"This is all your fault, director's pet. This is a play. I'm not falling in love with you, and I would never ever go out with you, Jack Garrison."
Jack and Shayna can't get through a rehearsal without fighting.
Cheerleader Shayna loathes perfect Ja...
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Rock and roll music played from the jukebox in the back of the retro café. As a waitress set two milkshakes on our table, I leaned backward to assess my boyfriend in the booth across from me.
Instead of staring at the physics problems he claimed we were here to work on, Juan looked out the window, watching the cars drive by. Normally, Juan and I attempted to suffer by figuring out how many feet the car would take to stop together, but today, he hadn't looked at his worksheet.
Tapping my fingers on the table, I wondered what it would take to get his attention. Reaching near him, I pulled a green bendy straw from a dispenser on the table and inserted it into the chocolate drink. Taking a sip, I smiled.
"Remind me to tell your sister that her milkshake recipe is amazing," I said.
Juan's older sister Lucia was the head chef at the family's cafe. She made most of the food in the back.
"Oh yeah," Juan mumbled.
"What did you get for question six?" I asked.
Juan glanced at the sheets of math problems sitting in front of him and wrinkled his nose. He usually claimed he wasn't a school person, but he wanted his grades to be good so colleges would want to recruit him next year.
"It's boring math," Juan rolled his eyes. "Easy to finish with a calculator. I'd rather be here with you."
Knowing we wouldn't get anywhere, I tucked the worksheet back into my backpack. I'd have to work on it later after rehearsal.
"So, how was practice?" I asked.
Juan ran a hand through his dark hair. "It's the offseason. We have to wait until football is over. Half the team plays both sports, you know."
Our school wasn't small, but it also wasn't large. There weren't limits on how many sports you could play. Many coaches helped with multiple sports, saving the school money.
Juan wasn't on the football team. He hadn't made the cut when he was a freshman and hadn't tried out again.
I just did cheerleading and dance. We only practiced on Saturdays and right before games. That left me with plenty of time for homework and theater production.
I took another sip from my milkshake. Juan and I had been going out for almost six months. We spent a lot of time here, and it was a nice place to hang out. Juan's house was often busy, and my apartment was too quiet since my brother had left for college this year.
My mother was always at the hospital. She worked as a surgeon and seemed to have taken more hours since Parker moved away. We had a movie night once a week, but beyond that, I never knew when I would see her.
Juan was my constant. We had a few classes together. He sat with me at lunch when he didn't have tutoring and joined the theater production to spend more time with me.
