Page 69 of Chasing Sunsets

She shakes her head. “It was something silly I wrote in high school.”

“Come on. Let me hear it.”

She lets out a sigh. “All right, but please don’t laugh,” she says before taking a deep breath. She closes her eyes and recites it from memory.

I am not me.

For deep inside, I’m not the person that you see.

I have a different life within the boundaries of my mind.

Dreams of a wonderful and mystical kind.

For in my mind, I am the perfect one.

The one whose every hope and dream is sure to become.

For reality’s not really real.

It’s only what others can see, hear, and feel.

I have my own reality and blueprints of what should truly be.

That lie between the secret and fine line. That lie deep within the boundaries of my mind.

When she’s finished, she opens one eye and turns to look at me nervously.

“Wow, you wrote that in high school?” I ask. “It’s great. I couldn’t even write a convincing absence excuse and sign my mom’s name to it. You should go for it.”

“You think so?”

“Sure. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“It could suck,” she replies.

“Nah. The worst that could happen is, it could be good, but you never took the chance to find out.”

“Don’t use logic with me, Anson Leggett,” she says, but I don’t miss her pleased smile.

Tabby

The drive to Anson’s parents’ house is short and winds through the streets of Sandcastle Cove. I shift in my seat, suddenly hyperaware of the fact that I’m about to meet his parents.

Not just meet them. Have dinner with them.

A normal thing people do when they’re dating. Except I don’t know if that’s what this is. He said he didn’t want to be just friends, but didn’t elaborate beyond that. And I haven’t asked for clarification.

“You okay?” He glances over, one hand on the wheel, the other resting casually on the console between us.

“Yeah,” I say too quickly, then let out a breath. “Just … I guess I’m just nervous. Doing the wholemeet the parentsthing.”

A smirk tugs at his lips. “Don’t worry. They don’t bite.”

I catch the teasing glint in his eye and roll mine instead. “Shut up.”

He laughs, and the sound relaxes me more than I expected.

“Look, don’t overthink it,” he says as he turns down a long driveway lined with bougainvillea and sea grapes. “They’re easy. My mom will probably hug you the second we walk in, and mydad’s only gonna care about whether you like your steak rare or medium rare.”

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