“If I pay you, will you pretend to be my friend, just this week?” It was that girl. He’d seen her around the school every once in a while. Always alone, always with that hint of sadness in her eyes.

She was smaller than everyone else, and at first he’d thought she was one of those prodigies, moved up multiple grades for their brain power. He knew now that she wasn’t a genious—not like that at least—but there was something else different about her. She had straight brunette hair that reached to her hips, and wide doe eyes. Those eyes seemed to take in everything, and they may have looked cute to others, but they unsettled him.

He tried to act as if he wasn’t surprised she was coming to him, but he really was. He was usually approached to fix something or hack something for a 20. Not be somebody’s friend for a week.

“How much?” He asked, as he always did when he was approached. It was a way for him to know how desperate the other person was.

She pulled a wadded up 5 from her skirt pocket. Her freckled cheeks turned bright red, and she looked down, ashamed.

“I only have enough for a week. I assumed it would be a dollar a day. A week is all I can afford right now.” She held out the money to him, trying to flatten it on her leg, holding it up for him.

Her eyes may have freaked him out a bit, but he could tell she was genuine and she seemed like a good kid.

He pushed her hand down, “You don’t have to pay me to be your friend. For this, it’s enough to ask.” He smiled at her, and she pocketed her money, responding with a tiny smile of her own.

She wiped her nose, “Thank you. I haven’t met someone as nice as you in a while.”