Crossing Paths

Chapter 2

"So whose life are you going to pry into?" Park asked over the phone. Based off of the music and voices in the background, I was assuming that she was at the mall, where she worked on the weekends. 

"I'm not sure yet." I answered honestly, twirling a pencil in my hand as I stared at the blank notebook in front of me. I had a long way to go before I was ready to turn in a polished report to my aunt. She didn't give me a deadline, but I didn't want to keep her waiting either. I wanted her to know I was serious about this assignment. "Want to volunteer?" 

"I think I'll pass. I don't really care to let your aunt know my deepest, darkest secrets." 

"It's not like that. It's just psychology. It's a science, not a way to degrade people for the way they think and act."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Park muttered under her breath. She had definitely heard this kind of spiel from me before. Suddenly, I heard angry voices pick up in the background. It was followed by Park sighing dejectedly. "Look, I gotta go. Talk to you later?" 

"Yeah, sure." 

Without even a goodbye, she hung up. I couldn't help but smile to myself. Park was always her own person and you had a better chance of winning the lottery than catching her apologizing for it. She definitely would have been an interesting person to write a report on, but I respected the fact that she didn't want to. 

It suddenly dawned on me that I might have trouble finding someone who was willing to do it. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't even realize Jeremiah had come into my room until he was practically breathing down my neck.

"What are you doing?" He asked, his confused eyes traveling back and forth between me and my desk. 

His sudden, loud voice made me jump slightly. I craned my neck to look up at him. "Ever heard of knocking?" 

"Nope." He brushed off my question easily. "I asked you what you were doing?" 

I sighed wearily, running a hand through my hair. "I'm not exactly sure. Some sort of assignment from Aunt Willow." 

"Wow. Sounds super interesting." The sarcasm was dripping from his voice as he made a big show of plopping down on my bed. I narrowed my eyes at him, but otherwise didn't say anything. I knew he didn't share my passion for the study of mind and behavior. He had barely been able to pass 7th grade science, much less actually engage in meaningful conversation about something as fascinating as psychology. 

"You want to be my subject?" I wondered out loud, swiveling around in my chair to give him a hopeful smile. 

"Excuse me?" He asked incredulously, looking at me with wide eyes. "You make it sound like you want to hook me up to a machine and do wack experiments." 

I rolled my eyes in exasperation. "Not like that, you dork. I need to write a report on how someone's past impacts who they-"

"That's a no from me." He interrupted me before I could even finish. Irritation bubbled up inside of me, but I forced it down. He was only trying to get a reaction out of me. Clearly, he had nothing better to do with his Sunday afternoon. 

"Then do me a favor and go find someone else to annoy." I ordered sharply, turning my back on him to focus on the depressingly empty notebook in front of me. 

"Well I did come in here for a reason. Mom and Dad want to know if you're going with them to the Blake's for their small group." 

Every Sunday evening, my parents went to a small group that consisted of a few couples from churches in our town. I was always invited to go with them. Most of the time, I would join. Besides psychology, my faith was another thing that was really important to me. I found it interesting to talk about it with other people who all had their own stories and life experiences. But despite my usual interest, I just wasn't feeling like it.