Perfect Fifths: A Jessica Darling Novel by Megan McCafferty

Author:Megan McCafferty
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Young Adult.Girl Stories
ISBN: 9780307452672
Publisher: Broadway
Published: 2009-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

five

(nothing meaning something)

“Oh, man, forget Byron. I’m the asshole.”

“Why are you giving me a dollar, Marcus?”

“Advance payment for my apology.”

“What apology?”

“This one: I’m sorry that I haven’t even asked what you’re doing. You mentioned traveling a lot, and I realized I had absolutely no idea what you’re doing.”

“Oh.”

“Oh what?”

“Nothing. You don’t have to ask me about my job just to be …”

“Nice?”

“Right. Nice.”

“I’m asking about your job because I’m curious to hear what you’ve been up to for the past three years.”

“You really have no idea what I’ve been up to?”

“No, I don’t. Why, should I? Are you notorious?”

[Cough.] “No!” [Cough.]

“What?”

“Nothing. Let’s talk about my job.”

“Are you going to make me guess first?”

“Do you want to?”

“In the interest of fair play, sure.”

“Okay. Go ahead and guess.”

“Let me think. You travel a lot. And … let me see … well… you really haven’t provided any other clues.”

“Go with your gut.”

“My gut. Okay. My gut tells me you’re doing something involving psychology and writing. Some sort of research, maybe? Involving travel… hmmm… You’re studying … I don’t know… demographical differences in narratives?”

[Pause.]

“Am I close?”

[Long sigh.] “Marcus.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Seriously, Jessica. What?”

“Oh, come on, you know what.”

“I honestly don’t know.”

“If I say something that makes me sound like an asshole, I can blame it on Byron, right?”

“Sure.”

“When you guessed about my job … No, I don’t need to say this to you. It’s nothing.”

“I swear I’ve never heard someone speak so much of nothing when she obviously means something.”

[Pause.]

“Have you Googled me?”

[Pause.]

“No. I haven’t Googled you.”

“Not once?”

“No.”

[Pause.]

“I choose to believe you.”

“You should. Because I’m telling you the truth.”

[Pause.]

“Have you Googled me?”

[Sigh.] “I confess that I have, though not recently. I quit cold turkey because it was always so … anticlimactic. You’re, like, one of the last un-Googleable people left on the planet. Or you were when I last tried it. Anyway, getting back to your guesses, you could make a killing as a mind-reader.”

“I didn’t read your mind.”

“I know that! But you did what any fake psychic does. You used what little you did know about me from what I had said throughout our conversation, and you made educated guesses based on those clues. Then you carefully watched my body language in response to those clues and made more educated guesses. It’s all Professor Marvel, Wizard of Oz bullshit.”

“So you don’t believe in clairvoyance. You don’t believe that anyone can accurately predict events in the future.”

“No reputable scientific study has ever supported the idea of a sixth sense.”

“Hmmm.”

“Hmm, what?”

“So I take it that my guess was pretty close, huh?”

“I’m the cofounder and head of development for the Do Better High School Storytellers project, a nonprofit creative writing and mentoring program.”

“Jessica!”

“What?”

“That’s amazing!”

“What? My job? Or your guess?”

“I was referring to your job. Though my guess wasn’t that far off, was it? No wonder you thought I Googled you.”

“Though you missed the part about how I’m the one who works with disaffected youth, not Hope.”

“Are you annoyed about that?”

“About what?”

“The assumption that Hope was the one working with disaffected youth and not you.

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