for the senior thesis paper.” Veronica stands in front of me, glaring. If I hadn’t seen her smile with her friends, I’d think her expression was set on permanently pissed. Evidently, that look is reserved for me.
A quick scan of the mostly empty room, and no one is paying attention to us. The few other people in here are lost on their phones or asleep. The bell to head to first period won’t ring for another five minutes. Most of my friends are hanging out in the cafeteria, but I wasn’t in the mood to pretend I’m in a good mood when I’m not.
Veronica is in blue jeans that are more tears than material and layered underneath are black lace tights. Her black T-shirt with the name of a death metal band on the front has been cut so that it hangs precariously off one shoulder. Beneath her shirt is a spaghetti-strapped, black lace tank top. It’s a sexy look not one other girl at this school would dare to rock.
“How did you see my schedule?”
“I rooted through the stack on the secretary’s desk until I found it. She was making copies at the time.”
Wow.
She plops down in the seat in front of me and tilts her head as if she’s waiting for me to speak, which I guess she is, but I’m not sure what to say. My family and I currently have a roof over our heads because of her, and the last thing I want to say is no. But what she doesn’t understand is that my life is complicated. “I don’t think you want to work with me.”
She bobs her head like she agrees, and I don’t know why, but I find her honesty amusing. I take out my other earbud and slide back in my seat.
“You’re right, I don’t. I don’t like you, you don’t like me, but since I’m not allowed to work by myself, I figured we should work together.”
This I have to hear. “Why me?”
“One, we live in the same house so it will be easy to meet up. Two, you have a car and I don’t. This paper requires a lot of research and personal interviews, which means travel.”
“You can do research online and the interviews over the phone.”
For the first time, at least in my direction, Veronica’s eyes spark with joy and that draws me in. “Not for what we’re doing our paper on. We’ll need firsthand experience.”
“Yeah? What’s the topic?”
Veronica leans forward, and she’s absolutely hypnotizing. “Ghosts. Do they exist?”
Is she kidding? “Ghosts?”
“Ghosts.”
Damn. She’s serious. “Why ghosts?”
She falls back in her chair. “For starters, the house we live in is haunted.”
“There’s no such things as ghosts.”
Veronica offers me a slow daring grin like she knows secrets I don’t. “You’ll change your mind after living there a few weeks.”
Sure. As much as I’ve enjoyed this conversation, there’s still a reality to this situation. “While that sounds interesting, I meant what I said before. You don’t want to work with me.”
“Why?”
I drum my fingers against the table and a million plausible reasons flood my brain as to why she wouldn’t want to work with me. My instability—my addiction to jumping off high cliffs—that nobody knows about is a good reason for her to ditch me, but the truth—that my mother has different expectations—isn’t what I want to admit.
I could snatch any reason, give it to her with a full dose of bull, but it doesn’t feel right. Not for the person who helped my sister when she was in need. Not for the person who is letting the bounced check slide.
The longer I take, that spark that was there before fades and that’s a shame. Veronica pushes away from the table and stands. “Screw it. I’ll save you the burden of having to say no to me because I’m too weird to work with. Weird, right? Isn’t that what you and your friends said?”
Dammit. “Wait.”
But Veronica is fast, very fast, and I’m out of my seat chasing her. “Veronica!”
She’s close to the doors of the library and if she gets into the hallway, I’ll lose her for sure. “Veronica, wait!”
Last second, so abruptly that I almost run into her, she spins on her heels. “What?”
“I have a form of dyslexia.”
Veronica’s face twists up like I told her there’s a rabbit popping out of my ass. “So?”
So? “When it comes to reading, researching and writing papers, it takes me longer. Is that what you want to deal with when working with a