In My Dreams

Eight

“Sounds great, Jade,” Tyler pulled out a sandwich from his brown paper bag.  “You’ve never been out of this town, and yet, your first travel destination is Africa,” Tyler joked, causing everyone at the table to laugh.

“Ya know, you could spend that money on a greater cause.” Mike winked at me.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

He paused, trying to build suspense.

“You could donate some money to the Buying Mike A Car fund.” He made a sleazy, car-salesman smile.

“Stop it, Mike. The creepy car salesman smile does not suit you!” Finn laughed, punching Mike in the arm.

“I’m pretty sure the creepy car-salesman smile doesn’t suit anybody…,” Vienna pointed out.

“Pfftt, everything suits me! I mean, come on, I’m Mike!” He gestured to himself, as if he was the epitome of everything.

The whole table rolled their eyes, even Vienna, who at this time usually had her eyes glued to some textbook.

“Well, I think it’s a good idea! I’m sure you miss Sophie and Rod,” Shay said, trying to puncture her juice box with a straw.  “How long have they been gone now?”

My first instinct was to glare at her. I was not one to hold grudges, but she didn’t believe me when I told her about MB. She was my best friend. If she didn’t believe me, who else was going to hear me out?

I wiped away my scowl and tried to replace it with my most convincing smile. “Uh, it’s been about 5 months now. So yeah, I’d be really happy if I could see them.” My tone was monotonous.

Shay gave up with the straw and juice, handing it Finn, who just grinned and took the straw and easily pushed it through.  She scowled at him and grumpily took it back, quietly sipping it.

“So when are you planning on going?” I heard Vienna speak up.

“I have quite a bit of money saved up already, but I don’t want to spend it all on this one trip.” I yawned and sat back in my seat. “So I was hoping to earn at least another thousand.  And if I can do that by this summer, I’d definitely go then.”

Mike spit out his Dr. Pepper dramatically.  Tyler gave him an icy glare while wiping Dr. Pepper and spit from his arm.

“You make it sound like a small feat,” Mike said.

I nodded, popping some grapes into my mouth. “Yeah well, I’ve got three months! I’m optimistic about it.”

“And we’ll help, too.” Tyler slung an arm over my shoulder.

“We will?” Finn looked up from his phone. Vienna elbowed him.

“Ow! Uh, yeah, sure, we’ll help.” He glared at her  and then resumed texting.

“Thanks guys.” I smiled and stood up. Slinging my backpack over my shoulder, I left to get to my locker early before all the lunatics, called teenagers, rioted the halls.

I sang quietly to myself as I unlocked my locker and grabbed my books.  As I walked down the stairs, I stopped and sat on the last step, waiting for the bell.

“Hey.” I heard behind me.

“Hey, Tyler.” I turned, blushing slightly. Did he follow me?

He sat by me, playfully bumping my shoulder. “Are we still up for tomorrow?” he asked, flashing his signature smile. If only he realized that it practically made me melt.