LIMERENCE | Abby Littman

𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞.

chapter five
[unedited]

𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐁𝐁𝐘 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐋𝐘 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐃 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐍𝐃.

Señora Padilla had let them pass for a few class periods after Sophomore Sleepover. Then she was standing in front of their combined desks, arms crossed. "Can I ask why you two aren't talking?"

Abby looked up from her phone at her teacher before glancing over at Solange who was doodling away at a piece of paper, she didn't know exactly. She just knew they both weren't talking.

"We just weren't—"

"In Español, please." Señora Padilla said, despite not speaking in Spanish herself.

Abby swallows hard, "Um, no sé."

"We were going to wait until later to start for the project's first checkpoint," Solange said in flawless Spanish without looking up.

Abby had no clue of what she said.

"Mhm," their teacher wasn't buying it. "Look around, barely anyone has even started preparing for the project's first checkpoint. They're just screwing around and getting to know each other, that's what I want you two to do. Talk. Don't make me come back over here and make it even more awkward than it has to be." The woman clapped her hands with a smile before retreating to her desk.

Abby turned to Solange. "So what did you say to her?"

"Girl, you have got to learn some Spanish, goddamn."

"What did you say?" Abby rolled her eyes.

"I told her we were going to wait until later to start the project's first checkpoint."

"I don't even know what the first checkpoint is."

Solange sighed, finally looking up from whatever she was drawing. "Do you have your instruction packet?"

"Yeah, don't you?"

"Yeah, but I don't want to get it out. Get yours so we can go through it."

Abby's Spanish binder was decorated in stickers and neatly organized. She located the instruction packet and put it between the two of them.

"You didn't think to use a translator app?" Solange asked.

Abby shook her head. "All the good ones cost money."

"And? You're rich."

"It's the principle."

"Principle my ass. If I need something, and I have the money to pay for it, Imma buy it."

Solange didn't want to teach Abby, but she did need to girl to know what was going on. So she read her the instructions to her in English, jotting down above the print and all in the margins of the paper what was written.

"The first part of the project is choosing a Spanish speaking country to model our lives after, and researching it. There's some papers we have to do for that, and a slideshow." Solange paused writing, "Do you have any ideas on which country we should do?"

"No."

"What about Panama?"

"Is that where you're from?"