The Colors of Love

9: Spoons and Doritos

Adri and I work in silence for close to an hour, each of us evaluating our parents. Thank God she had finally stopped teasing me about my mother folding my laundry, and finally decided to work on her psychology homework. We decided to put off on evaluating each other, since we still didn't know each other that well.

"Oh damn, I forgot we have to evaluate normal people," Adri murmurs.

Crap. I'd forgotten about that too. For this project we have to evaluate our parents, our partner, and three people that we observe in public.

"Crap," I grumble. I glance at Adri, only to see her intently studying me. "What?"

She just shakes her head, and says, "Nothing, loser. Want to go out and find someone to evaluate?" she suggests.

"Yeah, good idea. Let's get dinner too, I'm starving," I reply.

"What, don't want to stay and have dinner with your Mom?" she teases. I stick my tongue out at her.

"Come on, we're aren't staying here, we're going out." Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise, and that's when I realize how I sounded. "I'm not asking you to dinner -I mean, I sort of am- but not like that. I'm just hungry -"

"It's fine, Dare. Just go get in the car."

I clamp my mouth shut and follow her to her car. I climb in the passenger seat again, and Adri starts the car. As we pull out of the driveway, one of my favorite songs comes on the radio, and I start to sing along.

Adri glances at me confusedly, so I stop my terrible singing, and ask, "What?"

She chuckles, shakes her head, then says, "You're so weird."

"Better get used to me, buddy. We're partners 'til the end of the semester," I say, wiggling my eyebrows.

Not to mention we're soulmates. We're supposed to be together for eternity.

For the rest of the ride, I nod my head and tap along to the song, but I don't sing again. Adri quietly mumbles a few of the lyrics, but doesn't actually sing them. It's almost like she's afraid of being too loud.

We pull up to the supermarket, and I can't help but laugh. There are so many weird people that shop here, I'm sure we'll find plenty of people to evaluate.

"Let's get dinner first," Adri says, already jumping out of the car. I hop out too, and the two of us walk into the supermarket together.

I follow Adri as she ducks and weaves through the crowds of people, until we finally reach the small restaurant on the other side of the supermarket. It's a small little Mexican restaurant called 'La Cuchara.'

"The spoon?" I ask, translating the Spanish name.

Adri grins and shrugs, saying, "They make good tacos." I can't help but laugh. Adri and I sit at a table in the corner, and a waiter promptly comes to ask for our drink orders.

"Hola, señorita Adrita," says the Latino waiter. Adrita? What's that mean? And how do they know each other?

Adri grins, and says, "Hey, Paulo. This is my friend from school, Dare."

"Hola Dare. What would you like to drink, señor?" he asks.

"Uh, a Coke would be great. Thanks," I say. He takes Adri's order, then bustles off to the kitchen. "Adrita?" I ask Adri questioningly.

"It's a Spanish nickname. If they add 'ita' to the end of your name, they like you," she says, shrugging. "Paulo and his family live in my neighborhood."

I grin, and ask, "So what would they call me? Dare-ita?"

"No, you idiot. You're a guy, that means the ending is ito. You'd be called...Darito," she answers. As soon as she says it she bursts into laughter, and says, "I think I'm going to call you Dorito from now on."

"Oh shut up," I reply, my cheeks flushing in embarrassment.

Adri bursts into laughter, and I can't help but stare at her as she throws her head back. When she smiles, she looks so happy and carefree. It's a welcome change to her normal scowl. And she has dimples, too. And her hair sort of bounces when she laughs.

My soulmate is absolutely beautiful.

A/N: Hope you guys are liking it so far! Let me know by commenting or voting! Thanks, guys!