"I am a little late in the game... I completely understand that. I also understand that I've always been a total cunt to you and I always try to tear you down every chance I get. All I can think to say is that I'm sorry. I know you may never forgive me, but I'm here to ask you for the biggest favor I believe I've ever asked of anyone..." I drop my library books down on the table where she's sat. She jumps and looks up at me with raised eyebrows and narrowed brown eyes. "Emmy Dian Sireux, would you please... Do me the honor of... coming to the Prom with--"
"Sssh. This is a library!" Ms. Cordelia, the fairly young librarian with a wonky eye and too many missing teeth, shouts from across the room. I look up at her, nod quickly, and then look back at Emmy who is staring up at me with her mouth agape.
"Are you actually on drugs right now?" She finally asks. My shoulders fall from their anxiety-induced tension and I stare down at her with an 'are you kidding me' look. "Seriously... what the hell is the matter with you?"
"Please, Emmy, I really need this." I whisper, leaning down closer to her face. "I'll pay you if you want me to." She pauses momentarily, clearly taken back from my offering.
"You'd pay me? To go on a date with you? What the hell is happening right now? Who are you and what have you done with Julie Nicholson?" I roll my eyes and sit down across from her. She giggles lightly and leans closer over the table. "Seriously, Julie, what is the meaning of this? You're way too full of yourself to pay someone to go on a date with you."
I shrug and open on of the books I brought to study. I lick my finger and flick it open, but Emmy closes it and grabs my hand.
"50 dollars an hour and tell me why you're doing this, and I'll gladly go to Prom with you." She murmurs and interlocks our fingers. I look down at her face then at our hands.
"Brielle agreed to go to Prom with Max." She pulls her hand away from mine and leans back, but I don't bother to look her.
If she's anything like the rest of our friends, then she'll be wearing a disappointed look on her face with a hint of pity. Instead, I stare at one interestingly shaped paint chipping on the table where our hands once were. (It looks like a koala bear).
"So... you want to go with me to make her jealous?" She asks simply.
Her voice takes me by surprise. No disappointment or pity. Just curiosity. It's the voice of someone who is on a secret mission with a group of people and she needs to know what her job is. I look up at her face and find that her face is the physical equivalent to her voice. I raise an eyebrow, and she does the same.
"Yes. I guess. I want to make her jealous and then tell her how I feel. Once she sees that she feels the same way about me, then she'll have to leave Max. Right?" Emmy shrugs and crosses her arms.
"I suppose. I'm not a math magician."
"It's math masochist."
"Math mosaicist actually."
"Math mycologist, you imbecile."
"Math gynecologist. Come on, Julie, we literally learned this in the third grade." She giggles.
"Okay, that's over..." I try to hide my smile by biting my thumbnail, but it still peaks through.
An incredibly noticeable blush grows along her ears, her cheeks bones, and the sides of her nose. She looks down at her book, but I notice that her eyes stay in one spot instead of following the sentences across the page.
"So..." I mutter, interlocking my fingers, and looking around at the differently assorted bookshelves that aren't nearly as satisfying to look at as Peterson's.
YOU ARE READING
Deviation (Book #2 of the Taylor Series)
Teen Fiction"It's almost as if sleep and I were married for sixteen years, and I caught them having an affair with my sister." Julie Esther Nicholson, one of the younger sisters of Eve Nicholson, has returned for her story. With the chips of her old life up in...
