Read Made to Love for Free Online

than gravity were pulling
us together, forces as elemental and basic as life itself.  I
had never felt so alive in my entire life.
    Just before our lips
touched, light filled the orchard, and I squeezed my eyes shut to
keep it from blinding me.
    “ Calliope Crepe
Crestone!”
    “ Crap,” I whispered. 
I turned my head and did my best to open my eyes.
    Dad stood in the
doorway.  The light came from floodlights on the side of the
house and illuminated the orchard with its cold, unnatural
light.
    I opened my mouth to speak,
but Dad had something to say first.  “ You ,” he
hissed.  He wasn't looking at me.
    Octavius had a hand
shielding his eyes.  “Hello, sir.  I'm Octavius.  I
go to school with--”
    “ You shut your filthy
mouth.”
    “ Dad!” I
gasped.
    “ I've told you before that
your kind isn't welcome here!” My dad's accent seemed thicker than
ever.  “I see one of you out here again, I'm getting the big
guns.”
    “ Dad!” I yelled. 
“What is your problem?”
    He stepped out of the
house.  “Get your hands off my daughter!”
    Octavius started to pull
away, but I grabbed his sleeve.  “Don't leave me.”
    “ Calliope, I don't
think--”
    “ Please ,” I
begged.
    Octavius looked up at my
approaching dad, then back at me.  “Come with me.”
    “ What?”
    “ Come with me,” he
repeated.  “Your dad...he’s crazy.”
    I nodded.  “Let's
go.”
    Octavius grabbed my hand,
and a shot of electricity ran through me.  I felt like I could
follow him anywhere.
    He began to run, and I
followed.
    “ Hey!” Dad yelled. 
“Let go of her!  HEY!”
    We ran to the
motorcycle.  I couldn't hear if my dad was following, since my
heart was pounding so loud I could feel it in my teeth.  But
when we climbed on, I turned and saw that my dad was still next to
the house.  I breathed a sigh of relief.
    The bike roared to life,
and we drove into the night.

Chapter Twelve
     
    The night air blew through
my hair, sending it flowing behind me underneath the helmet. 
I clutched Octavius hard, trying not to be thrown free as we wound
through the twisting roads of the Oregon back country.
    Surely the passing forest
was beautiful, but I had no idea.  We were going too
fast.  We blew past harbors, stretches of forest, the
occasional little house.  Where we were going, I didn’t know,
nor did I care.  I didn’t want to let go of Octavius, and I
especially never wanted to see my dad again.
    What could have been hours
later, Octavius pulled up to a boardwalk, stopping with a
jolt.  After such a long time seeing everything rushing past
me, the world was spinning.
    I jumped off the bike and
pulled off the helmet, letting my hair swing free.  Tears
stung my eyes, but I couldn’t let Octavius see me like that, so I
turned my back on him.  Hugging the helmet to my chest, I
looked at the place he had taken me.
    The white beach stretched
in both directions.  Beyond it, black ocean churned under a
waxing moon.
    Just like my
dream.
    It was beautiful, but it
disturbed me in some deep way.  The water looked cold,
hostile, alien.
    I almost forgot about
Octavius behind me until I heard him set the kick stand on the bike
and the creak of leather as he came up to my back. 
“Calliope,” he murmured, rubbing my shoulders with his
hands.
    “ What did my dad mean?” I
asked without looking at him.
    He rested his chin atop my
head.  “Hmm?”
    “ He said your kind isn’t
welcome here.  What’s your kind?”
    “ I have no idea,” Octavius
said.
    I turned in his arms to
look at him.  His face was so close, so pale in the light.
 The bangs over his right eye shadowed his face from the
moonlight.  The faintest hint of sparkles touched his
eyelids.  “It sounded like he knows you,” I said.
    He gave a low
chuckle.  “I don’t think so.  You guys just moved here,
didn’t you?  And I’ve only been here for the school
year.”
    I gazed at him. 
Octavius had such an honest face.  He would