The Comet Cafe

Chapter~2

            I drove up into April’s driveway and walked up to the doorbell. I didn’t know exactly where we were eating, but April’s mom works for the local newspaper as a restaurant reviewer. April always has the best places to eat at. It’s a plus of being friends with her.

I ring the doorbell and her mom opens the door right away.

“Ah, Julia. Hello.”

Her mom is also amazingly calm. All. The. Time.

“Hi, Mrs. Hooker. How are you today?” I reply to her, and adjust my bag.

“Oh, fantastic! Thank you for asking.” She says in a monotone voice. “Please, come in.”

I step into April’s huge house that always leaves me stunned when I walk in.

April’s dad is the CEO of some company that I can never remember the name of. So, he makes quite a lot of money.

April runs down the staircase and takes my hand, leading me up to her room. I manage to wave to her mother, who is closing the door behind me.

It’s weird that a women as serene as that could have a daughter like April. Her dad isn’t even like her either! The only times I’ve seen her dad was either at school events or sometimes through his office doors. He’s always working it seems and only stops if he really, really needs to.

I’m glad my dad isn’t like that.

He still likes his job, even though the pay isn’t the best.

I step into April’s room to find Lucy and Katie there already.

Lucy’s looking as punk rock as ever with a black tank top that says, “You Can’t Handle Me” and platform boots. It looks as though she got a little dressed up with a mini-skirt. Well, about as dressed up as Lucy can.

Katie’s sitting on April’s frilly bedspread. She’s gotten a bit dressed up as well, with a to-the-knee skirt, sparkly tank top and lavender cardigan.

I suddenly feel very out of place with my shirt and shorts.

“We had to dress up?”

“Oh, it’s fine! You can wear something of mine.” April says quickly, sounding like herself again. She walks over to her closet and grabs a strapless, lace dress with a brown belt at the waist. “I haven’t even worn this one yet.”

She walks over to me and pushes me into the bathroom with the dress.

“Jeez!”

“Sorry!” She giggles.

“I have a feeling you wanted me to wear this dress...” I say, while slipping it on.

“No…”She says and giggles again.

Liar.

It’s not that I don’t like wearing dresses. It’s the fact that a lot of them don’t fit me right.

“Alright. Let’s see you!” Katie calls from the other side of the bathroom door.

I step out in my bare feet and all the girls gasp, even Lucy, which I was not expecting.

“Sexy, Julia!”

“It looks great on you!”

“You should wear dresses more often!”

I felt heat rise up to my cheeks.

“You guys are so sneaky.”

“It’s the only way to get you in a dress!” April squeals.

“But, this isn’t my night. It’s yours, April.” I say, looking at myself and the girls’ reflections in the mirror.

“Don’t worry about me!” She says, with a swat of her hand.

As I look at myself in the mirror, I see a very worried Katie in the corner of my eye. I can tell she’s thinking the same thing I am. Which is that April is totally not fine. At all.

“Let’s head off ladies!” Lucy explains, checking her eyeliner in a compact.

“Right.”

We all head down the stairs with our shoes clacking against the marble floor, Lucy’s boots being the loudest.

We walk out into the garage and into April’s car.

She got a new one for her seventeenth birthday this year. It’s a Volkswagen bug in a light green, almost mint color. We all hop in. Katie and I in the backseat and Lucy in the passenger side after calling, “Shotgun!” shortly before.

April starts the car up and we are soon driving to the city of Chicago. Meadow Hills is only a 30 minute drive to Chicago, which is great because Meadow Hills isn’t the most exciting place on earth.  Lucy turns on the radio and Paramore’s new song is playing. Luce automatically flips the volume dial as high as it can go and we all start to sing along.

I should be over all the butterflies, but I’m into you, I’m into you.

And baby even on our worst nights, I’m into you, I’m into you.

We’re all singing at the top of our lungs. You would think April wouldn’t be singing along, due to the lyrics, but I’m pretty sure she’s the loudest one out of all of us. I guess tonight she just wants to have fun with all her best friends. And I do too.

The song is over now and a Macklemore song comes up next, but none of us are really into rap, so Lucy turns it down.

“How do you think you all did on test numero uno today?” Lucy’s stepdad and half of her family are Puerto Rican so sometimes she slips between Spanish and English. We’ve all gotten used to it.

“I think I did mal. Muy mal.” Katie says, biting her fingernails. Lucy scoffs and I see April stifle a laugh through the rear view mirror.

“Puh-lease,” I say. “You probably aced it, Kate!”

“It was my AP Biology final guys!” She replies. “It was so hard and practically the only one I studied for.”

She did want to be a biologist or some other type of scientist with a long name. Katie felt the need to get an A so she would get into a good college. But, she gets A’s on everything so she really does not need to worry.

“You’ll be fine, Katie,” April says and I see we are on the highway. Specifically the only highway in all of Meadow Hills. “Whereas, I will not. I had English today. God, you don’t even know my hate for Mr. Manley.”

“We kinda do,” Lucy says and she’s right. April probably complains about him once a day.

“Well, you know what I mean,” She says back.

“Hey, where are we going exactly?” I ask and pull up my strapless dress. It keeps falling down and I can now remember why I don’t wear dresses.

“Just this little café my mom did a review of a while back. It has a band playing tonight called The Way. They’re a little indie band.” April says and I’m suddenly excited. I love live music. I hope they are actually good.

“Sounds fun,” Katie says.

“Yeah, hopefully,” April says.

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A/N: Hope you all enjoyed! I know I said we'd meet someone special but I have to save that for next week. I'll be busy this weekend so maybe expect an update...Wednesday?

Vote or comment pretty please? Tell me what you think of Julia and all her friends! (: