Behind The Screens

25 | The College Talk

Britten

"Put on something cute, we're leaving in thirty minutes!" I yelled down the hall as we walked into the living room. Mira and Nora were sitting in front of the TV watching shows on Teen Nick.
"Right now?" Mira complained. I nodded and stood in front of the screen.

"We have an important night." I said, putting emphasis on the last part. "You should wear your new blue dress." I suggested to Nora. "The one with the flowers. It's super cute and flirty."
"I will, but there's no reason to be flirty." Nora said while standing up.

But oh yes, there was. She knew that us and the guys were taking her out to Main Event for her birthday, but she didn't know that Ben and Andrew- and more importantly Ben- would also be there. We had a plan to get those two together and we'd hoped it would happen before prom.

"This eyeshadow look is playful, yet demanding." Mira said, putting the last touch on Nora's face. Mira stepped back and smiled. "Why does it matter?" Nora asked with a shrug. "You never know who you could run into." I said. "And it's your birthday!"
"But it's main event..." Nora retaliated.
"And speaking of running, do you really think I should be wearing this if I want to do laser tag?" Nora asked.
I thought about it for a second, realizing she was right. We'd set her up for a date, not causal laser tag with our friends.

"Well, we need to be leaving in ten minutes anyway." I said. "What could you possibly do in that amount of time?"

She could do a lot in that amount of time- with a minute to spare. She'd taken off the makeup we gave her and instead swiped on a nice winged liner and natural looking falsies. After she did that, she slipped off the dress and put on a cropped black tee and high waisted jeans. With her hair pulled into a top knot, this was definitely laser tag causal, and somehow she still looked super attractive.

"Well now I know why my boyfriend tried to get with you." I mumbled. "Hey," Mira said. "We don't talk about that."

We pulled up at the center in a short amount of time, all of us in a rush to have fun. We felt like children- children who wanted a seat at the bar. Tyler and Mira casually walked over to the bar in attempt to be our sweet talkers. While they talked to the bartenders, Alex and I talked to Nora.

"I probably should've asked this sooner, but what do you want for your birthday?" Alex asked her. She shrugged and responded, "you start wanting less when you're older and, honestly, tonight, all I want is a good time."
"That's great, but is there anything else?... anyone else?" I questioned. She raised an eyebrow. "Are you two trying to set me up?" She asked. "At main event?"
Alex and I looked at each other and let out nervous laughter. "Nope." We said in unison.

"Look who just showed up just as we were failing to convince them we were 22!" Tyler said, coming toward us. He stepped aside and Ben and Andrew came in front of them. I looked at Nora and her face was red. She looked at me and I panicked, knowing that by this time she knew. "So, uh, have you met Ben?" I said, then grabbed Alex's arm and started walking off.

"Hey, wait, where are we going?" Alex asked. We sat at a nearby arcade game. It was Deal or No Deal. "Pretend to play, I'm spying." I said, pressing buttons and occasionally glancing at Ben and Nora.

Alex sighed and tried to grab my attention again. He placed a hand on my shoulder and said, "Britten?" I momentarily glanced in his direction and was about to turn back around when I saw the look on his face. It was a look of sincerity, the look he only gave me when something was bothering him. He had my full attention then.

"I want to talk to you." He told me, looking down and fiddling with his nails. Though he seemed kind of upset, I was confident that he wasn't breaking up with me... and I was right- kind of.

"Look, I've been thinking a lot about life after high school." He began. It was then that I realized that here, in Main Event, on Nora's birthday, we were having the after high school relationship talk. It was getting closer and closer to our graduation and though I didn't want to leave him, I knew I was going to.

"I know you want to be a doctor, which means you probably won't stay in California..." He said. I nodded and placed my hands on his thighs. "Yea, but we can make long distance work!" I assured him. "We've done it before-"
"For four months, Britten. Four!" He reminded me. "But what's going to happen the next four years? And you'll hardly ever get to visit with how much work you'll have to do!"
I smiled and squeezed his hand. "Someone's been doing his research." I said. He blushed a little. "I'm just going to miss you... a lot."

"Guys!" I heard someone yell from behind me. I turned around and Mira and Tyler were hurriedly making their way toward me. "Ben and Nora are totally hitting it off!" She said when she'd gotten closer. Andrew finally came into view with two pieces of pizza, one in each hand, eating from both. Typical Andrew.

"Yo," Andrew spoke, the chewed up pizza in his mouth muffling his words. "They're totally making out in the Rollercoaster machine." My eyes widened. "No, don't listen to this fool." Tyler said. "They're just talking."
"For how long?" Asked Alex. "Cause we're trying to get into laser tag and we don't want to leave the birthday girl." When Andrew shrugged, Mira insisted that we go and convince them talk faster.

"Okay, we're right behind you!" I said as they began walking toward Ben and Nora. I turned back to Alex and looked into his eyes. "Don't worry about us," I told him. "It's too early, okay? We're doing fine now and, if it's meant for us, we'll do fine those four years apart. I promise, anything that happens will be for our good." I squeezed his hands one more time, then stood up, motioning for him to follow.

Just as we were starting to join the rest of the crew, we saw them shoot out from behind a race car game, bolting toward laser tag. I laughed and said to Alex, "in the mean time, you're going down, Perez."

We ventured after them into the laser tag room, waiting for the end of the instruction video. When it finished, all of us girls grabbed a red team vest and the guys grabbed the green. It was about to be an emotionally brutal game tonight for the green team, I was determined. But, for some reason, watching Alex put on that green team vest made me realize how much I'd miss him after high school. It reminded me about how we'd be in different states, yet again. We'd be so far and so different. He'd could change completely and I'd hardly know. It seemed as if this game was already getting emotionally brutal, and it hadn't even started.

-----

"Happy birthday, dear Noraaaaa! Happy birthday to you!" We all cheered and clapped as she sat, smiling wide and bright. "Eat more chicken!" Andrew added, earning a laugh from the group. "No, seriously."

"Happy eighteen, Nora!" Mira congratulated her. Nora gave us a slight smile and stared at the cake. "What are you waiting for? Make a wish. Blow out the candles." Ben said, slipping his arm around her neck.

And as if his words were a trigger, Nora burst into tears. Ben quickly removed his arm and looked at her with concern. All of us began asking her what was wrong, but she sat with her face in her hands, crying instead of responding. Giving up, we all waited until she finally lifted her head and looked at us.

"Oh no, honey, your makeup was so cute." Mira said when Nora finally revealed herself. I kicked Mira under the table.

"Are you ready to tell us what's going on?" I asked her. "Yea, you shouldn't be crying on your birthday like this." Ben said. She took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.

"The last time anyone had ever done anything like this for me was when I turned five." Nora explained. "A family was taking care of me, and it happened to be my birthday. I told them and they showed up with cake and presents. They told me to make a wish and blow out the candles and you know what my wish was? That I'd have a family. So many April 18th's passed and no one adopted me- but you guys..."

"Oh no, please don't say it, I'm trying not to cry." Mira said, a couple tears already running down her face. "Good job, babe, you're doing good." Tyler said, then turned to me and shook his head.

Nora laughed and nodded. "You guys are my family."

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Alex
The next day

"Tyler, look." I said, motioning for him to come to where I was. We stood over the display case and I pointed inside. His eyes widened and he looked in my direction with a bright smile.

"Let's start saving."