Page 13 of You Had Me at Hello World
His mouth twists unhappily. “Vandy put me on academic probation.”
“What’s that?” One of my mom’s coworkers is on probation for a DUI. But that had very little to do with academics and a lot to do with three too many beers.
“I failed some classes. They asked me to leave for a semester.”
Lola frowns. “But weren’t ya, like, good at school?”
He lets out a bitter laugh. “Acing Chinook Shore is completely different from acing college. At least at a top private school like Vanderbilt.”
“Is Vanderbilt a top private school?” Lola asks. “I haven’t even heard of it. It’s not Harvard.”
Zach scowls. “As if you could even get into Vanderbilt.”
My best friend looks like she’s ready to rearrange his teeth, so I cut in. “Torres, can you just go back to the restaurant and pay your bill?”
He finally has the decency to look ashamed. “I wasn’t trying to steal.”
That’s about as believable as a YouTuber apology video. I scoff.
“Serious! That’s not me. I just… I got an email from Bank of America saying my debit card’s been overdrafted, and I didn’t have enough cash, and I panicked.” Now he looks like he might cry. “I didn’t think I’d end up back here, you know? I was supposed to be the one who made it out.”
God save me. I really don’t need to hear about his crash-out. If his lip starts quivering, I truly may barf. “It’s Chinook Shore, not federal prison.”
Ugh, now his eyes are weirdly shiny. I hate this. I don’t want to feel bad for him. Really, if there is any victim in this situation, it’s my butt, which is starting to go numb from prolonged contact with his knobby knees.
My phone rings again.
“Char, are you sure you don’t need to get that call?” Lola asks.
“Nah, I’ll check my voicemail later. It’s probably a friend.”
She squints. “You don’t have any friends besides me.” I open my mouth, but before I can protest, she adds, “The Advanced Placement nerds don’t count. Half of them are just using you forhomework help. The other half are hoping you’ll let them touch your boobs one day.”
Damn. She just obliterated me.
“Get the call,” she says. “I’ll figure things out with this dumbass.”
“You know I can hear you, right?” Zach says.
We both ignore him.
My knees squeak as I stand. I press my phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“I’m looking for Charise Tang?” The male voice on the other end pronounces my name like the syllables are jagged metal.
“Um, yeah, that’s me.”
I cast another glance at Lola, who is still perched on Zach’s chest. She mouthsGo,and I take a few steps away from them.
“My name is Edvin Nilsen,” he says. “Is this a good time?”
Chapter Seven
Edvin Nilsen. Founder of Alpha Fellows. CEO of Nexus, a data analytics company specializing in defense. I don’t really know what Nexus does—since they work with the government, they keep everything hush-hush.
“Uh,” I say, like an idiot. It feels like someone is pumping air into my skull. My feet start moving by themselves, taking me farther and farther away from Lola and Zach.
“The committee was wowed by your application,” he says. “We wanted to extend you an invite to our summer program.”
