Page 34 of Death is My BFF

“You couldn’t possibly understand,” I murmured.

“I understand very few people follow their dreams because of one excuse or another. It could be money, time, or the fear of failing.

Most will regret not doing so the rest of their life. If your passion is art, you should chase it. Even if you fail, it’s better than looking back at your life and knowing you didn’t even try.”

His words resonated with me deeper than he could know. After my haunting interaction with David at the interview, this side of him pleasantly surprised me. I looked down at our shoes as we walked.

“To be completely honest with you, I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I have a few ideas of where I want to go to art school, but I have no idea what I’m going to do with my degree after I’ve earned it. I feel rushed to figure everything out, you know?”

David chuckled. “You say that as if it’s a bad thing. You have plenty of time to figure that out. People go to college to be a history teacher and wind up becoming a lawyer, or a business owner. Fate has a funny way of putting you right where you belong.”

“Spoken like an old soul,” I said.

“More like a guy with time to think while procrastinating in a gap year.” The sun peered out from behind a cloud and a halo of light slanted over David, stretching a golden glow across his features. Suddenly, David stopped in his tracks. He winced, squeezing his eyes shut and unclasping his aviators from the neck of his cotton T-shirt.

“You all right?” I brushed his arm with my fingertips, and he flinched.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He gaped at me a moment and rubbed his arm where I’d touched him before his mouth stretched into a dazzling smile. “The sun went in. I figured I was good for the rest of the day.

Let’s keep walking.” He touched the back of my shirt, guiding me forward again.

“That photophobia thing must suck.”

“I’m used to it.”

“How did you injure your eye, again?”

“When I was a kid, I was at the playground with Dad. I tried to see how fast I could run through the jungle gym to impress him and went down the slide the wrong way. I fell off the side of it into the mulch. A piece of a wood chip stabbed me right in the eye. Wound up in the hospital with a broken wrist and a permanently damaged cornea. No vision loss, thankfully.”

“Sheesh, that’s awful for a child to go through! I’m so sorry.”

He seemed uncomfortable talking about it, so I figured I should change the topic. “We were discussing passions, right? What are you passionate about?”

His pause suspended in the air, as if he were still reeling over my previous question. We passed a fire juggler, contortionist, and various dancers with Hula-Hoops performing sideshow acts. David bent down to put cash in a tip box by the fire juggler, earning a seductive wave from the upside-down contortionist.

“Humanitarianism,” he said, once we continued on.

“Humanitarianism?”

“That’s my passion. I have an impulse to help others.”

The night before, Marcy mentioned the Stars donating a ton of money to children’s hospitals. “How do you help others?”

“I don’t want to bore you with the details.” He cleared his throat.

“I’m curious, do you still have any interest at all in the art counseling position for our program? Or maybe an advertising or public relations direction with your creativity? I’d be more than happy to find you an internship at the D&S Tower.”

I fidgeted with the cross at my neck, withdrawing from the conversation. There was a sinking feeling in my stomach after he dodged another question in his direction. I was noticing David didn’t want to tell me anything about himself, which heightened my theory that this wasn’t a date after all but some kind of self-serving ruse to make himself feel better.

David glanced down at me as we walked further. “You’re upset.”

“A little.”

His smile was lazy and sexy. “Because I tried to make a job connection for you? I’m only trying to help.”

“There are people much more worse off than I am. I don’t need your pity.”

Grabbing the sleeve of my shirt, David jerked me to a stop.

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