“Uh huh,” I murmur, already ignoring her to set up all the items in the order in which we’ll need them. “I honestly don’t know how you’re only just figuring this out now.”
“How could I not? I’ve never seen you do homework before and you’re always skipping out on class. I’ve just never put it together like that. I guess I assumed you were more like me than I had thought.”
I smile up at her. “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not a horny bitch set on revenge.”
“You might not be set on revenge,” she scoffs, “but you certainly are a horny bitch.”
Yeah…I can’t deny that. “What can I say?” I shrug. “Your brother brings it out in me.”
“Gross,” she grunts, scrunching up her face in disgust.
We get busy on our experiment and fall into mindless chatter as we finish setting everything up and measuring chemicals into our beakers. “So, is this what you want to do?” Tully asks, bending low to make sure she’s poured the exact amount into her beaker.
I scoff. “In a perfect world, yeah,” I tell her. “But you know how it is in Haven Falls. I’ll probably end up working as an aide for a chemist…or working at McDonald’s.”
She rolls her eyes. “With that attitude, you will,” she tells me before focusing a glare on me. “And don’t knock McDonald’s. You’d be privileged to work for such a fine establishment. I mean, those nuggets. Damn. I could eat them all day long.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Your obsession with chicken nuggets really isn’t healthy. You should probably see someone about that.”
“And you should probably jump aboard the nugget express before I kick your ass to the curb and tell the world you’re a secret loser.”
“You wouldn’t.”
Her green eyes piercing into mine with nothing but seriousness tells me exactly what I need to know. “Wanna bet?”
Shit.
“Fine. I’ll leave your ridiculous obsession alone.”
“Good. You should have seen what happened to the boys when they tried to give me an intervention. Trust me, that’s not a fate I ever want for you.”
“Ok, ok,” I laugh, holding my hands up in surrender and trying to get back on track. “So, what do you want to do then? After school, I mean.”
Tully presses her lips into a tight line and shakes her head vigorously. “Nope. I can’t.”
“What?” I demand. “Why the hell not? It couldn’t be worse than you finding out I want to be a scientist despite the fact that it’ll never happen.”
“I…nope. I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’ll laugh at me. I haven’t even told my parents about this. Noah and Rivers don’t even know. Well, Rivers kind of mentioned it one day but didn’t actually realize what he was saying.”
I make a cross over my heart. “Promise. I won’t laugh.”
“No, seriously. It’s nothing like you’d expect…like at all.”
“Tully,” I sigh. “Surely by now, you must realize that if you said you wanted to be a poop technician, I’d support you and figure out how to make it happen.”
Her eyes narrow. “Seriously? A poop technician?”
“What?” I laugh. “It couldn’t possibly be worse than that.”
She quickly glances around but all the other students are way too busy watching their experiments take place to notice what we’re talking about. “Alright,” she says, slowly. “I want to be a florist.” My brows shoot up. “But not just work as a florist, I want my own store and everything.”
“Are you serious?”
Her eyes continue flicking around. “Well, yeah.”
“That’s freaking awesome. Why the hell are you embarrassed about that?”
“Because it’s not what people expect me to do with my life. They all think I’m hard. Like I’m supposed to be some kind of badass CEO who gets off by yelling at people all day.”
“Don’t be stupid,” I tell her. “Who gives a shit what other people think? Just because someone else has placed you in their little stereotypical box, doesn’t mean that’s where you belong. Do what you want to do.”
“Yeah, but.”
“No. I’ve never known you to do what others expect of you so why the hell would you do it now? Especially now when it’s one of the most important decisions of your life. Who gives a shit what they think?”
“I guess.”
“That settles it. You’ll have a boutique or floristry or whatever the hell they call them and I’ll work there because college is way out of my league.”
“Says who?”
“Says every student before me from Haven Falls who’s ever tried.”
Tully sighs. “Haven Falls does have a really shitty success rate, huh?”
“Sure does,” I tell her.
“Girls,” Mr. Carver says, striding towards us with purpose, clearly noticing that a little too much chatter has been going on over here. “Tell me about your findings.”
Well, two can play at that game. I guess being a bit of a science nerd does have its advantages seeing as though I already know what is supposed to happen during this experiment despite the fact that we haven’t got any further than measuring out the chemicals.