Invite Me a Coffee

8

I get awake. Today is a holiday, so I set my alarm for nine, since I usually get up at seven to get to high school at seven-thirty.
On my nightstand (which is actually almost like a small table) I have my computer, my cell phone, a package of cold porcelain, paints and a stack of books. I don't have too many, so I have to make do with the pirated PDFs I have.
I make some small toy food figures with the cold porcelain listening to a tutorial, but after making only about three cold porcelain cakes I stop. I take a photo of them and post it on my Instagram. Stock: three. Ha!
Every week I sell something or other. It is more or less twelve hundred Argentine pesos a day, but for that you have to do a lot of things.
I've been doing it for about a year and I haven't spent any of that money in all that time, which is more or less four hundred thousand pesos now. I want to self-publish my book, but only fifty copies, eight thousand each, are five hundred thousand something.
It's like my second job, because what I earn at Aunt Beth's place I give to my mother for household expenses and such.
Maybe in a few months I can publish my book, and that's why I have to hurry to finish it, correct everything and convince Dan, my partner, to make me a cover and illustrations, something for which I might have to pay him too.
TOO MUCH.
Well, I can handle that.

-----------------------

next day

Enter the school.
"Ethan!" I exclaimed when I saw him. He greets me with a fist bump and we smile at each other—I know I've been very busy these days, but I'm free today, and we can go get ice cream. Of course, only if you...
"Obviously," he says, "I almost never have any activity," he laughs. "It seems somewhat monotonous to me, but I guess it's quiet."
—To tell the truth, I envy you. I wish I had as much free time as he surely had. To go out, to be another teenager.
He raises his eyebrows and smiles.
-Yeah. I didn't think about it like that.
—Well, shall we go to class?
He nods, and I follow him to our biology classroom.
I'm getting used to the places, but sometimes I prefer to just follow Ethan and have him take me to my classes, without having to get lost a thousand times before getting to a place.
This place is huge. My old school had much fewer students, there was only one group per year. Here I am a 13 A, and there are B, C and D. It's a little confusing and complicated, but I'm adjusting a little, i guess.

-----------------------
—Lau, do you want to come to my house instead?—says Ethan. I nod my head.
-Of course, it's OK.
He gives me a smile and I shrug my shoulders.
—Well, hey, I left my car a few blocks away, follow me—He grabs me by the wrist and drags me running, I'm almost falling until I get used to it. I look at him a little nervous and blush.
He laughs and tells me:
—I bet you can't beat me in a race to my car. "It's that one over there," he says, as I understand it, it's one almost on the corner of the block.
—Mm, you're going to beat me.
He looks at me strangely, but doesn't say anything, and does a count of “3, 2, 1, Go!” and we both run. He's going an absurd distance in front of me, and I know he's being careful and going slower so that I have a chance to catch up, but I still can't.
We arrive, the before, and he gets into his car.
—Hey, come in the seat next to me.
“Wow,” I say, looking at his car. It's luxurious. It has air and radio. I see how the roof, which was previously covered, slides and leaves only a glass that allows us to see the sky.
-That?
—Uh, I just… I don't drive much, I just order an Uber once in a while.
He looks at me confused. I purse my lips.
"Well," he says, just to fill the silence.

---------------------

We get to his “house” and it's a damn mansion.
"Is this your house?" I ask him in amazement and he nods as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "It's huge."
-Yeah? Sometimes I got lost at first, but I got used to it, although it is a little overwhelming.
I can't be mad at him for being ignorant, since I guess that's the only kind of life he knows.
We walked in and... oh my god. There are a lot of things that I wouldn't dream of having because of their value. We go up the stairs to the second floor (It's like four floors in his “house”!) and go to his room. He gives me a brief tour of his room, a room that is not brief.
—Hey, here are my posters. Those are my books, and that is my closet. Then that's my bed, that's my computer, my play station... Well, that's the most important thing.
It doesn't seem very comfortable, rather it's quite messy, but even so there are very expensive things like his cell phone and his computer that are a thousand times more expensive than mine. He has clothes, expensive brand names. And photos with celebrities.
Now that I realize, he is famous. I am friends with a famous person. Wow.
— Do you want to play FIFA with me?
—I don't know how to use it, but you can teach me... And FIFA is football, right? I'm not much into sports, but video games must be fun, I guess. It's hard?
-I do not think so.
He hands me a controller and patiently explains to me what each button means.
—Well, we'll try to play. “I leave you a good team,” he says smiling.
"Well," I say “i'll try”.
We start and he asks me if he should have mercy on me. I say no, and we play. I'm horrible at this. I try to kick the ball and I throw it out of the court. I'm just hurting my own game, and it's stupid.
I quickly get frustrated and Ethan laughs.
"I see you don't like this," he says. "Wouldn't you prefer that we go to the pool?" I can lend you something to wear.
"Good," I say.

-----------------------

Damn. It has a giant heated pool, and I barely know how to swim.
We enter and the water is warm, exactly how it should be, and it is strange that it is.
“Let's play the ten questions game,” says Ethan.
-What's that?
—I ask you ten questions, and you ask me another ten.
-Okay. While we swirl.
"How do you want to make a whirlpool in this giant pool?" I ask and he says:
—Well, because that's fun, right?—he says—eh, first question. Favorite color?
“Celeste,” I say.
-Favorite food?
-Fried chicken.
-Favourite movie.
I think about my answer and then choose megamind.
—Hey, favorite song?
—Uh, Mrs Potato Face.
-Singer?
—Melanie Martinez.
-Album?
—Hey, Portals.
-Book?
—I think... oh, I don't know. Well, The Unadoptables.
—So, sport?
"None," I say and he looks at me as if I had said the most ridiculous thing a person could have said ever.  We started to make the whirlpool, but it is very difficult to do it in such a large pool. Still, we're distracted by this interrogation. Question twelve: “Most horrible color?” I respond “the one in the swimsuit you gave me, I hate you” he laughs. After other questions.
I ask him less trivial things. Things like what he would like to study (he says graphic design) if he has siblings (yes, one) like meeting Taylor Swift (he met her. Wow, he really did) if he has pets (a Persian cat)
What are his networks (yes, he was “Sam”. He looks like someone similar, but he said he would show me later what he looked like with dyed hair and makeup).
We swam for a while. It feels good.
"Hey, let's see who can hold their breath the longest?" he says and I accept.
We both dive in and feeling the water in contact with my face feels cold. I try to open my eyes, but it's too blurry and I don't like the feeling. I hold on for a few more seconds and he leaves. I go out afterwards and take a necessary and relieving breath of air. I look at him and smile. Her hair is a squished, wet mess, I guess mine is too.
We remain silent for a few seconds, now it feels calming and not embarrasing or tedious, then he sighs deeply.
-Rematch?—he smiles and i nod.