La Tienda (Joel Pimentel)

4

"Let me see your phone" Joel demands. "Say please" I tease. He rolls his eyes, "please let me see your phone." I reach into my back pocket and hand it to him. He taps on a few things before saying, "I'm such an idiot."

Joel begins laughing hysterically.. okay I want whatever he's on. "Óyeme loco, que te pasa?" I ask. "I-I put a 3 instead of 2!" he exclaims through laughter. "Joel are you serious?" I ask. He nods and continues to laugh. "So you didn't give me the wrong number on purpose?" I ask. He shakes his head, "claro que no hermosa, don't you get it by now, I like talking to you."

I feel my cheeks heat up. "Oh... sorry for calling you a pendejo and a mentiroso" I chuckle. "All good, here I promise this is my number this time" he says, handing me my phone. "What time is it?" I ask. "Uh it's 7:1-" "wafer time!" I cut him off. He laughs, "estás loca." I smirk, "como tú."

I grab vanilla wafers while Joel grabs his chocolate covered pretzels. We both walk to the cash register while "casually" bumping into each other. "I'll text you later" I say. "Can't wait" he smiles. He stands there awkwardly for a second before embracing me in a hug. Oh my goodness he smells so good. "Uh bye" he says with rosy red cheeks, then he takes off.

-the next morning-

"DESPIÉRTATE MIJA" my mom yells while bursting into my room. I groan and roll over only to see her standing there with a broom in her hands. "What's with the broom?" I ask. "It's for you, we are going to clean today" she smiles. She throws the broom on my bed and leaves. I rub my eyes before grabbing my phone off of the bedside table. It's 8 am. Fuck.

I check social media before locking my phone. Sighing, I unlock it again and open my messages.

To The Real Joel 😎😎: buenos días Joel!

That's casual right? Okay whatever, I press send then get out of bed. Walking over to the mirror, I groan when I see the state of my physical appearance. My curly hair came out of its bun and there's smudged eyeliner under my eyes. This is what happens when you fall asleep watching Netflix.

"Apúrate nena" mom yells from downstairs. The sound of salsa can be heard throughout the house. I quickly fix myself, grab my phone, the broom, and head downstairs. "Estoy aquí" I say. "Bueno you need to sweep the kitchen and then vacuum the rug in la sala" she says.

It takes about 20 minutes to finish both tasks. My phone has been buzzing the whole time so I finally check it.

5 messages from The Real Joel 😎😎

Okay his contact name will not do.

From Joelito: buenos días Anita
What are you up to?
I finally have a few days off from work
Anitaaaaaa
Okay text me when you're not busy

To Joelito: sorry, today was cleaning day.
Now I have nothing to do
That's great, you never told me what you do

While waiting for a response I grab a bowl and eat some cereal. *ding*

From Joelito: have you ever heard of a show called la banda?

To Joelito: nope is it good?

From Joelito: look it up on YouTube

To Joelito: okay, brb

I open YouTube and type in la banda. The show has its own page with all the videos from the first season. It's a singing competition? Wait is that Joel? OMG IT IS!