You, Me and Nobody

Ch. 4-Let's Go Back to Kindergarten

Skyler hated me. He never said the exact words, but I was always better at reading body language, anyway. He hated this program, he hated wasting his summer baby-sitting social pariahs, and he hated having to be around me.

Not saying he was a joy to be around twenty-four-seven, but there was room to feel some guilt. After all, if my parents didn't think I was one book away from a lifetime of hermitage, they wouldn't feel the need to intervene. And if they didn't feel the need to intervene, there existed an entire parallel universe where Skyler didn't become roped in with me for a whole summer. A universe where he didn't look like he was being forced through a meat grinder whenever we spent time together.

Maybe such a universe existed. Didn't seem to matter, though, because I was stuck in this one.

And this one sucked.

"Okay, everybody! Stay with your partner and follow me!"

Lilia stationed herself at the front of our awkward, dysfunctional group. But she was so short, when Neil moved in front of me, she disappeared. I drifted toward the back of the line, catching a vague sense we'd just been vaulted back to Kindergarten, following the line-leader single file. Skyler was nowhere to be seen.

Of course.

"Welcome to the mall!" Lilia exclaimed, rather loudly, but there wasn't really anybody else around considering it was barely seven in the morning. And the mall just opened. Some of the stores still had the gates down.

Riley hunched over her notebook, purple hair extensions falling in her face. Once she was finished scribbling down words, she flipped the page around to show to me.

I hate people. They make me want to jump off a bridge. Multiple times.

In response I offered a small smile, and Madison, Riley's "buddy", yanked her around to face the front. "Words," the blonde girl said. "You have to use words."

Riley proceeded to write her response in the notebook.

Well, progress didn't happen overnight.

Lilia gave us a thorough tour of the mall, and besides our juvenile counterparts, I was surprised to find out nobody had visited before. It was huge, about a fifteen minute drive from Heart. I myself remembered going only a couple times, when I was younger, before . . .

I swallowed hard, focusing on my breath. Don't think about that.

We took a break by the fountain, right in the center of the mall. I felt infinitesimal looking up three stories to the domed ceiling. Almost insignificant compared to such grandeur. By this time people trickled through the doors, all the gates were up, and the gears were set in motion.

"Where's Skyler?"

Her voice caused me to jump. Nellie and Neil perched against the fountain on either side of me, grinning the same way, both with a roguish glint in their eye. If they weren't opposite genders, I would have sworn they were identical. "I don't know," I muttered, staring down at my fidgeting hands. "He was here when we arrived but—then he wasn't."

Nellie rolled her eyes. "Typical Skyler. All rebellious and shit. So rude of him to leave you like that."

Neil swung his legs, knocking the heels of his sneakers against the side of the fountain. "Jeez, why are girls so emotional?"