"I'm glad we're doing this." Nathan said, lowering the volume of the music in the car.
Camila turned from the window to look at her boyfriend. "Doing what?"
"This. Going to your parents' for dinner." He said. He glanced at her briefly before returning his gaze to the road ahead. "I've missed us lately. I know I've been busy with some of those projects, but next semester should be smooth sailing until graduation."
"Yeah," Camila said, turning back to the window. Her mood had been sour all afternoon. It started with a last minute invitation to dinner that she'd wanted to get out of, but had been talked into, first by her mother, and then by Nathan. After finally agreeing, a fight erupted over whether or not to take Nathan's car. Camila thought it was ridiculous to drive when her family lived near the subway stop, but Nathan wanted to show off his brand new stereo system and a few other "goodies" she didn't quite understand. So, she'd given in to that, too.
Now, naturally, they were stuck in traffic, and Camila was too busy weighing the pros and cons of jumping out of the car and meeting him at her family's to care whether or not he was glad they were doing this.
"Do you think the car will be okay on your parents' street?"
Camila turned her head slowly in his direction. "What?"
"Well," Nathan shifted in his seat, "it just occurred to me that your family doesn't live in the nicest of areas." He shrugged. "But hey, that's why I invested in that great security system, right? ''m sure it'll be fine."
Camila rolled her eyes and looked away.
"Camila, are you okay?"
"Fine."
"Are you still upset about me taking the car? C'mon, don't be like that. You know how I hate taking the subway. Isn't this nicer?"
"You call sitting in traffic nice?"
"It'll clear up soon. Besides, this gives us a chance to talk. I've been thinking, you know, about what will happen after I graduate. I was wondering what you thought about it?"
"About what?"
"Us. I'll be at Harvard. You'll be here ..."
"Yeah...?"
"Well, I thought maybe— Hold on." He reached into his pocket and withdrew his ringing cell phone. "Hey, man, what's up?... Nah, I'm just out with my girl. What's going on?... Tonight? Yeah, I guess... sure, sure... after dinner, okay?... Okay, catch you later."
Camila waited expectantly for an explanation after Nathan clicked off the phone. Though the one-sided conversation didn't paint a full picture, past experience did.
"That was Jason. He invited us over to the pub tonight."
"And?"
"I told him we'd stop by after dinner. That cool?"
"No, it's not 'cool'. Why do you always do that? Is it so difficult to ask me first if I even want to go anywhere else tonight?"
"Do you?"
"No!"
Nathan frowned. "Why not? I thought you had nothing to do tonight?"
"That's not the point. I just don't want to go."
"Yeah, but why? I thought you liked the guys. It'll be a few quick drinks and then we'll be off, I promise. I thought I'd stay over your place tonight, anyway."
Camila breathed deeply and counted to ten. Two seconds later, they were moving again, and Camila lost her steam. Later, she promised herself. We'll talk about this later.
