She spun around. Her voice like needles. "Why do you keep following me?"

I replied ever so calmly. "You look like you need a friend."

"I don't."

"You do. Can I be your friend?"

"May."

"What?"

"May you be my friend."

"Oh. Well then, may I?"

"No." She walked away. I followed.

"Please?" I wasn't giving up. She didn't respond. "Oh, come on!" I flung my hands up in the air. "I just need to talk to you."

She turned around and gave me a look that could kill. "No."

"Please?"

She studied me. Eventually, she said, "Fine. What do you want?"

I raised my eyebrow. "Well, first, I want to stop standing aimlessly in the street."

She looked up at the sky as if dealing with me was the hardest thing in the world. Then she pointed somewhere. "My apartment's just down the road."

"Great!"

She rolled her eyes and started toward her apartment.

We got inside and the first thing I noticed was how it looked like no one lived here at all. Everything was precise and organized. There was nothing that even suggested that someone lived here. Her entire living room was white polished furniture and expensive looking art. "You do live here, right?"

She flashed me a scrutinizing glance. "Why did you want to talk to me of all people?"

I sat down on one side of her sofa and she sat down on the other.

"Well, I just wanted to ask what happened to you. You just kinda vanished after your junior year."

"I moved."

"Well, I can see that." I gestured to the apartment.

"Then why are you here?"

I inhaled, then exhaled. "Look, I know you and I aren't the best of friends, but I just wanted to make amends."

"No."

"Can we friends?"

"Hmm, let me think. No"

I sighed "Hope, please?"

"My answer is no and that is final. No matter how hard you may try, it's never going to change."

I was starting to get impatient. "Hope, listen to me. We don't have to be friends, but can we just be civil?"

She rose up and walked toward a different room. Then came back a moment later with a cup of tea. It was soundless. No one said a word. Until finally, she spoke. It was such a faint and hushed voiced that I could scarcely hear the word that came out of her mouth. "Why?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What?"

She took a sip of tea. "Why are you here? Why are you asking to be my friend? After everything, I've done. Why? What do you accomplish from meeting with me?" 

I thought about it. About how, through all of this, I still thought she needed a friend. I still thought she was useful to this world. To me. So that was it. She was useful to me, so I went looking for her. For all the time in the world that I seemed to have, I went with just a couple of words. "I have something for you."

This seemed to bring her back to her original guarded self. "And what might that be?"

I smirked. "Information."

She tipped her head to one side. "Well then, what is it?"