Good Luck, Babe!

Last Words of a Shooting Star

Ben Rodriguez

"I'm telling you man! The girls in California aren't much better than here." I tell Kenji.

I've been sitting here on Kenji's floor for over 5 minutes trying to convince him that the girls in Cali aren't much different, the girls from California are just more entitled and spoiled.

What a waste, I think, he would be better off dating a man.

I shake that disgraceful thought out of my head, why would I think that in the first place?!? It's like saying, 'hey you should be queer! it's not like it will get you KILLED.'

"Hey, Ben, you ok? I lost you there for a minute." He grins.

Oh that STUPID GRIN.

"Yeah I'm good, just got lost in thought." I smile back.

"Kenji!" Carlo, Kenji's dad, opens the door. "Them horse stables ain't gonna clean themselves."

"Guess I gotta leave then." I say as I stand up.

"Not so fast!" Carlo says. "You got soft hands brother! You need to get some manual labor done!" He smiles.

"I can teach him how to clean them," Kenji looks at his dad, then at me.

"Great idea!" Carlo chuckles and walks away.

"Seriously?" I face Kenji.

"He's right, you're a city boy, we outta change that." He pats my shoulder and gestures for me to follow him out his room.

"Reminder that it is hot as shit outside-" His mother cuts him off.

"Language!" She shouts from the kitchen.

"Does she have super hearing?" I say under my breath.

"But it's really hot out so we'll have fun." He smirks, god, why does he have to be so hot.

"Oh boy.." I sigh and we walk outside.

Something tells me we will NOT have fun.

                                                                   —

Ok, so cleaning up horse shit sucks. I am glad I grew up in the city because if I grew up here I think I would pass away very early on in life.

And holy shit, Kenji is driving me insane. Not like 'Oh my god he's so annoying' but in a 'Oh my god he's so hot i'm going to explode' type of why. I've never felt this way about a friend before, I think I'm jealous. He decided to take off his shirt and holy moly guacamole, he's jacked. But in a slim-fit way. Does that make sense? I don't know if that makes sense but it makes sense to me.

We finished cleaning up the stables and I started to walk home, absolutely baking in the sun. But hey, at least I was getting my tan in! Nope, I'm fucking sweating in places I didn't know I could sweat in, and the humidity. Oh my god, the humidity. Holy fuck I'm going to die.

"Finally!" I saw once I saw my house in the distance, my mother sitting on the porch with my sister- Oh hey! Valeria came outside for once, though she still is wearing her jeans and long sleeve shirt.

"Val, you must be baking out here!" I say to her as I reach the porch.

"Not really." She says, curling up into a ball on the porch swing.

I sigh, "Ok, well I am sweating my balls off so I'm going to get inside."

Valeria lips quirk up slightly.

Good, I think, she hasn't even shown a slight smile like that in weeks.

I walk Inside and let out a groan once I feel the cold air of my house hit my face. I don't think I've ever felt so thankful for air conditioning before.