Crave (Harlequin Teen)

understanding, and headed for a urinal.
    I took my time strolling back to class. The water grounding was a good idea. But I’d better find a way to get over Savannah quick or people were going to notice my grounding efforts and think me a freak. At the very least, the descendants on campus would tell Dad that I was getting out of control again.
    I needed to find a way not to care about Savannah. I’d thought dream connecting with her that one time last year would be okay, that it would take off the edge. But she was like a drug for me. Every little contact with her made me want to spend even more time with her just to see her smile or hear what she’d say next. I’d wanted to dream connect with her again. But I’d been unable to. Not for lack of trying, though. I’d slept outside so much, Mom had complained that she should buy me a doghouse. I’d tried training harder with Dad, flying through the last of the beginner-level lessons plus several intermediate ones in no time. Then I’d taken a month off, thinking a break from using my power would make it increase and give me the oomph I needed to dream connect again with Savannah. Recently, I’d even talked Dad into teaching me how to draw power from nature to supplement my own.
    But nothing worked. All I’d gotten for months of effort was the nightly return of those frustrating beat-the-barrier dreams. Just like in my dreams, Savannah was once again so close in history class, and still as unreachable as ever. Even worse, now she was some other guy’s girl. And that made her about as untouchable as a girl could get in my opinion, short of being related to me. I’d dated a lot of girls, but I made it a personal rule never to go after someone else’s girlfriend. I’d always figured if a girl was interested in me, she’d break up with her boyfriend before I ever had to make a move in her direction.
    Of course, none of those girls had been Savannah, either.
    I headed back to class, taking my time. Was there a spell to make a guy act enough like an idiot to make his girlfriend break up with him, but not so bad that he broke her heart in the process?
    I’d have to ask Emily.
    Savannah
    Over the next two weeks, my friends gradually quit grumbling about the Charmers, and Greg became a steady part of my school schedule. For our daily lunch break, we compromised. Mondays and Thursdays we sat with his friends, Tuesdays and Fridays we sat with mine, and Wednesdays we didn’t sit together at all. This kept both sets of friends happy. Surprisingly, Anne didn’t hate Greg like she did most guys, and she didn’t even tease us when he rested his arm across the back of my chair sometimes. I had no idea what his friends really thought about our dating, but Mark and Peter didn’t seem bothered by it. Usually they either talked about soccer or asked me endless questions about why some girl they liked had done something they didn’t understand. At least I knew I had a possible career as a therapist someday. If I didn’t turn into a vampire first.
    Somehow, we slipped into a new routine, until gradually Greg became a regular part of my life. I saw him five out of seven days of the week, sometimes six when he took me out for a quick dinner after the Friday-night home football games. We wrote goofy notes to each other a couple times a week just for fun, and sometimes he called me on the weekends so we could talk without an audience of friends.
    He was easy to talk to, as well, both on the phone and on our dates. By the time he finally kissed me on the lips, he knew almost everything about me, and I was more than ready for my first kiss. It was nice, no tongues or slobber involved, and I kind of liked the gentle press of his lips over mine and the way his arms cradled me as if I were breakable.
    By our three-month anniversary, I was surprised to find my life mostly calm and, if not perfect, at least reasonably happy for the first time in too long to remember. Now that I’d given up trying to please my father, I wasn’t so stressed-out all the time. And I loved being on the Charmers team, even if just as a manager. The team made me feel needed, an important part of something special. I had my first boyfriend, whom everyone seemed to like, including my friends. And his ex-girlfriends. And every weekend was filled with stuff to do and people to see. If not for history class with four of the worst descendants every other day, plus the fact that I still didn’t dare look