Free Lucky Me by Saba Kapur Page A

ever consider that maybe the phone calls have something to do with those texts you got a couple of days ago?”
    I stared at him. What? I had been so caught up with everything else; I had forgotten about the messages.
    I shook my head and said, “Jack, this is all just some lame joke. There’s no conspiracy here. Sorry to disappoint you.”
    â€œBut it makes sense, doesn’t it? What I’m saying?” Jack replied.
    It did, kind of. But there was no way I was telling him that.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œGia.”
    â€œWhatever, Jack!” I exclaimed. I was getting really tired of talking about the whole thing. “Obviously Mike has nothing better to do right now, but he’ll get bored eventually and it’ll stop.”
    â€œAlright,” Jack said. He was clearly not pleased, but he knew there was no way to prove it was something bigger. The scoreboard was finally giving me something to celebrate.
    But then it hit me. I wasn’t wrong about the random conversations. In fact, I was exactly right. They weren’t random at all; they were dialogues from movies. My dad’s movies, to be exact. No wonder they sounded so familiar!
    â€œWhat?” Jack said, and I realized my face had probably given away my epiphany.
    â€œNothing,” I replied, looking at the floor inconspicuously.
    Telling Jack about the movie dialogues was a terrible idea. It made it seem a lot worse than it probably was, and I didn’t need Jack giving me another lecture or questionnaire.
    â€œGia, you’re not fooling anyone,” Jack said, and I looked up at him with a glare. “Just tell me.”
    â€œFine! The conversations are dialogues from my dad’s movies! Whoever it is, they play random parts of the movies to me. There! Are you happy?”
    Boy, I didn’t last one second under that pressure. I would be the worst in hostage situations where they needed me to divulge secrets. I’d give them everything they wanted before they even finished asking.
    Jack looked at me, expressionless. It was so hard to tell what he was thinking. He was always a question mark. “Still think this is just some stupid game your brother’s playing?” he asked, challenging me to say yes.
    I knew he had a point, but there was no way I was going to give him the satisfaction. Besides, if it wasn’t my brother, then there really was some random out there harassing me. Not exactly something that helps you sleep peacefully at night. So I did the mature thing, and completely denied everything.
    â€œLook, forget it,” I declared. “I’m over all of this. Let’s just forget the whole thing and move on, okay?”
    I turned my back to him, giving another sigh. The conversation was never ending, and I was struggling to keep it together in that much spandex. How the hell does Spiderman swing from buildings and save lives in that material? I can barely waddle in it.
    â€œI have a proposal,” Jack said from behind me, after only a few seconds of uncomfortable silence.
    I stiffened. A proposal? Like a legit proposal! Sure it was a bit soon, and I didn’t particularly like Jack, but he was hot as hell. And if he had a nice ring I wasn’t going to say no. Hell if he had a crappy ring, I’d still probably say yes. I’d just have to break the news to Brendan later. He’d understand. Maybe.
    â€œUm . . .” I spun on my heel hesitantly, turning to face Jack’s extremely serious face.
    â€œLook, it’s pretty obvious that, for whatever reason, you don’t like me very much,” Jack said. “But I know this isn’t really about me. I’m not really the problem here.”
    Okay, so no ring. His proposal was clearly not going down how I thought it would.
    â€œWhat are you trying to say?” I asked him, putting my hands on my hips.
    â€œI’m willing to help you investigate this whole prank call thing and figure out