As long as we can be friends, I'm...I'm good with that."
"Me, too," I said. And even though I knew that was true, I wondered why it made me so sad.
CHAPTER 27
"So...Everton likes Leslie?" Romy asked around a mouthful of popcorn.
"Yeah. Loves her, actually. But that was before the amnesia."
We were sitting in Romy's room on Saturday night, a big bowl of popcorn on the floor, two different kinds of sodas on her desk, and all three seasons of Ivy Springs sitting beside her TV.
I'd filled in her on what had happened at the cave. Well, the love spell part. Not the me and Dex kissing bit. Romy had told me about her and Anderson finding salt on the grave-and I tried to act very surprised about that-but in the end, both of us agreed that Friday night's field trips had been pretty successful, all things considered.
Then we'd put in Ivy Springs and let the trials of Leslie and Everton distract us from our failure. Romy had already changed into her pajamas-naturally, they had cute little ghosts on them-and I was painting my toenails. Well, trying to. Since I'd never done it before, my feet looked like I'd accidentally stepped into a meat grinder. As I dabbed at the bright scarlet mess, Romy glanced up.
"Whoa," she said, eyes going wide. "What have you done?"
Sighing, I yanked a tissue out of the box on Romy's nightstand and began trying to wipe off the worst of it. "I think I used too much."
Romy laughed as she sat up. "Think? Iz, it looks like you poured half the bottle on your foot. Here, give me that." She snatched tissues away from me and rummaged in her nightstand drawer until she emerged with a bottle of nail polish remover. I reached for it, but she held her arm over her head. "Uh-uh. You cannot be trusted with dangerous chemicals, clearly. Give me your foot."
Hesitantly, I stretched out my leg, and Romy doused a few tissues with the polish remover. As she went to work scrubbing the worst of the mess off my right foot, she glanced at me over the top of her glasses. "You've never painted your toenails before, have you?"
I thought about lying, but seeing as how I'd somehow managed to get It's a Bit Chili in Here between my toes, I didn't think Romy would buy it.
"No. My mom is really strict about makeup."
Giving a low whistle, Romy shook her head. "Never played dodgeball, never been kissed, never used makeup..."
My face was nearly as scarlet as my toes. Well, my whole foot, actually.
When I didn't say anything, Romy raised her eyes. "Izzy?" she prompted.
I cleared my throat and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. I hadn't planned on telling Romy about the kissing, but my stupid fair skin had given me away yet again. "I, um...me and Dex, we-"
Romy sat up so quickly she nearly turned over the bottle of polish remover. I caught it, but she didn't seem to notice since she was too busy clapping and squealing something that sounded like, "Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod!"
Leaping off the bed, she paused the Ivy Springs DVD just as Everton was about to kiss Lila, Leslie's identical cousin. "I cannot believe we've been sitting here for an entire hour, painting nails and watching TV, when you could have been telling me every last detail about yours and Dexter O'Neil's mega-hot makeout session."
"It wasn't like that," I protested. "It was... Okay, it was exactly like that, but-"
Romy cut me off with another squeal, and I couldn't help but laugh. "This is so very excellent," she said, flopping back down on the bed. "So when? Where? How?"
I drew back my now-polish-free foot, wrapping my arms around my knees. "Last night, at the cave, and, um, with our mouths?"
Romy rolled her eyes and hit me with one of the bright green throw pillows covering her bed. "I figured that last part. I just meant did he kiss you first, or beneath that shy exterior, are you secretly a seductive vixen?" She waggled her eyebrows, and now it was my turn to toss a pillow at her.