Tell Me What You Hate About Me

26: Red-Handed

While going to my hometown where I couldn't fit in with the person who hated me more than anything was less than ideal, we were on our way to get the second coin back from Butterfly. And that was more important than any of the minor flaws in the nonexistent plan.

"Maybe I should drive, considering I'm not partially deaf," I said.

"You'll kill us both with your ADHD decision-making. I'll be fine," Dominic said.

I smiled and shook my head. "The only bad decisions I've made lately all involve you." And as far as I was concerned, it was completely true. I hated going to ASL in the first place because of him, I brought him in to complicate the talisman mess, and I was just about to get the second talisman-like object back by any means necessary with him.

I paused my thinking for a second. What the hell was I doing anymore? Just two months ago, none of this would have made any sense.

The talisman was probably my best shot at a decent future without my parents' money or school. And even though my parents weren't billionaires by any stretch, they got me through high school more than I ever did.

"Whatever. I don't care what you think about me as long as we get that back. I don't trust anyone who calls themselves Butterfly," he said.

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh, you're not getting the second talisman. Sierra is next in line after me."

"Yeah, and she told you to give it away. I'm helping you get it back, so that puts me ahead of her." He opened up the door to his car.

"That's not how this works. She'll kill me, Dominic. Is that what you want?"

"I wouldn't be that torn up about it, honestly." He climbed into the car. "Just let me move these coffee cups from the seat. I have some class."

"Do you now?" I asked with a smile. I wasn't sure when he decided on that, but I was willing to give him a chance that he would most definitely ruin.

"I'm very classy. I only drink pour-over coffee."

"So you're the jerk who holds up the line at the coffee shop because you need special coffee."

"I'm not a jerk. It tastes way better that way."

"It literally tastes no different." I got into the car after Dominic cleared off the seat. "And you make fun of me for being an entitled rich girl with nothing to offer but a good collarbone."

"I can appreciate the collarbone and hate the personality that's attached to it," he said.

I smiled as he drove off from the Tillamook College campus. I could never turn down a compliment like that. "I guess that's true. Sierra liked you for a while even though you're actually the worst."

"Did she?"

"Oh, don't pretend you didn't know that. She could not have been any more obvious unless she stuck her tongue down your throat."

He chuckled. "But she doesn't anymore?"

I shook my head. "She hates you now."

"Do you gossip about everyone like this?"

"I don't gossip. My mother gossips."

"Gossiping is a hereditary trait, Lindsay. It's not your fault." He paused to check in the rearview mirror. "What do you say about me?"

"Why do you assume that you ever cross my mind?"

"Because that stupid talisman seems to think that you always need me around."