"Probably." Beth rolled her eyes.

"And now, it feels like the missing piece of the jigsaw is waiting to meet me on Saturday," I said, thinking about Joey. "Then I'll be complete."

Chapter Twenty-four.

The rest of that week absolutely limped by, each day just making Saturday feel further away rather than nearer. Joey and I had texted each other and spoken on the phone every single day, talking about everything we'd spoken about on our confessions night, talking about where to meet, and what time, both of us practically giddy with excitement about meeting up that weekend.

But Saturday did actually finally arrive. There had been times when I'd seriously thought we'd never get there, but now here I was, wide awake with butterflies inside me, butterflies that didn't want to go away even when I pulled back the curtains to be greeted by a grey, damp, miserable day. Nothing, not even a bit of rain, was going to spoil my day. I was sure of it. I sent Joey a text, making some joke about her not being able to recognise me because I'd be covered up from head to foot in rain gear, and grinned happily when she sent me one back saying she'd just be wearing galoshes and a smile.

I just about managed to eat some breakfast, but my nerves were by now starting to kick in, nerves which I knew were ridiculous and would probably disappear the second I saw her. I sat at the kitchen table, lost in my own thoughts, wondering what she'd be wearing, what the first thing she'd say to me would be, and jumped, startled, when my phone suddenly rang. It was Joey.

I watched her name flashing on and off, a sudden, horrible thought that she'd had second thoughts briefly entering my head then leaving it again just as quickly, then kinda nervously answered the phone.

"Anything wrong?" I asked, sounding more startled than I probably should have done.

"I'm fine." Joey's familiar, soft voice sounded at the other end. "Are you up?"

"Yeah, course!" I got up and closed the kitchen door so that Mum and Dad, in the lounge watching some Saturday-morning live cookery show, couldn't hear me.

"I wanna come over and see you now," Joey said excitedly. "I know we said eleven-ish but I can't wait till then. Can I come now? I'm pacing the house, dying to see you."

I laughed, her infectious enthusiasm making me feel happy. I looked at my watch: 9.35.

"You sound like a kid at Christmas," I said, lowering my voice.

"I feel like it!" Joey breathed. "So can I? There's a train at nine fifty, gets me to you just gone ten."

I looked at my watch again. Twenty-five minutes. Twenty-five minutes to get dressed, look half-decent, and get myself into town for ten a.m. Could I do it?

For Joey, I'd do it.

"Sounds good to me," I said, getting up from the table and heading back upstairs. "I'll see you at the station in half an hour."

We said our hasty good-byes as I flung my wardrobe doors open, chucking various items of clothing onto the bed, rifling through tops and jeans that I thought would be suitable. I opted for this neat sorta patterned tunic-type top that I'd hardly worn before and a pair of black skinny jeans that I paired up with my tidiest Airwalks. After quickly putting a bit of makeup on to brighten up my face, I cleaned my teeth, flung on a jacket, wrapped a multicoloured silk scarf round my neck, grabbed my bag and, hollering a good-bye to anyone within earshot, left the house, practically running down to the railway station.

The train had arrived by the time I got down there. I yanked the entrance door to the station open and practically fell in through it, gasping for breath from my route-march down the hill to the station, and that's when I saw her. She was sitting on a bench by the ticket machine, long legs stretched out in front of her, hands stuffed deep inside her jacket, watching in amusement as I stumbled into the station foyer, probably looking a bit like I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards.

"Now that's what I call making an entrance," she said, getting to her feet and walking towards me, wrapping her arms tight around me when we finally reached each other.

I hugged her back, any feelings of anxiety or apprehension I may have had rapidly disappearing as I felt her warm, soft body against mine.

"Good job you recognised me," I whispered into her hair, "or else you'd be hugging a very frightened stranger!"

Joey pulled away and gazed at me.

"I knew it was you the second you came in-sorry, fell in-here," she said.

She looked at me, suddenly serious.

"And I've imagined your face from your photos and all our Skype convos over the last few weeks enough times to be able to recognise you too," she added, lowering her voice.

I smiled nervously, taking in every tiny detail of her face. She was taller than I imagined she'd be-a good couple of inches taller than me-and thinner than her photos or Skype had ever indicated to me.

"I like your Vans," I said, nodding in approval down at her feet.

"I like your Airwalks," Joey countered, looping her arm in mine and making for the exit. "We have good taste, huh? Now, where are you taking me, missy?"

We headed for a neat little cafe I knew, just off the main shopping centre, down one of the little side streets that Oxford has, and managed to dive inside just as the heavens opened and the rain came teeming down. As Joey went to the counter to buy us a cappuccino each, I sat myself down in the corner of the cafe and watched her.

I'd seen her face so many times before this, but in the flesh she was a hundred times more stunning than her photos and the webcam had ever hinted. I couldn't take my eyes off her as I watched her order us our coffees, then saunter back over to our table, a lazy grin on her face.

"What're you looking at?" She laughed as she sat down opposite me, handing me my cappuccino.

"You," I said quietly, looking down to the table, suddenly embarrassed.

She looked at me carefully as she drank her cappuccino.

"You have lovely eyes," she said, still watching me. "You don't see how nice they are on the computer!"

I picked up my cappuccino.

"I was thinking the same thing about you," I said. "I mean, that you're far lovelier in the flesh than you are on the webcam..." I suddenly stopped myself.

"Thanks!" Joey laughed. "I think."

"You know what I mean," I mumbled sheepishly, playfully flicking my hand towards her arm.

"I do, yeah." Joey's face flushed slightly and I felt my tummy flip over. I liked the feeling of butterflies fluttering again inside me, and this time I particularly loved that it was Joey making them do it.

We talked solidly for over an hour, just in that one cafe, buying another coffee each, listening to the rain pouring down outside, neither of us wanting to leave the safe, warm, and more importantly, dry cafe. We talked about everything: the message board, the people on it, Joey's course at college, my course at college, our families and friends. We even briefly talked about Fickle and Claire, but only for the briefest of moments. This wasn't a time to talk about exes.

I looked out of the cafe window.

"Rain's stopped," I said. "Wanna go somewhere quieter?"

"You betcha!"

Joey drained her coffee and got to her feet, waiting for me to do the same. We walked through town a while, stopping occasionally to look in shop windows, but mainly just chatting and joking with each other, happy in one another's company. We headed up to a park at the far end of the town centre and perched on the edge of a soggy, graffiti-covered bench, to eat the sandwiches we'd hastily bought in a busy Subway on the way up. The rain had eased at long last, allowing the sunshine to finally break through.

"I don't want today to end," Joey said, chucking her bread crusts down onto the grass for the scrawny park pigeons to come and peck.

"Me neither," I said, watching as the pigeons hopped over towards us to gobble up the crumbs. "I wish we could stay here forever."

I looked at her and felt like I'd gone full circle, like everything that had happened over the last few months had been for a reason. We sat in the sunshine together, feeding the birds our scraps and laughing at the silliness of them, both of us just happy and comfortable in one another's company. Our first date was everything I'd hoped it would be-and more. I felt so at ease in her company, as I instinctively knew I would. There were no awkward silences, no moments of self-consciousness, no hints of shyness; there was just ease and this wonderful sense of us each feeling complete.

"You have no idea how nuts I am about you, Imms," Joey sighed, squinting up into the late afternoon sunshine. "No idea. One day you were just this Barnaby Rudge person on my MSN, okay for a laugh and a joke with, and then the next day...POW...you were Imogen Summers, and I knew I'd fallen head over heels for you."

"You do believe me now when I tell you I feel exactly the same, don't you?" I asked Joey earnestly.

"I think so," she started.

Instinctively, I reached out and took her hands, suddenly wanting to feel her skin on mine, loving the feeling of her hands, so warm and soft and comfortable in mine.

Kinda like they belonged there, you know?

"You should," I said, gazing over at her. "I can't believe I could so easily have let you go. The perfect girl was right there under my nose all the time and I just couldn't see it." I shook my head. "I'm such a dumbass sometimes..."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere." Joey grinned, playfully bumping her shoulder against mine. "Even if you are a dumbass!"

"You know, it's almost like we were both meant to go through all that shit, you with Claire and me with Fickle," I said, stroking the palm of her hand with my thumb, "just so that we could get to this point. It's kinda like we were meant for each other. Does that make sense?"

"I think so," Joey said, reaching down to tighten one of her trainer laces. She stared at her feet. "I s'pose it's like, I dunno, always thinking you never found shoes comfortable and assuming it was 'cos you've got funny feet, and that's why the shoes aren't comfortable, you know? And then you find a pair of shoes that feel comfortable and nice, and that fit exactly as they should do, and you realise that it hasn't been your funny feet, it's been the wrong shoes all along."

"You're saying I'm like a pair of shoes?" I looked at her and laughed. "You better mean really hot shoes!"

"I'm saying you feel comfortable to me, like you belong with me." Joey looked back at me. "You mean everything to me, Imms."

"And you mean the world to me too, Joe," I said. "It just took a while for me to realise it."

We sat there on that park bench for pretty much the rest of the afternoon, our hands entwined, just lost in each other, each occasionally looking at the other, kinda like we wanted to take in every last detail, knowing that it would be another week until we could see each other again. When it was finally time for Joey to catch her train back home, neither of us could bear to part.

We walked back to the station together, both of us lost in our own thoughts, and headed up to the platform. Her train was on time, much to my annoyance, a part of me desperately hoping it would be delayed so that I could spend a few precious extra moments with her.

"You'll come over to me next week, won't you?" Joey asked earnestly.

I paused.

"I could come over tomorrow?" I said in a rush, then added, "I mean, if you want?"

Joey wrapped her arms round herself. "I want, Imms," she said. "Very much."

"We can talk about it on MSN later."

Joey glanced over her shoulder as we heard the rumble of her train approaching. "I don't want to go," she said, her face beginning to crumple.

"I know," I said, just as the train pulled into the station with a shrill whistle of brakes.

We stood waiting and looking at each other a while longer as the train doors opened with a clatter and passengers got on and off, both of us desperate to hold on until the very last moment. When the train finally looked like it was ready to leave again, Joey leaned in and briefly kissed my cheek.

"You're everything to me, Imms," she whispered into my hair.

"And you to me too," I whispered back.

"No one else matters, you know." Joey linked her fingers briefly in mine and turned to go. "No one."

She started to disappear into the throng of people on the train, then turned back and looked at me, a wide grin on her face. "From now on, kiddo, it's just me and you."

About the Author.

KE Payne was born in Bath, the English city, not the tub, and after leaving school she worked for the British government for fifteen years, which probably sounds a lot more exciting than it really was.

Fed up with spending her days moving paperwork around her desk and making models of the Taj Mahal out of paperclips, she packed it all in to go to university in Bristol and graduated as a mature student in 2006 with a degree in linguistics and history.

After graduating, she worked at a university in the Midlands for a while, again moving all that paperwork around, before finally leaving to embark on her dream career as a writer.

She moved to the idyllic English countryside in 2007 where she now lives and works happily surrounded by dogs and guinea pigs.

Soliloquy Titles From Bold Strokes Books.

me@you.com by KE Payne. Is it possible to fall in love with someone you've never met? Imogen Summers thinks so because it's happened to her. (978-1-60282-592-5).

Swimming to Chicago by David-Matthew Barnes. As the lives of the adults around them unravel, high school students Alex and Robby form an unbreakable bond, vowing to do anything to stay together-even if it means leaving everything behind. (978-1-60282-572-7).

Speaking Out edited by Steve Berman. Inspiring stories written for and about LGBT and Q teens of overcoming adversity (against intolerance and homophobia) and experiencing life after "coming out." (978-1-60282-566-6) 365 Days by K.E. Payne. Life sucks when you're seventeen years old and confused about your sexuality, and the girl of your dreams doesn't even know you exist. Then in walks sexy new emo girl, Hannah Harrison. Clemmie Atkins has exactly 365 days to discover herself, and she's going to have a blast doing it! (978-1- 60282-540-6) Cursebusters! by Julie Smith. Budding-psychic Reeno is the most accomplished teenage burglar in California, but one tiny screw-up and poof!-she's sentenced to Bad Girl School. And that isn't even her worst problem. Her sister Haley's dying of an illness no one can diagnose, and now she can't even help. (978-1-60282-559-8) Who I Am by M.L. Rice. Devin Kelly's senior year is a disaster. She's in a new school in a new town, and the school bully is making her life miserable-but then she meets his sister Melanie and realizes her feelings for her are more than platonic. (978-1-60282- 231-3) Sleeping Angel by Greg Herren. Eric Matthews survives a terrible car accident only to find out everyone in town thinks he's a murderer- and he has to clear his name even though he has no memories of what happened. (978-1-60282-214-6) Mesmerized by David-Matthew Barnes. Through her close friendship with Brodie and Lance, Serena Albright learns about the many forms of love and finds comfort for the grief and guilt she feels over the brutal death of her older brother, the victim of a hate crime. (978-1-60282-191-0) The Perfect Family by Kathryn Shay. A mother and her gay son stand hand in hand as the storms of change engulf their perfect family and the life they knew. (978-1-60282-181-1).

Father Knows Best by Lynda Sandoval. High school juniors and best friends Lila Moreno, Meryl Morganstern, and Caressa Thibodoux plan to make the most of the summer before senior year. What they discover that amazing summer about girl power, growing up, and trusting friends and family more than prepares them to tackle that all-important senior year! (978-1-60282-147-7).

By the Author.

365 Days.

me@you.com.