Layoverland by Gabby Noone

Author:Gabby Noone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2020-01-20T16:00:00+00:00

19

“Do you want to grab some lunch?” Caleb asks me when our session ends and we’re driving back toward the airport. “Or we could . . . Well, I guess there’s really nothing to do around here except eat lunch.”

“Ummm,” I say. “I’m not really hungry yet.”

My stomach audibly grumbles. A look of realization passes over Caleb’s face.

“Oh,” he says, cheeks reddening. “You just don’t want to eat . . . with me. I get it. That’s totally cool. Honestly, no pressure. I wouldn’t want to eat with me either after seeing what I was like for the past four hours.”

He gives a self-effacing laugh and smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“No. It’s not that,” I say, hitting the brakes on the golf cart and pulling the keys out of the ignition. “It’s just . . . we can’t hang out while I’m working on your case.”

“Oh,” Caleb says, following me out. “Is that a rule?”

There are Sadie’s warnings that I not get too close to anyone. And of course, there’s my self-imposed rule, which is: Do Not Become Friends with Your Murderer, Especially While You’re Trying to Emotionally Torment Him.

“Well, not officially,” I say, walking across the tarmac to the airport entrance. Caleb catches up to me.

“If you don’t want to eat lunch with me, you can tell me.”

“No,” I say immediately, surprising myself. “That’s not it.”

“What is it then?” he asks with an incredulous smile. “Because I kind of thought that we were becoming, I dunno . . .”

“Friends? Not this again,” I say. “It’s nothing. I’m just being paranoid because . . . I haven’t spent time outside of the hangar with any of the other souls I’ve guided.”

“Yeah, well, I guess none of them were as youthful and charming as me,” Caleb says, opening the door for me.

“What’s with all of this?” I ask, curiosity getting the best of me.

“What do you mean ‘this’?”

“Here,” I say as we walk back inside the airport, “and please don’t take this as a compliment, you seem kind of confident and forward about stuff, too forward I would say, but in your memories . . .”

“Hey,” he says, raising a hand. “You said you wouldn’t talk about my memories outside of the hangar.”

“You’re right,” I say. “Never mind.”

“But I’m curious. What did I seem like? A total loser?”

“Yeah,” I admit.

“Well, who isn’t a loser in middle school? I’m sure if we looked at your memories, for instance . . .”

“Actually, I was very cool in middle school. Thank you very much.”

“And things just went downhill from there?” he asks, giving me a sidelong glance.

He’s right. My actual nickname was Queen Bea until the eighth grade, when I refused to have sex with my boyfriend of two weeks, who I hadn’t even kissed yet, so then he started a rumor that my parents didn’t believe in vaccines and I was single-handedly responsible for a county-wide measles outbreak.

“You know, you should be nice to me, Caleb,” I say, the corners of my mouth turning up.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.