Tell Me What You Hate About Me

21: Mosquito

I didn't see Dominic over the next few days, and that was probably for the best. I had nothing to say to him. He thought he knew me as a person because of one thing I said, but what did I have to be sorry for? That comment wasn't meant for him, and he knew it.

If he didn't like it, he could just stop giving in to that stupid feeling that always knew where I was for no reason at all. It wasn't my problem.

It seemed like the responsibility of everything that went wrong over the past few months had fallen on the talisman, and it was possible that this did too. There was no way that someone who claimed that I was too emotional and shortsighted would drop everything based on a stupid feeling unless he was a hypocrite and nothing more.

Dominic didn't know me. Why did he think he knew everything?

Before I could answer my own question, Sierra walked into the room and slammed the door behind her. "Not to be dramatic, but my life is falling apart real fast."

I looked up from the talisman in my hand. "Tell me about it."

"I will." She shook her head and threw her backpack onto her bed. Wasn't it clear that I was agreeing with her and not actually inviting her to tell me more? "I got so caught up in that stupid-ass talisman of yours that I literally got a thirty-three on my calc quiz. Can you believe that?"

"Sierra, it's not that big of a deal. They're not going to kick you out of school for one bad quiz grade," I said.

"I know it doesn't mean anything to you, but when I see that, all I can hear in my head is failure."

"You're not a failure. If you're a failure, what does that make me?"

She paused for a moment. "We can be failure buddies. I know we haven't always gotten along, but I think we're a lot more alike than we think."

"Because we're both failures?"

She nodded. "No offense."

I let out a laugh. "Of course. That's all you and I will ever be."

It wasn't the first time I heard that, and maybe there was a little bit of truth to it, but what was I supposed to do? Let the talisman win so I could lose again?

After one bad grade, Sierra convinced herself that she was a part of my club. But this club wasn't that easy to get into. Our password sure as hell wasn't failure. It was scapegoat.

"I know you were just trying to protect my feelings the other day. I appreciate that," Sierra said.

When did we switch topics? I wasn't done pretending I wasn't mad about the failure thing.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"With Dominic texting you while we were at Jack's band thing. I guess that's my sign to finally give up and get over this stupid thing, isn't it?" she said.

"What?"

"Oh, don't play dumb, Lindsay. He couldn't be any more obvious that he likes you."

Sierra had never heard what he said to me, though. He didn't like anything about me besides my collarbone, and I couldn't fault him for that.

"I can generally tell that kind of stuff, and I'm one-hundred percent sure he doesn't. He hates me," I said. "But you definitely should give up. He's a jackass anyway."

Sierra laughed. "He is, isn't he? I really need a new type."

"You do. He literally drove to Harvey's place to tell me why he doesn't like me."