Page 35 of Boom
"What? Why is that perfect?"
"Because I'm thinking we can use a consultant, someone with a vested interest in seeing the place restored to its former glory and all that."
From my left, I swear I heard a gasp.
Apparently, Landon heard it too, because he looked to Waverly and said, "Is there something you want to say?"
But it wasn't Waverly who answered.It was Brody.In a deadly calm voice, he told Landon, "She's not interested."
I gave him an annoyed look. "I never said that."
Brody replied, "Yeah, but you will."
"Oh, so now you're a psychic."
With a low scoff, he said, "Better a psychic than a psycho."
I gave him the squinty-eye. "What'sthatsupposed to mean?"
"Nothing that a lit match won't solve." His gaze hardened. "Isn't that right?"
"Oh, for God's sake," I said. "It wasn't a match. It was a lighter."
And the lighter wasn't even mine. It was Brody's. But that was an argument for another time – when I wasn't defending my own sanity.
I looked back to Landon and explained, "In high school, Iaccidentallyset fire to Brody's truck."
"Accident, my ass," Brody said.
I whirled to face my high-school nemesis. "Oh yeah? And what about you? You practically blew us up."
Brody reached up to rub the back of his neck. "It wasn'tthatbad."
"Oh yeah?" My voice rose. "Tell that to my missing eyebrows."
He shrugged like this was no big deal. "Hey, they grew back."
"Not in time for graduation!"
It was true. In all of my senior pictures, there I was, withpaintedeyebrows, because my real eyebrows had gotten so singed, they were practically invisible.
On top of that, my perfect G.P.A. had been ruined by the fact that I'd not only failed my senior chemistry project, I'd been suspended for two whole weeks and wasn't allowed to make up all of my work.
One little boom – or more accurately oneginormousboom – and all of my plans went up in smoke.
Now, years later, I was still suffering the consequences.
As far as the boom itself, it was a huge miracle that no one had been seriously hurt. Against all odds, I hadn't been injured so much as made to look ridiculous.And Brody?He'd gotten away utterly unscathed.As usual.
We were still going back and forth when Waverly's voice cut through our bickering. "Enough already!"
In unison, Brody and I turned to look.
Sometime in the last minute or so, she'd sidled closer to Landon. Her lips thinned as she eyed me like I was something to be scraped off her pricy shoes – which, yes, were looking just a little greener than before.
Hah! Take that, City Slicker.
Still, I waited in polite silence, not because she'd asked for it, but because it suddenly occurred to me that I was arguing in front of a stranger – two strangers, actually. Or three, if I wanted to include Roy.
