Page 24 of 16 Forever

Layla works for a tech company in California.

She has a best friend named Nellie who she takes a lot of selfies with.

She likes to run.

She is passionate about helping dogs with no homes find homes.

Hm. Okay.

Not sure what to do with all that.

But the first item on my list feels highly achievable.

I can find this Bodhi Chang kid.

Though, if he’s such a close friend, why hasn’t he already foundme?

Whatever. At least I have a reason to go to school tomorrow.

I’ll take my mom’s stupid deal.

Carter

I can’t find Bodhi Chang.

I’m not even convinced he’s a real person.

It seems like something I would do, messing with myself by making up some random name and sending me on a pointless search for nobody. I can be a dick like that sometimes.

Otherwise, as predicted, school still sucks. Doesn’t really matter how open my mind is, the facts remain the same: I’m stepping into a life that is technically mine but doesn’t feel like it at all.

I asked a few people in my homeroom if they knew Bodhi, and all of them gave me that same pitying look and smile, like they wanted to be really nice to me since I’m the pathetic sick kid.

“He’s a freshman, right?” asked the girl at the desk next to me who always wears jumpsuits.

“No, he’s a junior. Supposedly.” I hated Past Me right then.

“I don’t think I know who that is,” she said, shrugging apologetically as if now I might keel over and die from disappointment, falling onto my back with my legs in the air like a cockroach.

I did not die, but I did decide to retain my dignity and stop asking other students about Bodhi. Instead, I wait until four periods later, when I’m walking to the cafeteria and pass Mrs. Destin in the hallway.

“Hey, Mrs. D,” I say, jumping into her path. “Is there a person at this school named Bodhi Chang?”

She smiles and laughs a little. “Indeed there is. You sat together in my class last year. Couldn’t get the two of you to shut up, in fact.”

“Oh, wow, he’s real?”

“As far as I know,” Mrs. Destin says. “There he goes now.”

She points to a short Asian kid wearing a backward baseball cap walking in the opposite direction. He’s in between two other kids, both taller than him.

He and I make eye contact, and after a flash of deer-in-headlights terror, Bodhi gives me a huge smile. “Carter! Yo! Walk with us.”

Mrs. Destin releases me with a knowing nod, and I walk with Bodhi and his crew, away from the cafeteria.

“What’s good, man?” Bodhi says, putting out a fist to dap.

“I mean, nothing?” I say as I touch my fist to his.