Lovesessed by Pamela Diane King Page A

choked on his sandwich. I
was about five seconds away from passing out, like that time in
History. I was frozen in shock, so I couldn’t speak or move. I just
sat there hiding behind the roses. If I didn’t see him, then he
wasn’t there.
    Chase immediately spotted the bouquet
and ran over to our table. I had my head down pretending to study.
“Phoebe Parker, I love you,” he proclaimed.
    Ben really started chocking on his
Pepsi, and Liz had to hit him on the back. He coughed a
lot.
    “ I never thought that
heaven would be so close to me,” he said, gazing at me like I had
switched bodies with Alicia Spark.
    I was sure that I was
hallucinating. I had finally lost it
because things like this just didn’t happen to girls like
me.
    “ If water were beauty,
you’d be the ocean.”
    It was surreal, like something out of a
movie. I tried to pinch myself, but I didn’t wake up. The
shocking truth was staring me in the face – the love potion
had worked. Chase was my “secret admirer.” I didn’t want to even
hope that it could be him who had left the trail of gifts. I
couldn’t believe that the love potion really had caused him to fall
in love with me.
    Silence fell over the cafeteria
as Chase started singing “Love Struck.” My breath caught in my
chest when I realized that he was singing to me. It was so
crazy, that is was actually funny.
    I glanced at Amber, who looked like she
had just thrown up in her mouth.
    Romantically Chase held my hand as
he sang. The crowd of girls circled our table, and swayed to his
melodic singing. His A cappella version of our song made me feel
like I was floating on a cloud. After the last notes of the love
song had drifted away, he went down on his knee. Everyone gasped
like he was about to propose to me. As if that would happen, I’m
only 14.
    “ Phoebe, will you do me
the honor of allowing me to escort you to the dance tonight? It
would make my day, no my year, if you said yes,” he said, amid
‘oohs’ and ‘aahs.’
    “ Yes,” I eventually
squeaked. Everyone except Amber and Ben applauded. Then the bell
rang for the end of lunch.
    “ Phoebe, I want to spend
the rest of the day with you. Now that I our hearts have found each
other, they are one.” He began every sentence with my name. I
looked over at Ben, and he looked like he wanted to punch
Chase.
    “ Ok,” I whispered. I
realized that I had been speaking in one word sentences, but I was
in severe shock, so even uttering one word was an
achievement.
    Chivalrously Chase picked up my books.
He paused when he saw his pictures covering them.
    “ I ran out of paper to
cover my books, so I used Teen Idol magazine…” I lied.
    He beamed his toothpaste commercial
smile at me. “I’m so honored that you even know who I
am.”
    “ Everybody knows who you
are,” I whispered.
    “ But you’re the only one
who matters.” He proclaimed.
    Ben clenched his jaw.
    “ Shall we?” he said
holding his arm out in that old-fashioned way.
    “ Uh … yes.” I grabbed hold
of his arm before I fainted.
    Chase was a guest in the rest of my
classes, and he even carried my books covered in his pictures. The
teachers were more than happy to allow him in their classes. In
fact, they gushed over him like they were teenagers, and even asked
him to sign autographs for their children.
    Two scary bodyguards
straight out of
Men in
Black
stuck to Chase like glue.
They were dressed in black suits with black sunglasses, and they
had ear pieces. They staked out my classrooms, by standing on
either side of the doors in the hallway. It was weird
because Chase and I were never alone. “Isn’t it difficult
to have any privacy with bodyguards following you all day?” I
leaned over and whispered.
    “ It is, but I have to have
bodyguards everywhere I go, for protection.”
    “ With all of those
screaming girls, I can understand why. When I was at your concert,
it was like being at a Beatles concert.”
    He looked stunned. “You’ve