Perfectly Wrong

5. Chocolate Milk

Camila finishes her sandwich after Shawn and then puts the trash back in the paper bag, placing it in the backseat. She notices a guitar case, wondering if maybe it’s the same one she saw at his house. She wants to ask him about it, but suddenly she’s nervous about making small talk.

 “  I know a game we can play. It’s called ‘would you rather’.” Shawn says, interrupting her thoughts. “ Have you played it before?”

 “ No, but I know I would rather you go first.” Camila says, smiling at him.

 “ Okay.” He says, clearing his throat for a few seconds. “ Would you rather spend the rest of your life with no arms, or you would rather spend the rest of your life with arms you couldn’t control?”

 Camila looks at him and laughs. This date has definitely not started like any of her previous dates, but she likes how unexpected it is.

 “ Well…” She hesitates. “ I guess I would rather spend the rest of my life with arms I couldn’t control?”

 “ What? But you wouldn’t be able to control them!” He says. “ You could be constantly punching yourself or even stab yourself with a knife!”

 “ I didn’t realize there was a right answer.” She laughs.

 “ You suck at this.” He laughs with her. “ Your turn.”

 “ Okay, let me think.”

 “ You have to have one already!” Shawn says.

 “ I barely heard of this game before. At least give me a second to think of one.” Camila says, then watches as Shawn reaches over and squeezes her hand.

 “ I’m just teasing you.” He smiles at her.

 Shawn’s hand moves underneath hers and he interlocks their fingers, making Camila blush as a smile spreads on her face. She loves how natural it feels, like they’ve been holding hands for years. Actually, everything about the date so far feels natural and easy for her. She likes his sense of humor and how easily she can laugh around him after going so many months without laughing at all.

 “ Okay, I’ve got one.” Camila says. “ Would you rather pee on yourself once a day at random, unknown times? Or would you rather have to pee on someone else?”

 “ It depends on who I would have to pee on. Can I pee on people I don’t like or is it just random people?”

 “ Random people.”

 “ Pee on myself.” Shawn says without hesitation. “ My turn now. Would you rather be four feet tall or seven feet tall?”

 “ Seven feet tall.” She replies.

 “ Why?”

 “ You’re not allowed to ask why.” She laughs. “ Would you rather drink an entire gallon of bacon grease for breakfast every day, or would you rather have to eat five pounds of popcorn for dinner every night?”

 “ Five pounds of popcorn.”

 Camila finds herself really enjoying the game and she loves how he didn’t try to impress her with dinner. She loves that she doesn’t have a clue where they’re going and the fact that he didn’t compliment what she’s wearing. They could just drive around for another two hours playing ‘would you rather’ and it would be the most fun date she ever had. But they soon reach their destination and she tenses up when she sees the sign on the building.

 CLUB N9NE

 Camila meets him at the front of his car and he takes her hand again, guiding her towards the entrance as she reads a sign at the door.

 Closed for Live Music Competition 
 (Original compositions only)
 Thursdays
 08:00 - Whenever
 Admission: free
 Fee to perform: $3

 Shawn opens the door and suddenly her ears are filled by the talking inside the room. She follows him to a booth in the back, noticing the stage and how packed the place is. There’s a lot of young kids too, around fourteen or so.

 “ It’s quieter back here.” Shawn says as they scoot into the booth.

 “ How old do you have to be to get in clubs here?” Camila asks, looking at a table in the front with a group of young girls.

 “ Well, tonight it’s not a club.” He says. “ Every Thursday they shut the club down for the live music competition. It’s what I’m all about.”

 Camila looks at him in awe, thinking this guy in front of her can’t be real. A guy that makes her laugh and loves music.

 “ Do people write their own stuff or do they sing songs from other artists?” She asks curiously.

 “ People get up there and pour their hearts out through their music, using their own words.” He says, leaning back in the seat. Camila can see he’s really passionate about this.

 “ How does it work exactly?” She’s really intrigued now.

 “ The judges are usually picked from the audience and they assign points to each performance. The one with most points at the end of the night wins.”

 “ Do you ever perform?” She asks, remembering the guitar in his car.

 “ Sometimes.” He says. “ Sometimes I judge, sometimes I just watch.”

 “ Are you performing tonight?”

 “ No, I don’t really have anything ready.” Shawn says to Camila’s disappointment. It would be amazing to watch him perform on stage, even if she had no idea how good he actually was. “ You want something to drink?”

 “ Sure. I’ll take some chocolate milk.”

 “ Chocolate milk? Really?”

 “ With ice.”

 “ Okay.” He says, sliding out of the booth. “ One chocolate milk on the rocks coming right up.”

 While he’s gone, Camila watches a guy come to the stage and pump up the crowd. He announces it’s time to pick up the judges and everyone in the crowd wants to be chosen, but only five end up moving to the judging table. As Shawn comes back with their drinks, the guy at the stage says it’s time for the ‘sac’ and chooses a random person from the crowd.

 “ What’s the sac?” Camila asks as he hands her the drink.

 “ The sacrifice. It’s what they use to prepare the judges.” He says, sitting back down next to her, even closer than he was before. “ Someone performs something that is not part of the competition so the judges can calibrate their scoring.”

 “ So they can call anyone?” She asks, suddenly nervous. “What if they would have called me?”

 “ I guess you should have had something ready.” He says, smiling at her.

 Shawn takes a sip of his drink and leans back against the booth, finding Camila’s hand in the dark. He doesn’t interlock their fingers this time, but places her hand over his leg and traces his thumb across her wrist. He then moves on to trace all of her fingers, making electricity run through her whole body by that simple touch.

 “ Camila.” Shawn whispers as he keeps tracing her hand with his thumb. “ I don’t know what it is about you… but I like you.”

 Shawn finally interlocks their fingers and Camila reaches for her chocolate milk, taking a sip to cool down as he turns his attention to the stage. She takes a deep breath, watching him for a second before downing the entire drink and paying attention to the stage too.