Page 3 of Make No Mistake

Jay grew up in the pages of every major tabloid. Tabloids aren’t journalism to anyone in this industry, and he was the number one advocate against them, but he learned at an early age the impact of the written word.

“Easy for you to say. You’ve been working on your project for two years.”

He’d been interviewing men and women with small businesses and following them through their first years of success or failure. It had become bigger than the project, and he now ran a popular blog with his interviews. He interviewed the creator of MyPage before it became the number one social media site in the world, and they were still good friends.

“That doesn’t make it easy! You just need to focus.” He gripped my shoulders and squeezed to get my attention. “At this point, anything would be a good topic.”

“But I want it to be unexpected, hard hitting, something everyone is too afraid to touch.”

“An exposé on the makeup-less faces of the cheerleading squad?”

I glared at him.

“The hard-knock life of the freshmen living in Santa Ramon dorms that have to eat at the old cafeteria?”

I aimed my pen at his forehead, but it hit his chest.

“Fine, fine. Something real … the strange smell coming from the botany lab. New species of plant or just plain old Mary Jane?”

“Jay!”

He chuckled and opened his laptop. “You’ll find something when you least expect it, and it will be the best project of our class. That’s just your luck.”

I scoffed. I wish I was that person that things miraculously always fell into place for, but I doubted that would be the case this time.

Once I’d finished the majority of my homework, I stood to stretch and find a snack in the fridge. Today there was a decent selection of yogurts, not too shabby. I opened a strawberry flavored and sat back down behind my laptop.

Searching the internet for a new story was pointless; anything worth reporting on had already been done. I needed something new, fresh, and happening now. Staying cooped up in the newspaper office was probably the worst thing I could do.

This was worse than writer’s block. At least if I had that, I would already have a topic. I had inspiration block.

Maybe I should go out and cause something worth reporting … yeah that would be ethical.

This was me officially losing my mind.

I wondered if Sean knew what today was. Probably not. He was too busy learning how to run the world and settle international disputes. He probably didn’t have time to think about little old me stuck in boring California while he was out changing the world. He probably had some little European lover too.

Stop! My brain was sabotaging my sanity! I blinked rapidly, trying to make the uninvited tears disappear. Only one slipped through before I pulled myself together. This was so dumb.

I shouldn’t let myself get upset over him. I should be happy for him and living my own life. Instead, I was talking to myself and trying not to cry in front of Jay.

No, it was time to take initiative and chose to be happy. No more Mopey Mac!

I was staring at the back of Jay’s head for approximately five minutes beyond creepy before I got the nerve to speak.

“Hey, Jay?”

He whipped around with a small smile. “Inspiration strike?”

I shook my head and laughed. “Ha! I wish.”

His smile grew, almost exposing his dimples. “It will come, don’t worry.”

“Easy for you to say. I was actually just wondering …” Before I could finish asking him to come with me tonight, the door to the office opened.

Lennon walked in looking flustered, as always. He was the same year as me and Jay, but acted and looked like an uncoordinated preteen. His limbs were gangly and constantly betraying him. He reached back to shut the door behind him but ended up knocking over a stack of last week’s newspapers.

I stood to help clean them up and instantly regretted it. He bent down at the same time and hit his head against mine, knocking me back onto the floor.