Thanks for the Trouble

“I’ve got some questions for you. Was this story written about me?” I shrugged. “Yes or no?” I shrugged again, finally earning a little scowl, which somehow made the girl even more pretty. It brought a bloom to her pale cheeks and made sharp shelves of her cheekbones. “It’s very rude not to answer simple questions,” she said. I gestured for my journal, but she still wouldn’t give it to me. So I took out my pen and wrote I can’t on my palm. Then, in tiny letters below it, I finished the thought: Now don’t you feel like a jerk? Parker Santé hasn’t spoken a word in five years. While his classmates plan for bright futures, he skips school to hang out in hotels, killing time by watching the guests. But when he meets a silver-haired girl named Zelda Toth, a girl who claims to be quite a bit older than she looks, he’ll discover there just might be a few things left worth living for.