Most Likely (Most Likely #1) - Sarah Watson Page 0,92
money and slid him a ticket. He laughed when he saw the title that was printed on it.
“What?” Martha asked.
“I didn’t even check to see what movie you were showing.” He held up his ticket. “The Graduate. How apropos.”
“I’ve never seen it before,” Martha said.
“Is the theater busy tonight?”
“Are we ever busy?”
Logan smiled. “Then you need to join me.”
Martha locked up the ticket booth and met him in the lobby. They picked two seats in the back and settled in as the opening credits rolled. Dustin Hoffman appeared on-screen, and then there was a long moment of silence.
“I love this opening sequence so much,” Logan said. “Right away you get the point. This is a guy who has no idea what he’s doing with his life.”
“I can relate.” She thought about MIT and felt like crying again. The silence on the movie screen was unsettling and Martha fidgeted. Just when it seemed like the silence was going on for too long, a song that Martha had always loved started playing. Hello darkness, my old friend. “You’re right,” she said. “This is very apropos.”
“Did you hear back from the schools you applied to?” Logan asked.
“I only applied to two. Cleveland State and MIT.”
He read the heavy inflection in her voice and asked her if it was bad news.
She shook her head. “I got into both.”
“Congratulations.”
She shrugged. “I got a full ride at Cleveland State,” she said. “I should just go there. It makes the most sense. MIT didn’t offer me any scholarship money.”
“But…?” he asked, still looking at her.
“I don’t want to stay in Cleveland, Logan.” She wanted to go somewhere different and try new things. She wanted something bigger. Bigger than the tiny ticket booth and the tiny apartment and the tiny life that would be hers if she stayed. “What about you?” she asked.
“I got into Stanford.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks. I guess. I got in a couple of other places too. But my parents are expecting me to say yes to Stanford. That’s what they want.”
“What do you want, Diffenderfer?”
“Not that.”
Logan’s eyes went back to the screen. The sad song continued. It was the perfect soundtrack for what they were both feeling. Martha felt their hands touch on the armrest. It was an accidental brush, but neither of them moved their hands away. Martha thought that the only thing that felt strange about sitting in the dark with Logan Diffenderfer and talking about their futures and their fears was that absolutely nothing felt strange about it.
When the movie ended, Martha didn’t get up. She knew that Logan would want to sit through the credits like he always did. She didn’t mind. She was thinking about the movie and how you never really know where life is going to take you. She decided that this was okay. The mystery of it was half the fun.
Martha turned to Logan. “Hey,” she said. “Did you get voted anything for the Senior Superlatives?”
“Yeah. But it’s stupid.”
“Mine too. I hate it.” She’d lied when she told her friends that she didn’t get anything. She was too angry and humiliated by how her classmates saw her. “I got Most Likely to Never Leave Ohio.”
Logan laughed slightly. “Maybe they got ours backward.”
“Why? What did you get?”
Martha felt Logan’s elbow brush against hers on the armrest as he told her. “Most Likely to Be President.”
Jordan wrapped her hands tightly around the steering wheel. She was worried she was going to crash if she didn’t totally focus. She was still thinking about what the letter from Northwestern said. Wait-listed.
She turned off the main road and pulled into the parking lot of Councilman Lonner’s district office. She knew there was a chance that Scott would already be gone for the night, but she didn’t think so. He’d told her that he couldn’t leave on Fridays until he’d logged all the constituent concerns he had heard during the week and sent them to the councilman. The list was often so long that it kept him there until midnight.
The nice woman who worked at the front desk was already gone, and most of the offices were dark. Jordan peered around the front desk and called out softly, “Hello? Anyone here?”
When nobody answered, she walked around to the back. There was a light coming from an office. It was Scott’s. She walked up and said the only thing she could think to say. “Hi.”
“Jordan.”
She’d startled him.
“Hi,” she said again.
He glanced around as if they might get caught. “You have to go. I can’t see you.”