Page 54 of We Shouldn't Be Together
I mellow out to Zachary Fleischman’s rant until a headache builds in my skull. I blow out a breath, imagining Jamie’s reaction to this. One, I was with her bully. Two, we were sitting in her cafe’s competition.
I fail the game mission and watch my character impaled on a trap door spike.
Yep, that feels about right.
The podcast pauses as my phone chimes next to me on the couch cushion. I glance over to see a notification from the school portal app. The phone screen goes dark again and the podcast resumes.
I stare at my defeated and bloodied character and don’t feel like giving him another chance. Instead of restarting the level, I pick up my phone. With disgust, I jerk back when the recipient’s name reads:Tabitha Jones.
What the heck?
Why would she message me after that disaster of a study session? Isn’t calling each other horrible humans enough of a reason to stop talking?
With morbid curiosity, I open the message.
"Obviously, I don’t want to be writing to you. But I got lectured by my brother. So, we didn’t actually achieve anything today, and Mrs. Field won’t reassign us to save face. How do we do the assignment and see as little of each other as possible?"
I re-read it twice because Zachary Fleischman has gone off-kilter with his rant. The spit ricochets off the mic with every new decibel he reaches.
Okay, she’s messaging mebecausethe study session was such a disaster. Hmm, maybe there is a pea-sized brain in that skull after all.
I pause the podcast to send her a reply."Seeing each other as little as possible is a good call. Maybe we pick an experiment that doesn’t require us to be in the same place to get good results? We could divide up the work and just email each other with the notes. Sound good?"
I put down the phone beside me, but don’t lock it. I want to see if she replies because one thing would make this crappy day better. If I saw a message with a brilliant plan to pass the class and never see Tabitha ever again.
There’s no reply for a long time. With frustrated boredom, I hit play on my controller and zombie my way through the mission. When my phone eventually chimes again, I instantly hit pause.
I blink at the static TV screen.
Do I want to see her reply this badly?
Why don’t I ignore it?
Why don’t I hit play on the podcast?
What good could come from continuing a conversation with her?
I swallow hard and pick up the phone again.
This is me we’re talking about. Morbid curiosity always wins.
With a quick exhale, I read her next message."I just asked my brothers what they did in this class. Annoyingly, it sounds like most of the experiments are a two-person job. They were like, it’s kinda the point, like it’s why we’re paired up to begin with. So frustrating. Just tell me you have some out-of-the-box idea that gets us out of working together."
I roughly rub my forehead and then tap out a response."I was hoping you would."
After I hit send, my brow furrows. Why would I have thought that? She only has air in her head. Why would she have the magic answer?
"I thought I was a ditz,"Tabitha replies.
I snort, and then sit taller to eliminate the smile on my face. I clear my throat and think about our options.
I start typing a respone."We have to sit next to each other in class, right? There’s no way around that. Can’t we just…"
I hit the backspace button. I was going to suggest we buckle down and do the work in class, so there’s no need to meet up after school. But my mind overloads with every moment I’ve been around Tabitha. It always turns into an argument. That’s the part that really has no other way around.
I text instead,"How do we do this without fighting?"
"We could make a pact, but would either of us stick to it?"she replies.
