One True Loves Read Online Free Page B

the bleachers and out the door.
    I paused, just before the exit, to see Jesse one last time. I saw a flash of his smile. It was wide and bright, toothy and sincere. His whole face lit up.
    I wondered how good it would feel to have that smile directed at me, to be the cause of a smile like that—and suddenly, my new crush on Jesse Lerner grew into a massive, inflated balloon that was so strong it could have lifted the two of us up into the air if we’d grabbed on.

T hat week at school, I noticed Jesse in the hallway almost every day. Now that I knew who he was, he was everywhere.
    â€œThat’s the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon,” Olive said when I mentioned it at lunch. “My brother just told me about this. You don’t notice something and then you learn the name for it and suddenly it’s everywhere.” Olive thought for a moment. “Whoa. I’m pretty sure I have the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon about the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.”
    â€œAre you seeing Jesse everywhere, too?” I asked, entirely missing the point. Earlier that day, I’d walked right by him coming out of Spanish class. He was talking to Carolyn Bean by her locker. Carolyn Bean was the captain of the girls’ soccer team. She wore her blond hair back in a bun, with a sporty headband every day. I’d never seen her without lip gloss. If that was the kind of girl Jesse liked, I stood no chance.
    â€œI’m not seeing him any more than normal,” Olive said. “But I always see him around all the time. He’s in my algebra 1 class.”
    â€œAre you friends with him?” I asked.
    â€œNot really,” Olive said. “But he’s a nice guy. You should just say hi to him.”
    â€œThat’s insane. I can’t just say hi to him.”
    â€œSure you can.”
    I shook my head and looked away. “You sound ridiculous.”
    â€œ You sound ridiculous. He’s a boy in our class. He’s not Keanu Reeves.”
    I thought to myself, If I could just talk to Jesse Lerner, I wouldn’t care about Keanu Reeves.
    â€œI can’t introduce myself, that’s crazy,” I said, and then I gathered my tray and headed toward the trash can. Olive followed.
    â€œFine,” she said. “But he’s a perfectly nice person.”
    â€œDon’t say that!” I said. “That just makes it worse.”
    â€œYou want me to say he’s mean?”
    â€œI don’t know!” I said. “I don’t know what I want you to say.”
    â€œYou’re being sort of annoying,” Olive said, surprised.
    â€œI know, okay?” I said. “Ugh, just . . . come on. I’ll buy you a pack of cookies.”
    Back then, a seventy-five-cent bag of cookies was enough to make up for being irritating. So as we walked over to the counter, I dug my hand into my pocket and counted out what silver coins I had.
    â€œI have one fifty exactly,” I said just as I followed Olive to the back of the line. “So enough for both of us.” I looked up to see Olive’s eyes go wide.
    â€œWhat?”
    She directed me forward with the glance of her eyes.
    Jesse Lerner was standing right in front of us. He was wearing dark jeans and a Smashing Pumpkins T-shirt with a pair of black Converse One Stars.
    And he was holding Carolyn Bean’s hand.
    Olive looked at me, trying to gauge my reaction. But instead, I stared forward, doing a perfect impression of someone unfazed.
    And then I watched as Carolyn Bean let go of Jesse’s hand, reached into her pocket, took out a tube of lip balm, and applied it to her lips.
    As if it wasn’t bad enough she was holding his hand, she had the audacity to let go of it.
    I hated her then. I hated her dumb, soccer-playing, headband-wearing, Dr-Pepper-flavored-lip-balm-applying guts.
    If he ever wanted to hold my hand, I’d never, ever, ever let go.
    â€œLet’s get out of here,” I said to