Dream Boy by Mary Crockett, Madelyn Rosenberg Page A

delicious, sexy way.
    Talon and Serena stared at us like they’d scored front-row seats and Martin was the headliner. Meanwhile, Will kept turning around and snapping pictures.
    “What are you doing?” I asked him.
    Snap.
    “A panoramic,” he said. Snap.
    “Oh.”
    Snap. Snap.
    “That wasn’t panoramic,” I said.
    “You’ve got jelly on your face,” he said. “Just capturing the moment.”
    Snap. That one was of Martin. I had a sudden fear that he wouldn’t show up on film, like a vampire, but Martin didn’t seem worried so I tried not to be, either.
    “Would you stop?” Talon said. “You’re so annoying.”
    Snap.
    “Yearbook,” Will said. “I’m getting candids.”
    Martin stood up.
    “I have to go talk to Coach,” he said. He touched my cheek. “See you soon.” To everyone else he said, “Nice meeting you.”
    “A pleasure as always,” Will said.
    After he left, Talon gave Will a look. “What is up with you?”
    “I’m being polite,” Will said. “Chivalrous.”
    “I’ll bet Martin wears a gambeson,” Paolo muttered.
    Will gave Paolo a nudge and then picked up his camera, focusing this time on me.
    “So,” he said. “Homecoming.”
    “Yeah.” I looked down. “About that.” I wasn’t sure where to start, so Will did.
    “I guess all bets are off,” he said.
    “You’re okay with that?”
    He shrugged and took the camera away from his eye. “I believe you’re the one who said if we hadn’t found someone by homecoming we would go together. And if I’m not mistaken, you found someone.”
    “Yeah,” I said again. “I guess I did.”
    “So,” he said. “Live long and prosper and all of that.” He gave me that little Star Trek finger sign with his free hand.
    “Are you still going to go?”
    “I’m shooting it for yearbook,” he said. “I guess I have to.”
    “Alone?”
    “There’s always Bessie.” He held up his camera.
    “There must be someone you can ask.”
    “I wasn’t even going to go at all until you brought it up,” he said. “Now I’ve got this assignment so, you know, whatever. I’ll just go and snap a few pictures and leave. It’s no big deal.”
    “I don’t think Talon’s going yet.”
    “Talon hates homecoming,” he said. He looked across the table at Talon. “Right?”
    “Thank you for not acting like I’m invisible,” she said to Will. To me she said, “I don’t hate it. I loathe it.”
    “See?”
    “There has to be someone—”
    “Look, Annabelle,” he interrupted. “I don’t need you playing matchmaker for me.”
    “Yeah, but—” I started.
    “Can we drop it?”
    “Sure,” I said. But I didn’t want to drop it. I wanted Will to be happy. As happy as me. “So, you’re in the photo lab this afternoon?” I asked, intentionally changing the subject.
    “Yep.”
    “Maybe I could help out?” I was searching for some reason to hang around until after football practice anyway.
    He looked at me like I’d just sprouted a second head, but then he smiled. A little tense around the eyes, but still a smile. “Yeah, okay,” he said.

Chapter 17
    The photo lab was a big low-ceilinged room in the annex at the back of the school. No windows—and from the looks of it, the janitors had pretty much written it off circa 1995. It was bright enough, but it had a strange sawdusty smell, and the boxes in the corner had easily been stacked there since the Clinton administration. To the back was Chilton High’s version of a “media center” with video cameras, a few TVs, huge umbrellas, lights on metal stands, and for some reason that I couldn’t quite fathom, a big old-fashioned microwave. On the other side were long shelves packed with junk, and a tall black tube that served as a door of some sort. “DARKROOM,” it said. Beneath was a bumper sticker with a camera that read, “Help! I’ve been shot!” and another that read, “Photographers do it in the dark.”
    Will was sitting at one of the computers, uploading his