Tell Me What You Hate About Me

9: Business Decisions

"So," Sierra said to Dominic as Jack and I walked past with the metal detector, "what's your major?"

Without a single beep yet, I wasn't sure what we were expecting to find, especially since Dr. Reed still couldn't identify who made our special coin or where it was from. What were the odds that we'd find something else like it?

"International business," Dominic replied without asking what hers was.

I smiled. I knew his major was something like that. He just had that kind of vibe.

"Oh." Sierra fell quiet for a moment. "Do you like it?"

"Sure."

Even though Sierra told me that she was going to take his breath away, I was pretty sure that she was the one who was drowning. Dominic was already difficult to talk to even with a reason, so it wasn't all that surprising that he didn't care for small talk.

I never really liked it either. Too many people went through life without a single interesting thought to share.

"This is painful to listen to," Jack whispered to me. "Is she into him or something?"

I nodded. "I'll get her out of it this one time, but after this, she's on her own." I looked over at Sierra who took a step back away from Dominic. Poor thing. "Hey, guys. Do you want to see where we found the coin originally?"

Sierra turned around. "Can we?"

But Dominic ignored me and took out his phone.

Then why was he even at the pond if he didn't care? It was past midnight, and we didn't invite him.

Even from about thirty feet away, Sierra's sigh was loud enough to hear before she came up to our unofficial archeological site. With every step she took, she yanked her flats out of the mud (mostly to put on a show for Dominic, I assumed), but just as she got close enough for me to point out the spot, a gentle rain began to fall.

I looked up at the sky. It was dark, but there were a few clouds where stars should have been, so that was the second not-sketchy thing to happen.

"Shit," Jack muttered as Sierra

But as she scampered away without getting her feet stuck with every step (funnily enough), the rain stopped.

What the hell? That wasn't—

There had to be some sort of explanation for that that didn't have to do with demons or spirits or anything else weird, but all my brain could come up with was that we had to try it again to make sure there was such a solution.

"Sierra, could you come back here?" I asked, and with each step she took closer to the site, the rain picked up.

"What—" I muttered, but Jack spoke over me.

"Either Sierra's craziness is somehow contagious, or that was definitely something that counts as weird by Dr. Reed's standards."

If rain was the only evidence she had for her case, I wouldn't have let Jack and Sierra be on my coin squad any longer, but combined with the cold sensation Sierra had (and maybe even her struggle to open Dr. Reed's front door), there were a few pieces of evidence this coin didn't vibe with her.

"It's weird enough to check it out. We're going back to Dr. Reed's house," I said.

"Now? But it's late," Jack said.

"And?"

Jack took in a breath. "I'm really happy that you care about this, but the world isn't going to stop so you can pursue this, Lindsay. You can tell her about it on Monday."