I promise.

7

*JULIAN*

Right after lunch Jovani and I got signed out early to start our drive to Miami; we have a meet and greet with our friends Chrys and "Geo".

"What did you tell Sierra?" Jovani asked me when we got in the car.

"Damn it. I forgot to tell her I wouldn't be here. I should've said I have a doctor's appointment."

"Who is Sierra?" My dad asked, pulling out of the school parking lot.

Before I could think of a response, Jovani answered for me.

"A girl that Julian likes. She's a senior and she doesn't know about YouNow."

My dad glanced at me through the rearview mirror. "Ooh an older girl. Well are you ganna tell her about Goonsquad?"

I shrugged. "Maybe...if she doesn't find out from my friends..." I glared at Jovani "or Jovani first."

"I don't understand. Why is YouNow a secret?"

"Dad if girls at my school like me it's only because they think I'm famous. And I'm not. If I can get Sierra to like me it'll just be because she likes ME. Not the attention I get."

"I understand." My dad told me, but he sounded disappointed.

I sat back in my seat. "Plus it's nice talking to someone who doesn't already know everything about me."

"Oh. Okay." He nodded, now sounding less disappointed.

We stopped at the house to shower and say bye to our mom, then we were back on the road. I took a nice long nap and woke up totally refreshed. Just as we got to the parkin Miami, Jovani's phone started ringing. I waited patiently, only hearing his side of the conversation.

"Ok. So Chrys and Geo are here and they're walking to some snack cart."

Jovani, my dad, and I got out of the car and started looking around.

"Oh! There!" I pointed to a small hotdog cart, the vendor was in a white and red striped uniform and looked like he hated his life.

The three of us made our way to the hotdog cart and we soon met up with Chrys and Geo.

"Aye!" Geo smiled, giving Jovani and I a hug. "My goons!"

"Whattup Geo." I laughed and hugged Chrys.

"Hi boys." My dad told them.

"Hi, Mr.Jara." They both said.

"You guys hungry?" Chrys asked, pulling out his wallet. "Cuz I am."

"Nah, we ate before we left." I said, stepping back so they could get food. Jovani ended up getting a hotdog too and I got a bottle of water.

"There are some picnic tables by the swings." My dad told us, pointing in the direction.

"Ok. Lets sit." Geo nodded. "We're ganna be standing for a while, mine as well rest up." He laughed.

When we got to the table we all sat and as they took their first bites of food I took my first swallow of water. The coolness it brought to my throat felt so good, unlike the sun that was beaming down on my skin.

"So what's new?" Jovani asked the guys.

"Um, you guys know I got a tip jar...nothing else has really happened." Geo said.

"Yeah, nothing's happened to me." Chrys shrugged.

"Me either." Jovani said.

"Me either." I laughed.

My dad fake coughed and said "Sierra" in between.

"Dad!" I groaned. "Lets not do this."

"Oooh." Geo smirked and poked my arm with his finger. "Who is Sierra?"

"Just a girl I kinda like." I confessed.

"She's a senior." Jovani added on.

"Wait, aren't you both juniors?" Geo asked, eye brow raised.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"Oh so she's older. That's cool. Do you think she likes you?" Geo was listening closely now and not breaking eye contact with me.

"I don't know." I replied honestly.

"And he doesn't wanna tell her about YouNow." My dad jumped in. "She doesn't know about 99Goonsquad."

"Oh." Chrys said. "Be careful. Been there, done that."

"What do you mean?" I panicked.

"I avoided telling a girl I was talking to about YouNow, and when one of my friends brought it up during lunch the girl got mad at me. She said I shouldn't have lied to her. Long story short, we don't talk anymore."

My dad started nodding. "You see. Tell the girl."

I just shook my head and took another gulp of water. "Lets talk about something else now."

I'm not ready to lose this. I'm not ready to potentially influence Sierra's feelings toward me. Maybe she'll magically like me once she finds out that I'm popular on YouNow, OR maybe she'll stop talking to me because she thinks it's weird. Either way...I'm not ready.