Love Is a Losing Game // Joel Pimentel

14 | Coffee Shops

Chapter Fourteen

Blu's POV

"A caramel macchiato for the lady," Yoandri teases. I give him a grateful smile and he returns the favor. Joel sips his latte next to me as Yoandri goes back to wait for his drink and I return to my calculus homework.

"So what's after math? Can we work on our physics worksheets?" Joel asks as he writes down an answer for his stats paper.

I nod and shrug, "Sure, I'm cool with that." I rotate my body to face him and lean over to get a look at his paper.

"Shouldn't that be 26%?" I say after a second of analyzing. Joel stays quiet and then nods no, "It would be if that were 150." I 'Oh' in understanding and move back to my worksheet.

I drop my left hand next to me and bring my right leg under my left one. My focus returns to my law of cosines problems just as I feel Joel's fingers brush against my own.

My heart does some flips but I pretend to not notice his creeping touch. He then slips his fingers between mine and I turn my head to look at him only to find him already looking at me.

"Can I hold your hand?" he asks in a soft tone.

All the breath in my lungs leave me at his question. His eyes looked at me with a hint of nervousness and when I glance at our hands he sucks in a gentle breath.

"I suppose," I say with a hint of a smile. In response he finishes intertwining our fingers.

"Alright kids. Let's hit these books," Yoandri smiles as he slides into his side of the booth.

His eyes land on Joel's fingers in mine and he looks up at him with a look I can't decipher. They look at each other for a few seconds and I see a knowing smile spread across Yoandri's face.

"Yes, we should hit the books indeed," I say slipping my hand out of Joel's and placing it under my chin. The tension disappears for the time being and we continue studying for our classes.

***

"Joaquín it was so weird," I sigh as I finish picking my outfit out for school tomorrow.

"Honey, it sounds like you have two guys that like you," he replies over the phone. I run my hands down my face and groan.

"That's not possible. I'm the nerd that nobody likes," I sigh as I push my glasses up my nose. My contacts had become too bothersome.

"Well, it's happening so that's tough," he snorts.

"You're useless," I say flatly as I plop on my bed and begin to scroll through Instagram. We begin to send each other memes and laugh together at certain posts.

A notification goes off and I read it on my screen before choking just as another one comes in, making me go into a fit.

"What the hell?! Are you good?" Joaquín asks over the phone. I shake my head even though he can't see me and manage to get out, "They followed me!"

He begins to cackle and I roll my eyes, clearing my throat as I drink water. "You're so not helping my current predicament, my guy."

"I'm sorry, that's just too funny," he laughs. "I mean what are the odds?"

I groan again and lay back down on my bed, "I'm doomed."

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a/n

bloop.