The Princes of Tangleforest by Dorlana Vann Read Free Book Online Page A

examined Tanner’s forehead to his nose to his chin. Her blonde eyelashes fluttered as she giggled. Poppi’s breath smelled of sweet peppermints and her hair tickled Tanner’s face. His already excited heart sped so fast it seemed to be flipping around in his chest. She kissed him on the lips, staying long enough for him to start to pucker, and then it was over.
    “I’m so happy you’re here,” she said, twirling slowing around, swaying her arms out to her side, dancing them through the air.
     He watched her for a moment, his heart making an effort to calm down. He had never had a girl kiss him so fast. Except for the one time when Stacy Miller laid one on him at Chris’s party, but she had been dared. “How long have you lived here?”
    She came to an abrupt halt. “I don’t know.”
    “You’re homeschooled, right?”
    “Do you go to a real school?” She began to make her way back toward him.
    His heart remembered the kiss and began to loudly pump. “Yeah. Tangleforest. It’s a real trip. You’re better off not going.” He nodded more than he wanted to. “There has to be a way we can talk during the day or before midnight. You don’t have a computer? A phone?”
    “Not in my room,” she said.
    “I guess I’ll just have to come here after midnight.”
    “I’m your girlfriend, right?”
    He stepped  back. “Girlfriend?”
    “I had a boyfriend before. His name was Marky. Do you know him?”
    “No, I’m kinda new here at the—”
    “So now you’re my new boyfriend.”
    “I… uh…”
    “Boyfriends and girlfriends kiss, right?”
    “Yes they do!” he said with a little more enthusiasm than he had planned.
    When she kissed him again, he kissed her back, thinking that if he didn’t force himself to stand with firm legs, he would melt onto the floor.
    She pulled away, her energized expression from before completely transformed into worry. “You better go. Will you come again?”
    He nodded. Even though in the back of his mind he knew she wasn’t like the other girls, really strange and immature, she was intriguing. A beautiful mystery. He definitely didn’t want to ruin his chances of getting to come back.  “Yeah.  Of course. All right. You want me to leave?” He walked the short distance to her bedroom door, figuring he could quietly sneak out the front. But when he put his hand on the knob, Poppi yelled, “Wait!”
    He had already begun to try and turn the knob. It didn’t move, and there wasn’t a visible lock. “She locks you in from the outside? Are you kidding me right now?”
    She put her finger up to her mouth. “Shhh.”
    “Poppi, this isn’t right. She can’t lock you in here. There are laws.”
    She started shaking her head. “Shhh,” she said again, clearly frightened.
    “All right, all right. I’ll go out the window, this time. We’ll talk about this… next time.”
    She smiled at him. “Tomorrow, right? My grandma will be asleep at midnight.”
    “I know, and I’ll be here,” Tanner said. He sat down on the window sill, letting his feet dangle. “It’s not that far.” He gave Poppi a final glance before turning and shifting his body down the side of the house until he dangled by his elbows. He dropped to the ground, grateful that skateboarding had given him such strong ankles and legs. He looked up at her, and she looked down at him, smiling.
    “Tomorrow,” she said and closed the window.
    After he ran home and climbed into bed, he stared at his window. He tried not to think about the locked door. He wondered why her grandmother would lock her in her room. And if he should tell someone. No, not yet. If he told his mom, that would be the end of him sneaking into Poppi’s room. Might even be the end of him ever seeing her again. He didn’t want to think about all that; all he wanted to think about the way her kiss made him feel. My girlfriend?   He had to admit that the entire visit had been odd—the darkness, the candles, that she did kiss him,