Safe

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

We met Willow and Dad at the little restaurant, Pablo's, which had already grown popular. They had taken a separate car since the seniors were supposed to arrive an hour early for rehearsals.

Our waitress was a nice looking lady with black hair tied in a bun.

"Hola, welcome to Pablo's! My name is Margarita and I will be your server tonight. What can I get you for drinks?"

"Water," Dad said; I rolled my eyes. He always gets water.

"Lemonade, thanks!" Willow piped.

"Iced sweet tea, please," I asked.

"I'll have a water too," Drake said.

Margarita scribbled our drink orders down.

"Okay, I have two waters, iced sweet tea and lemonade. Is that all?"

"Can we have chips and queso?" Willow asked.

"Of course, I'll be back in a minute," she smiled, and scurried towards the kitchen.

"So what are you planning on doing for college?" Willow asked curiously.

"I haven't really decided yet," Drake admitted.

"That's alright, you've got plenty of time," Dad said reassuringly.

"What about you, Lexi?"

"Um..." I was saved from answering by Margarita setting a tray of drinks down on the edge of our table. As she passed out the drinks, I thought about what I really wanted to study in college- journalism. Dad however, wanted me to be a lawyer, which was at the bottom of my ideal job list. He also told me that he hoped Drake went into some form of business, but I knew that Drake had always wanted to start a band.

"Are you ready to order?" Margarita asked, abruptly stopping my train of thought. We all nodded and she took up our menus.

"I'll have the Doña Marìa," Dad requested.

"Ooh, I want to try that too!" Willow said enthusiastically.

"Can I have the enchilada plate with an extra side of beans?" I asked.

"I'll just have two tacos with no tomatoes," Drake added. Margarita repeated our orders to us, and went back to the kitchen.

"So Lex, you still haven't told us what you want to do in college," Willow said, stirring her lemonade with a straw.

"Well, I wanted to do travel journalism," I replied, not meeting Dad's eyes.

"What's travel journalism?" she asked.

"It's really cool! You get to travel all around the world and you write reviews and brochures on different tourist attractions, restaurants, hotels, that sorta stuff," I gushed.

"What about Drake?" Dad asked.

"Well, obviously he'd come with me!" I said. At least he didn't seem totally against the idea.

"Hm, didn't you want to be a lawyer?"

"No Dad, you wanted me to be a lawyer," I snapped.

"Well what about you Drake?" he asked, dropping the lawyer subject entirely.

"I'm not sure yet, sir. I have always wanted to start a band though," Drake answered.

"A band? What sort of music?" Dad asked. He was trying to be nice, but I could tell he hated the idea.

"Alternative rock, probably."

"Rock?" Dad asked, scrunching up his nose.

"What a great idea!" Willow exclaimed suddenly. Dad turned to her, raising an eyebrow.

"Thank you," I mouthed. She grinned and began to talk to Dad about how wonderful our choices were.

"She really is something, isn't she?" Drake whispered.

"You can say that again," I smiled.

"Food!" Willow exclaimed, grinning at an amused Margarita. She quickly distributed our food, and went to take the next table's order.

"This is delicious," I sighed, taking another bite.