Loving Lisbeth Salander (XIV Series #1)

The Girl Who Sleeps in Class II

“Can you f*****g stop smiling like a creep?”

I smiled still. Not to annoy her but because I was more amused of her with everything she did.

Her brows twitched. “If you think you look so good on it, check out the mirror and see how much of a monkey you look like.”

I blinked and my smile slowly curves the other way around. I have never felt so offended my entire life. I’ve always been told that I looked great, better even, with a smile on my face. And to hear her say I look like a monkey with it was heart shattering. “I thought people always look best with smiles on their faces.”

“Well, your good heavens exempted you to be a part of that assemble.”

I pouted and followed her out of the room, trying to catch up to her fast pace. “So how does it feel?” She doesn’t respond to my question. She looked like she was confused of my question so I spoke again. “T-To have photographic memory?” My question still didn’t seem ring her senses. “Is it like, you just set what you want to remember, and you just remember it?” I asked trying to keep the conversation going. I tried my best to ask as comprehensively as I could. When she doesn’t reply, I got scared so I opened my mouth to say more. Although, I was sure she was already finding me more annoying already. “I imagined it to feel like when people teleport.” I peeked over at her direction and she still didn’t seem willing to talk to me. I could make her reply to me faster before. She was ignoring me better today. “You know, when they teleport to a different location, they just poof and jump in a time warp or something—”

“You just see the images in your head again,”

“But how though?” I frowned in confusion. The entire concept of photographic memory still won’t settle right in my head. “Is it like Lucid dreaming?” I asked more, but she wasn’t answering me now. I guess that was the limit to her patience with me. I knew if I kept talking, she’d probably scream at my face any moment now, but if I stopped talking and she doesn’t scream at me, then I just missed my chance to talk to her. “Or like being hypnotized? You know since, hypnotists are supposed to bring you back in a certain point of your life, and make you feel like you’re in that situation over again.” I turned my head towards her again, and if I didn’t see her eyes, I’d think she was already sleeping but her eyes were wide open and they just looked afar, lips parted and eyes droopy. “Hey,” I poked her shoulder but she doesn’t even try to deny the diversion of her attention to me. “Four, Four, Four.” I kept poking her until she stopped, walking and bumping my shoulders with her. I saw her balling her fist. She’s mad.

I’m dead.

And she’s mad.

“I don’t f*****g know okay?!” She’s really mad and she screamed at me which is normally a bad thing. She doesn’t normally yell at me. I knew too well she wasn’t very fond of the attention given to her when she was with me. Yelling seemed a bit out of character even for her today. “Stop asking me questions even I can’t answer!” She exclaimed, and I felt my heart jump in fright. “For f**k’s sake, just let me have a peaceful day.” She rolled her eyes, sighing as she shook her head.

I froze a little shocked by the rise of her voice, but I managed to get back into my senses, and kept it going no matter how pissed I’m about to get her for being this nosy around her. I just had to talk to her in any way possible that I can until she basically gets tired of me and that’s fine. Trying is better than not trying at all. “I was nudging you yesterday. I thought you didn’t answer your paper.” I didn’t know why I thought it was a good idea to bring up the exam but at this point, I was just trying to come up with different things just so I don’t keep my mouth shut. Talking to her even if she wouldn’t reply is a conversation too, right? Harvey would say I’m crazy and a fool for basically talking to myself – and on most days talking with her… “I was supposed to let you copy mine, but Mr. Oliver was already making us pass the test papers so—”

She stopped walking again, and turned to me scratching her head. “Can’t you just shut your f*****g mouth for f*****g two minutes?”

I pressed my lips together, arching my brows higher while showing up a thumb. “Better?” I mumbled but I guess she didn’t understand what I really said, and she just understood what I was trying to say with the gesture I was showing.

“You didn’t even last three seconds.”

Right. 9:46.

She kept walking and I kept tailing her from behind, patiently waiting for the clock to hit 9:48, so when it did, I took a sigh in relief and poked her shoulder again.

“That’s two minutes.”

“You f*****g dumbass.” She squinted her eyes and left, turning to the other side of the corridor.

“She has photographic memory!”

“Photographic – what?” Harvey repeated as we wait for our turn to receive food from the cafeteria counter. We were standing in a line of students for lunch. Although, it wasn’t a long line. It took longer for us to get ours than no average and normal days.

“Photographic memory!” I repeated for him, a little more excited than last time, but he just doesn’t seem interested with anything that involves Forest. It clearly shows in the way he won’t even pay attention to a word I was saying. They were just flying off his ear when he hears it. It’s like his mind automatically knows when to shut down every time I say she or her. Automatically, of course, she was the only she or her I talk about, so I guess, that makes sense. “She can remember things just by looking at it.”

For a moment, I was convinced that he was a little moved by this skill as his eyes widened a little. But he doesn’t show any hint of admiration of that rarity. He doesn’t look amazed like I was expecting which is exactly what I expected from him if that makes sense. I was sure he was impressed but his pride told him not to show it. “So? Why are you telling me? Seriously? I’m not interested with the likes of your,” he paused trying to think of words he wanted to use to further push me back away from trying to pursue Forest. “Whatever disgusting affection towards that demon.” He did not, not one time, look at me as he said the words.

 I tried to watch out for some sort of impressed expression from his face but none of it was clearly shown. All I was doing was speculation. If we were in line right now, in a normal situation, talking about hilarious stuffs about school, I’d think he was just impatient with the unusual long line for getting our food and maybe he was a little impatient and talking about Forest just made it worse for him. It wasn’t a long line even. His impatience was just for me and for talking about Forest almost every time we meet.

After about ten minutes of waiting in line, we finally had our food trays filled with food that seemingly looked familiar from the other day’s menu. Well, except that they gave us chocolate pudding today which always is a yes for both Harvey and I. They only give us chocolate pudding every week if we’re lucky enough, but sometimes it can go for as long as once a month.

“Mr. Oliver even sends her to quiz bees because she’s smart enough to go with her ability!”

Harvey dropped his food tray extra hard as we reached an empty table, and I felt my body flinch a little in fright. He was never aggressive like this before. He sat down glaring at me, unable to fix his bag properly because of how furious I got him. But it still was hilarious, seeing him act this way.

I gulped as I sat across him with no problems of setting my bag aside, of course.

“Can you please—”

It almost made me laugh at how funny his voice sounded before he paused. His voice sounded like they were squeezed inside his esophagus so when he realized this, he clears his throat and I saw that he was a little embarrassed when I let out a thin smile – my failed attempt to hide how funny it was apparently. My best friend really was the most reliable person I could find. Remember how he said he wasn’t going to be my friend for admiring someone like Forest, yet he was still here with me. Eating with me, still.

“Not talk about her? Can you do that for me? Please?”

I examined his face.

“If there’s still some little respect you have for our friendship, please,” He looked determined – like he was absolutely full of me talking about her for the past few weeks. But if I don’t talk to him about her, the feelings I have for her would be bottled up and I would eventually explode without even knowing how to make the effect too vast. It’s just going to explode anytime soon and I was sure that the least he wanted right now was for me to talk about her non-stop. “But she has photographic memory.” I squinted my eyes preparing my ears to receive a loud complain.

“Why do you keep saying that?!” Harvey finally exclaimed. The few people who occupied the tables near us turned their heads toward us and I wasn’t even embarrassed because of how much I wanted to burst into laughter. I was just finding it amusing to see Harvey act this way. “I get it okay? She has photographic memory.” The way he said photographic memory had a pinch of mockery to it, but I didn’t really mind. This was Harvey, after all. My friend who absolutely hated me the moment I started taking interest in the one woman that caught my attention. “Who cares? Everyone has it! Sort of.” He seemed unsure which was good for me. I wanted Harvey to see the beauty that Forest tried to hide from everybody – not the physical aspect, but that works too if he sees it, but her inner self. The things that people don’t know her for.

“She sleeps in class, Harv.”

He still wasn’t as impressed as I’d thought.

“She sleeps in class.”