Page 40 of Sour Lollipops and Sweet Nightmares
The quarterback in my high school supposedly dated Scarlett Johansson. Don’t get me wrong, he was good-looking, but nowhere in her league. Plus, the only time he left our town was for away games, and I was pretty sure Scarlett Johansson didn’t frequent high school football games.
“You realize how crazy that sounds, right?” People didn’t go after your loved ones because you didn’t obey them. We weren’t in a mafia movie.
“As crazy as a room full of people leaving because someone told them to.”
Okay, that was a fair argument.
“Maybe they all believe the same thing you do.” Fear was a powerful weapon. So was reputation.
“Did you see the missing posters of that girl around campus?”
“Yeah.” They were everywhere and kind of hard to miss.
“Well, I knew her. All Kathy ever wanted was to be a lawyer. She spent every night in the library studying for her LSATS.”
I could understand that.
“Ten days ago, she went missing, right after she got Slater suspended from the football team for inappropriate behavior. The cops insist she’s a runaway.”
That was a little suspicious, but not necessarily nefarious. Maybe she did run away?
“In the two years I knew her, she didn’t miss a single class, even when she had pneumonia.”
Okay, that was bordering on the nefarious side. “That doesn’t mean she didn’t run away. The pressure might’ve been too much for her.”
It wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened.
The arch in Rachel’s brow deepened. “Without her phone, wallet, or any of her clothes?”
That was harder to argue with, and didn’t make me feel any better about my situation. Was that going to happen to me? Was I going to become a face on a missing poster because I walked into the wrong room?
“Issac will leave me alone. He humiliated me, and he’ll move on now.”
I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince. Myself, Rachel, or the universe? Either way, the look Rachel gave me in response caused the sense of dread settling in my gut to grow.
“So, basically, I’m fucked and should go home?”
No Ivy League education was worth this. But then what would I tell Mom? She worked so hard to help me get here. She was so proud when I got the scholarship. We finally reached a point where she no longer thought looks mattered.
I proved to her that intelligence could take you further. She valued herself now. If I ran away with my tail between my legs because of a couple of jerks, I would shatter all that. Did I really want to do that to her?
There were jerks everywhere. If I couldn’t handle myself now, then what was I going to do when I went out into the world and got a job, or had to fight for grants? If I ran away now, then I may as well give up on my dream. And that was something I was not willing to do.
“You don’t have to leave.” Rachel said. “You have a secret weapon that Kathy didn’t.”
Was it social awkwardness and the inability to talk to people, because if that was my secret weapon, then I was golden.
“You have Kash.”
Really? “Kash? The guy who makes sex appointments?”
That was my secret weapon?
“That’s right.”
“I fail to see how Kash is going to help me.” I held up my finger and pointed at her. “I’m not having sex with him.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not saying you have to fuck him…”
