Dream Smashers by Angela Carlie Page A

and you can totally see the stars.”
    He sprawls out from under the handle bars,
feeling the ice-metal through his jacket. Thousands of stars
twinkle through the torn clouds. “When we were younger, my parents
sent us to church camp every summer. We sometimes dragged our
sleeping bags out of the cabins to sleep under the stars. I’d never
seen so many in my life. It was like—like we were discovering
something new that no one in the world had ever seen.” He turns to
his side to look at her. “Have you ever been camping out in the
woods?”
    “Not real camping, but me and Rainy used to
sleep in the backyard with our sleeping bags in the summer when we
were younger.” She laughs under her breath. “Gramps would build us
a campfire and we’d roast marshmallows. It was fun, but probably
not as fun as out in the woods.”
    “I think you’d love real camping.” Maybe
he’ll take her sometime. He didn’t dare be so bold yet to say
something like that though.
    The light from the street lamp oozes into the
park, allowing some visibility, but not much. Autumn gazes straight
up into the sky as fog rolls over them. She doesn’t move.
    “Isn’t fog funny?” she asks.
    “How do you mean?”
    “It’s just strange. One minute it’s over
there and the next it’s totally on top of you. You know? And it’s
water in the air, and it’s blinding. Real water is clear, but fog
is—well, foggy.”
    He doesn’t want to burst her bubble by
explaining the science behind fog, so he won’t. It does seem
mystical when you don’t know the reasons for it. Instead, he jumps
off the whirling piece of steel and gives it another push before
hopping back on.
    The faint sound of metal brushing against
metal makes for a backdrop against the silence.
    He watches her watching the sky. Every few
seconds the fog opens up for a moment and he sees her more clearly.
Mostly, she’s a shadow penetrating the air.
    “There’s something I need to tell you before
you meet my parents,” Evan says.
    Autumn sits up. “What is it?”
    “Well, not both my parents, just my mom.
She…” He pauses to regain some of the nerves that must have just
run away without warning him. “She thinks I’m too young to have a
girlfriend and might not be the nicest person in the world toward
you.” There he said it, really fast, but it’s out in the open and
now he can hold his breath again.
    Autumn laughs and then bites her lip, seeming
uneasy. “How rude is that?” She picks up a bark chip and traces the
designs punched into the metal she sits on. “So, like, how mean
will she be to your, uh, girlfriend ?”
    Evan stuffs his hands into his jeans. Now
he’s in the hot seat. He called her his girlfriend, but he probably
shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. The merry-go-round squeaks to
a stop. There’s nothing he can do now, it’s out in the open. Just
have to go with it. “She’s not going to hurt you or anything, just
maybe ignore you and pretend you’re not there.” He jumps off and
gives the twirling beast another spin.
    “That’s it?” She tosses the bark. “As long as
she doesn’t yell at me or spit at me or shoot me, I think I can
handle her ignoring me.”
    Evan breathes. Maybe she doesn’t mind him
calling her his girlfriend. “Don’t take it personally. The more she
ignores you, the more she thinks I like you.” Whew. That wasn’t so
bad. He sits cross-legged in front of Autumn. His knees leave a
half-inch of air in front of hers.
    She blushes and looks away, smiling. Then,
her smile vanishes. “How are you always so free?”
    Evan shrugs. “What do you mean?”
    She scoots another half an inch back. “You
always seem so happy and without worry. Like, like you have no
cares in the world to weigh you down. I’m not sure exactly how to
explain it, but every time I see you, you just seem so—so,
carefree.”
    Evan takes a moment before answering this
one. He searches for a simple answer to her complicated question.
It needs