Lessons in Love (Flirt) by A. Destiny, Catherine Hapka Page A

school.”
    “Wow.” He looked impressed. “You’ve really put a lot of thought into this.”
    “I know, everyone thinks I’m a freak.” I shot a look at Simone and Taylor, who were still hanging out near the front of the room. “Most of my friends haven’t even started thinking about college yet.”
    “You’re not a freak for thinking ahead.” He leaned across the aisle, gazing at me intently. “It’s cool that you know what you want. Most people our age don’t.”
    Okay, that definitely wasn’t the usual response I got when I started spouting off about college plans. Simone usually just sighed and rolled her eyes. The other girls mostly ignored me and changed the subject. And the one time I’d mentioned watching an Internet video of a college-level genetics class, Matt and Darius had looked at me as if I was some weirdo from the planet Intellecto, and Matt had nicknamed me Professor for a day or two until he forgot about it.
    But here was Logan, looking at me as if this was a perfectly normal—even admirable—topic for a high school sophomore to discuss. That was different. He was different.
    Uh-oh. All of a sudden that sparky, fluttery feeling was back again, stronger than ever.
    “Anyway, enough about me.” I forced a laugh, ready to steer things back to more comfortable ground. “How’s your new house? Are you all moved in?”
    “Pretty much.” He brightened. “And hey, that reminds me—there’s at least one good thing about being stuck in one place for a while.”
    “What’s that?”
    “I’ve always wanted a dog, but we moved around way too much before.” He grinned like a little kid. “Now that we’re here, Mom and Dad said I can finally get one!”
    “That’s cool. What kind of dog are you going to get?”
    “I’m not sure yet. Do you have any pets?” he asked. “I could use some advice.”
    “We just have a cat right now,” I said. “Our old dog died last year. He was a beagle.”
    “That’s one of the breeds on my list,” Logan said. “Along with retrievers and a few others. But I’ll probably just end up going to the pound and picking out a lovable mutt.”
    “Sounds good.” I could totally picture him with a dog. Then I thought of something. “But wait, what if you do end up going to college abroad? Will you be able to take the dog with you?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. If not, it could stay here with my parents. I think Dad’s almost as excited about the dog thing as I am.”
    “That’s cool.” I smiled, but I was feeling kind of confused. One minute Logan was talking about getting settled in and living here forever. The next it seemed like he already had one foot on the plane back to Europe or wherever.
    Not that there was anything wrong with that. I had no intention of getting stuck in this town forever myself. But it reminded me that high school wouldn’t last forever, even if it felt that way sometimes. The two-plus years we had left were practically nothing, especially if you looked at time in geologic terms. After graduation we were all likely to go off in different directions. So even if Ling and Megan weren’t in the picture, what was the point in getting involved with a guy now?
    And of course Ling and Megan were in the picture. They were both used to getting what they wanted, and they weren’t going to back off just because I had some kind of wishy-washy flutter in my gut over this particular guy.
    So that was two pretty big strikes against even considering being more than friends with Logan. The logical part of my mind said not to bother.
    So why did I keep feeling those sparks?

ChapterNine
    C ollege Avenue Eats was almost deserted when I arrived after school. Two older ladies were chatting over coffee and pastries, and a harried-looking college student was typing away madly on her laptop, a half-eaten bowl of soup cooling beside her. My uncle was over by the counter spritzing glass cleaner on the display cases, while my mother