Appassionato by Erin M. Leaf Read Free Book Online

pain, the boy grimacing and rubbing his temples as though he had a massive headache.
    Emma felt a sympathetic stab in her own head. The headaches she’d been getting were better the past few days, but not completely gone. She frowned as she walked out of the office. “What’s happening, Portia?”
    The older woman gave the girl’s arm a shake and then let her go. “I caught them necking in the stacks,” she said, angry.
    Emma looked at the girl and realized it was Samantha, a junior. The boy she didn’t recognize, but he looked at least as old as Samantha or older. A senior maybe? She didn’t understand why Samantha would do that, she’d always been one of the good students—straight As, a little shy but always friendly and pleasant in the library. She liked to read, Emma remembered as she rubbed her forehead, her own headache growing stronger. Somewhere in the distance, she felt Duncan take notice. She didn’t understand what would make the girl disobey one of the major rules. “What happened, Samantha?” she asked gently, waving at Portia to go help some of the students lining up to get books checked out. The faster Emma could fix this problem, the sooner she could go get a painkiller.
    “I can’t help it, Ms. Bell,” Samantha began. The boy reached for her again and Emma didn’t prevent it, wanting to see what he’d do. As soon as he touched the girl, her face smoothed out and they both sighed. Emma frowned. What was going on?
    “You couldn’t help what?” Emma tried to understand.
    “It hurts when we’re away from each other,” the boy said, his voice cracking. Emma winced, understanding his nervousness. “It’s like, when we’re together, everything is okay. When we have to go to class,” he paused, shooting a look at Samantha, “different classes, I mean, everything goes wacky.” Emma looked at Samantha. The girl was nodding.
    “I don’t know what’s happening to us. And my arm is so itchy. It’s like I’m having an allergic reaction or something.” Samantha absently rubbed her arm.
    A chill went through Emma at those words. Could it be? “Can I see your arm?” Samantha nodded, and Emma gently rolled up the girl’s sleeve. On her forearm, it looked like a faint bruise was forming. Emma’s heart began racing. It looked exactly like her own arm did before the tattoo manifested. She turned to the boy and saw him rubbing at his right arm. “What about you?”
    “I didn’t do it! I swear!” He looked pale.
    Emma shook her head. “No, no, I know you didn’t. I meant, is your arm itchy too?” Emma noted how he didn’t seem to even realize he was still fingering the skin of his arm, too.
    He looked down at his arm. “You know, actually it is, but I’ve been so worried about Samantha that I didn’t notice until you said something.”
    “Here, let’s see,” Emma said, feeling Jake watching now, too. Duncan was alert, and she knew they were both seeing what was happening through her eyes. Or, at least she thought she could feel them. She grimaced as the boy pushed up his sweater. The skin on his forearm was red from his rubbing at it, but there was a slight bruise coming up, the same shape and size as the one growing increasingly defined on Samantha’s arm.
    “What were you doing in the stacks?” Emma asked, almost dreading the answer. She felt Jake trying to soothe her worry, and wished she could frown at him. “And what’s your name?” she asked the boy.
    “I’m Jonathan,” he said, then went quiet. Emma noted that he seemed reluctant to answer the rest of the question.
    “Samantha?”
    The girl was quiet for a split second, a look of intense guilt on her face, then she broke down. “I’m sorry, Ms. Bell! I know we weren’t supposed to! But I felt so awful, and when we agreed to meet here, I didn’t even think about, about—” Samantha was in tears now, but she quieted down as Jonathan hugged her.
    Emma sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose between her