had been negative. “So what about you?” he asked after a moment. “I feel kinda stupid I never bothered to ask, but what made you want to pursue marketing? I mean, other than the fact that you’re amazing at it.”
“I think amazing might be a bit of a stretch, but thank you.”
“Are you kidding? Nite Bites would’ve been nothing if you hadn’t helped us. And the logo you did for the Yard is perfect.”
He didn’t say anything more than that, and he didn’t need to. I knew he meant every word.
“Thanks,” I said.
Surprisingly, even though I’d had to interview for the internship and I was finishing up my junior year of college, no one had ever asked me why I’d chosen the major. My parents cared more about the whats than the whys of my decisions. They were just happy I was doing well in school and had goals for my future that didn’t involve any of the shit Brody was always getting mixed up in.
But just because I hadn’t had to tell someone what drew me to the career didn’t mean I didn’t know.
“I guess the politician’s answer would be that I’m a creative dork. Marketing lets me research and compare data, but I also get to be creative. I always liked to write, so the idea of creating a slogan or campaign gets me excited. Add in the technology aspect, and it’s like a symphony of nerdy things.”
“I feel like symphonies are nerdy enough on their own.”
I laughed.
“I couldn’t even tell you what marketing really is,” he continued. “I don’t even know the difference between that and advertising or publicity.”
I smiled. “And hopefully you’ll never need to.”
“So what’s the nonpolitician’s answer?” Drew asked me after a moment.
“This’ll probably make me seem like such an asshole,” I said after a long sigh.
“I seriously doubt anything could make me think you’re an asshole.”
I hoped he was right, but I still felt self-conscious about the answer I was about to give.
“It just always seemed fun to be able to manipulate people’s opinions and actions.”
Drew’s eyebrow went up.
“Told you.”
“No, that’s… I get that, actually.”
“‘Manipulate’ may be the wrong word. It’s not like I wanna make them do something against their will or anything, but there’s a certain power to it. Growing up, I was surrounded by such strong personalities, I didn’t really have much of a say in anything. I was always the quiet one who never went against the grain. I had friends, but none of us were popular until high school.”
Drew waited for me to continue like he sensed I had more to say.
“In eighth grade, my friend Kayla wanted to run for class president. She lived on my street, and I’d known her forever. I thought she was insane because she was a nerd like me and pretty much had zero chance of winning. But I couldn’t tell her that because she was genuinely excited, and she had plans for our class, like an eighth grade formal and a class trip. So instead of telling her she wasn’t gonna get many votes, I decided I would do everything I could to help her. I didn’t think she’d win, but I hoped we could get her enough votes that her running would’ve been respectable.”
“So they announced how many votes people got? That’s messed up.”
“Not formally. But the mom of one of the kids in our class worked in the main office. Somehow things like that got out. And when it did, I wanted Kayla to at least feel justified running. Her competitor was this kid Colin. He was a wrestler and super involved. He had tons of friends, got good grades, and he’d held the position of president for the previous two years. Colin was a nice kid, but he didn’t do anything. People voted for him just because they knew him and they liked him.
“When I started to think about it, that was our angle. Our class needed a change. They needed someone like Kayla. They just didn’t know it yet. I honestly forget the exact slogan we used, but it was something like, ‘Give yourself who you need—Kayla Reid.’”
“That’s clever,” Drew said.
“Thanks. We thought so, of course. We made up Who You Need wristbands and passed them out, and Kayla made more of an effort to talk to people she didn’t usually talk to because I said more people needed to know her. I figured if they knew her, they’d like her. I did some research on other