Bloom Read Online Free Page A

table.
    “Oh my god!” said Kayla. She stopped walking and stared ahead.
    “What’s wrong with you?”
    “There’s your boyfriend!” She nodded to a table a few feet away.
    Jason Turner sat at one of the round cafeteria tables, surrounded by a group of his friends. He smiled and laughed easily, and always seemed to be in a good mood whenever Haven saw him.
    “Shut your mouth, Kayla!” she hissed between her teeth. Haven sidestepped around her friend and walked quickly to the other side of the room, looking away from Jason’s table as she passed. She took a seat at the first empty table and faced the wall.
    “Geez, you’d think you’d never seen a hot guy before,” said Kayla. She placed her tray on the table and sat next to Haven.
    “I just don’t appreciate you announcing it to everyone around, that’s all.”
    “Nobody heard me, you nutcase,” said Kayla. “And besides, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if somebody—oh my God!” She stopped talking and looked behind her.
    “Would you stop saying that?”
    “He’s coming over here!”
    “What? Who?” Haven turned and saw Jason walking over toward their table. She spun back around and stared at her tray. “What’s he doing?!” she whispered.
    “He’s still headed straight for us!” said Kayla.
    “He’s not turning away?”
    “Nope.”
    “Is he looking at you?”
    “Yep.”
    Jason sat on the empty seat next to Haven. “Afternoon, ladies.”
    “Hi!” said Kayla. “Oops! Forgot a napkin. Be right back.” She stood up to leave but Haven had a tight grip on her leg. Kayla lightly slapped her hand and smiled sweetly at Jason before walking away.
    “So,” said Jason. “How’s it going?”
    “Uh, fine,” said Haven. She mentally slapped her own forehead. Uh, fine. Uh, fine.
    “Look, I’m not trying to embarrass you or anything, but I heard you wrote my name on the gym wall.”
    Her face flushed with heat and her eyes felt like they grew to the size of saucers. He left out the part about the giant heart, so maybe he was trying to break it to her easy. “You sure have a funny way of not embarrassing someone,” she said. She kept staring at her food tray. “Who told you it was me, anyway?” Haven could tell she was getting defensive, even though she wanted nothing more than to be as casual toward Jason as he was being toward her.
    “Yeah, hey, it could have been anybody, right? I didn’t mean to say that you would draw my name instead of another guy’s, it’s just that if it were my name, I think it would be, I dunno, kinda cool.”
    Haven blinked. “Did you say ‘cool’?”
    “Yep.”
    “Don’t you mean creepy or pathetic or something?”
    “Nope. We should hang out sometime. If it was me, I mean.”
    “If what was you?”
    “The name you were writing on the wall,” said Jason.
    “Oh, right.”
    “I’m not asking you to marry me or anything, I just thought it would be nice to get to know you.”
    “Oh.” She thought for a moment. “It wasn’t you, but yeah, let’s hang out.” She looked at him. “It wasn’t you.”
    He smiled. “Fair enough. Listen, I’m having a party at my house tonight. You and your friend—Kayla, is it?—you guys should go.”
    Haven heard herself speak before she even thought about an answer. “Okay, sure. We’ll be there.”
    “Great!” Jason stood up. “Everyone’s showing up around nine.” He walked away and Haven heard his friends teasing him about the visit.
    “Oh my God!” said Kayla as she came back to the table and sat down next to Haven.
    “Seriously, Kayla! Broken record!”
    “What did he say?”
    Haven shrugged in an attempt to hide her excitement. “He just wants us to go to some party tonight at his house.”
    “Oh my G—I mean, wow, neat. So we’re going, right?”
    “I said yes before I really thought it out. My curfew’s still ten, but what about you? You have to be home before the party even starts.”
    “Haven’t you ever snuck out of the house