I firmly believe that Juan Carlos Ortiz deserved better. So, given how *perfectly* shitty (I hated it all in the most satisfying way), I'm going to veer off the tragic ending for a lot of characters. Sorry, not sorry.
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Juice x...
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"I'm scared..." You whispered, looking at your hands, "What if I'm nothing like you'd hoped I'd be?"
The boy shook his head and reached across the table, placing his hand over yours and taking a deep breath, "There's nothing you could say to me that would scare me away from you, I can't wait to meet you."
You smiled gently, closing your eyes and taking a shaky breath, "My mom just left; I was spending the summer with my family and I found out she ran out on us."
You frowned at the table, "I've spent my whole life trying to make sure she'd be proud to call me her daughter, but she told my Auntie that everything about who I am breaks her heart."
You glanced over to the older black man at the grill, taking a deep breath and waving to the man when he turned around to put orders up on the counter, "He seems nice."
"Yeah." He said gently, watching you with a careful look in his eyes, "What are you going to do now?"
"I like talking to you," you answered, "so if you don't mind, I really would like to hang out for a while."
"I mean later," he laughed a little, "I can't imagine you're going to take all this lying down."
"Well, 'later', when I'm ready to stop moping: I'm going to pull on my Big Girl Britches and survive for a while."
"'Britches'?" The young man laughed, leaning toward you and smiling like the sun, "Where exactly are ya from, doll?"
"I don't think you wanna know." You laughed softly, playing with the straw sticking out of the glass in front of you, "Another city, nowhere near the size of this one I'm guessing, but still pretty huge compared to other cities where I'm at." You looked at the window, watching it rain on the dark city, smiling a little, "But if you're dying to know, I'm from The Lou."
"You must already know where we're at then?" He grinned, "You're crazy smart."
"I mean, I watch movies." He laughed, tilting his head to the side and scratching his head. You watched him for a moment and spoke before he could, "You have nice hair; very greaser."
A blush painted his cheeks for a moment and he smiled widely, shaking his head, "Nobody's ever said that to me before..."
You smiled kindly at him, tracing the rim of the glass with your index finger now, "Well, don't ever forget it, okay?"
It felt odd, being on the stage at the Redwood Original Chapter again, with all your old friends watching you just as they had done years before--with the addition of some new friends too. You took a deep breath and ran your fingers over the strings once more to refamiliarize yourself with that feeling you'd locked away so many years before. Your eyes slipped closed and you frowned in thought, checking the tuning on the strings before smiling a little, doing a few power chords just to show off a little. You sat atop one of the barstools, holding your guitar atop your leg as you looked at the small crowd of people, "I feel like a high schooler."
