Page 32 of Falling Like Leaves (Bramble Falls #1)

“Why are we here?” I ask Cooper as we climb out of his car at Bramble Falls High.

“You’ll see.” He leads me around the side of the school, where colorful lights move about in the distance and laughter floats along the cold breeze.

As we step into the dark woods behind the school, I cling to Cooper’s forearm, my grip on him tightening as the trees grow thicker and the woods grow darker.

I’m not generally afraid of the dark, but it’s creepy out here.

Then we enter a clearing, where a swarm of seniors wearing glow sticks around their necks and wrists are hanging out.

“Uh, what is this?” I ask.

“Just a friendly game of glow-stick Ghost in the Graveyard,” Cooper says. “The senior class does it every year after the bonfire. It’s tradition.”

I shake my head. This is what Jake meant when he asked if I was coming tonight.

I find him in the crowd, talking with some redheaded girl I’ve seen around school. When he sees me, he grins and waves.

Cooper leads me over to a box full of glow sticks, and after cracking two pink bracelets and a green necklace, he puts them on me, keeping his eyes fixed on the light-up jewelry.

He cracks a yellow necklace and puts it on himself, then hands me a neon-blue bracelet to put on him.

I’m not even sure he notices when his finger sweeps over the inside of my wrist, but my heart stutters at the subtle contact.

I stick the end of the glow stick into the plastic connector piece and hope he doesn’t notice how being this close to him makes my hands tremble.

What is wrong with me?

“Okay, everyone!” our senior class president, Kayla McIntire, shouts over everyone.

Cooper hands me a mini flashlight from another box, and the crowd grows silent as we all give Kayla our attention.

“Welcome to the tenth annual senior-class Ghost in the Graveyard night! In just a minute I will draw a name from this hat,” she says, pointing to a literal top hat being held by our class treasurer.

“Every single senior’s name is in it. If I draw someone who isn’t here, we’ll go to the next person.

If your name is drawn, you’re the ghost, which means your job is to hide from everyone else.

The boundaries have been marked—if you come to yellow caution tape, do not cross it, or you’ll be out of bounds.

Those not chosen as the ghost will stay here at home base and count, one o’clock, two o’clock, and so on until midnight.

At that point you’ll all spread out and try to find the ghost.

“If you see the ghost, you shout, ‘Ghost in the graveyard!’ Then everyone has to run back here before getting tagged by the ghost. As you can see,” she says, pointing to the trees lining the clearing, “home base is clearly marked with glow sticks around the tree trunks so you can find it. If anyone is tagged, they become the new ghost. Anyone have any questions?”

Everyone looks around at one another, but no questions are asked.

“Okay, then. Let’s do this,” Kayla says.

Anticipation swells among the crowd as she sticks her hand into the hat and mixes the names around. She snatches one up and unfolds the small piece of paper.

“Cooper Barnett!” she reads. “You here, Coop?”

He turns to me. “You going to be okay on your own?”

“Yeah, of course.” I nod at Jake across the circle of seniors. “I can always just hang with Jake.”

He glances at his friend. “Right.” Then he puts his hand up. “I’m here,” he announces. Some people whoop and whisper excitedly.

“Come on up!” Kayla says, dropping the piece of paper back into the hat.

Before heading over to Kayla, he leans in close, his breath tickling my ear. “I know how much you hate to lose, so let’s see if you can find me before anyone else.”

Then he’s off to take on his title as Ghost.

“Challenge accepted,” I call after him.

He grins at me over his shoulder. “Good luck.”

Leaving his glow sticks behind, Cooper makes his way deeper into the woods while I hang back with my classmates and count to midnight. I decide not to stay with Jake because I actually want to find Cooper, and I know Jake will be loud and make everything a joke.

Because he really is like an excitable puppy.

But as soon as we disperse, I’m having regrets. A twig snaps to my right. I swing my flashlight in the direction of the sound just as something makes a swooshing noise to my left. These woods are terrifying. How am I supposed to know if the sounds I’m hearing are seniors or animals?

As I wander aimlessly, wondering if I’ll be able to find my way back to home base despite it being marked with glow sticks, I consider whether Cooper would have any sort of strategy right now.

He definitely wouldn’t have climbed a tree because of his fear of heights.

But if he’s on the ground, where would he think no one would look?

I scan the woods. Where would I go if I were him?

I turn left, trekking back to the tree line, where yellow caution tape runs along the perimeter.

For the next ten minutes, I hike through the silence, searching for big piles of leaves that could be a camouflaged body or a hollowed-out tree he could hide in if he were brave enough.

Completely alone in the dark, I fight the urge to be loud in order to scare off any creatures of the night.

Since the goal is to spot the ghost before he can tag me, hopefully I can get eyes on Cooper before he sees m—

I freeze as somebody dashes across the path in front of me. Somebody not wearing glow sticks. Beneath the moonlit sky, in the space between scraggly bare branches, I make out the angles of his face. An outline ingrained in my brain.

“Ghost in the graveyard!” I call as loudly as I can just before Cooper lunges at me. I scream and turn to run. I make it three steps before his strong arm wraps around my waist, pulling me close and lifting me off the ground as he spins.

I laugh, and he sets me down in front of a tree. “How’d you find me so fast, cheater?”

I lift my chin as I face him. “I didn’t cheat. But I’m not revealing my secrets.”

He steps closer. “There isn’t a single other person around. I need to know how you thought to come over here,” he says, gesturing at where we’re standing—where the front and side perimeter tape meet. “Did you sneak away from the group and follow me when you were supposed to be counting?”

“That would be cheating.”

“Oh, I know,” he says.

“Then you know I didn’t.” I cross my arms. He stares at me, waiting, and I sigh.

“With such a vast area for you to hide in, it seemed logical that most people would fan out in front of home base. I thought if I were hiding, I’d stay along the edge because it seems like the least likely place for people to look.

With the boundary line being right here, it gives people less space to cover and therefore, a slimmer chance of finding someone. ”

“Smart,” Cooper says, impressed.

“A little bit of logic. A lot of luck.” I shrug. “Plus, most people had their flashlights pointed up into the trees, but I knew you wouldn’t be in one because you’re afraid of heights.”

“I’m not—”

“Yes, you are,” I say, cutting him off. “You refused to sit on Aunt Naomi’s roof to watch fireworks with me on the Fourth of July that summer.”

He steps closer and smiles. “You couldn’t have just forgotten that little detail, huh?”

“Never.” I try to smile. I try to turn away and head back to home base. It’s the smart thing to do. But he’s so close, looking at me with those eyes that steal the air from my lungs, and suddenly I can’t put one foot in front of the other. I can’t fathom walking away even if I could.

And concealed in the darkness of the woods, with his tousled hair blowing softly in the breeze, I can’t imagine not saying exactly what I’m thinking in this moment.

“I remember all your details, Cooper Barnett,” I whisper. “They’re my favorite thing to memorize.”

Cooper’s eyes widen. I step toward him, and his sharp intake of breath seems to echo through the silence.

The air between us is thick and heavy and charged.

“Earlier, at the end of the race,” I say nervously, “were you… were you going to kiss me?”

In the distance, someone calls Cooper’s name. Everyone’s waiting on him—on us—but I started this, and I need to know how it ends.

His voice is raspy and quiet when he replies. “I shouldn’t… It doesn’t matter.”

“Maybe it does,” I say. “Tell me.”

“But Jake…” He shakes his head. “I can’t do this.”

“What about him?” I ask, confused.

“He likes you.”

“Okay, but I don’t like him .”

“You haven’t made that particularly clear,” he says.

“Actually, I have. I pretty explicitly told him we’re just friends.”

He frowns. “Well, he’s still holding on to hope.”

A beat of silence passes between us.

“Just tell me, Coop,” I whisper.

He sighs and throws his hood up, as if he’s trying to hide from me. “All right, fine. Maybe I was thinking about kissing you. But I shouldn’t have been.”

I open my mouth, then close it, unsure how to respond even though I asked for the answer. He looks as if he’s organizing his thoughts before he looks at the ground and continues.

“When I told you I was hurt because you stopped talking to me after you went back to New York, that was the truth. But it wasn’t that simple.

” He presses his lips together, like he’s warring with himself over saying more, and my pulse quickens.

“I know we were young, but I fell for you that summer.” His eyes raise to mine.

“You were the first and only girl who’s ever broken my heart. ”

The woods suddenly seem darker, quieter. “What?” I breathe.

“I fell for this gorgeous, funny, laid-back girl who always wanted to try new things, and you made me feel like I could do anything. Be anything. But also like I didn’t need to be anything other than who I was.

I always felt like the best version of myself when I was around you.

And then you were gone, and I was devastated. ”

“Cooper…”