Dilemmas

01

Shaun placed his bag on his bed. "So. . .you guys ready for the acquaintance party?"

He looked around. Gio was busy with a laptop for a project he didn't submit. Brandon probably went out somewhere, since his bed remained empty. Ryan wasn't there either.

Shaun sighed. He plopped down on his bed and decided to spend the rest of the night maybe lying down. He turned in the last of his assignments, and his research paper. Now he was looking forward to the party. Finally, he had been thinking. Some day off.

Then he sat down, but then he eventually jogged to the locked he owned, which could be found at the other side of his bed, close to the door. Shaun found the lock and turned the wheels to make his code: 0-4-9-1-6. The lock clicked and he opened his door.

"Whoa," came a new voice that made Shaun freeze. "You almost destroyed my diorama."

Shaun closed the door a bit to see himself face-to-face with Ryan. He was carrying a backpack with an illustration board filled with little clay mounds on his hands.

"Don't touch it," Ryan growled as he walked towards the bed of his. Shaun watched as Ryan dropped his backpack on the bed adjacent to Shaun's locker. Placing the diorama on his bed, Ryan reached into his backpack and took out a pulled out a soccer ball and just let it bounce on the floor.

Shaun frowned a little, and turned back to face his open locker. There were three shelves in the locker. On the top there were neatly hung uniforms on a little rack. Below the uniforms were his other clothes in a mess. His laptop, school supplies, and his foldable table were on the two other shelves.

But he wasn't looking for those. He rummaged through his messed up clothes until his hand touched paper. Shaun took it out and he was holding a wad of cash. He counted it, flapping bill after bill. Thirty dollars, Shaun thought, grinning. Well, at least he left some of his spare change.

He looked back at Ryan, who was busy decorating his little diorama for who-knows-what. Shaun mouthed a silent thank you before he locked his locker and went out of the dorm.

The third floor was silent. No footsteps. No screams from Jed and Ezra. Shaun was impressed.

He descended the stairs all the way down to the first floor. There were other boys there, at least.

Shaun then caught the eye of Drake. He ran towards him and just smirked.

Drake was the guy who always wore a hoodie in coming to class and slept during boring lectures. He was taller than Shaun by a few inches and for some reason, his smile always made Shaun smile.

"Hey," Drake said as they walked beside each other. "What's up? You going to the canteen?"

Shaun replied, "Yeah." He reached into the folds of his pocket and pulled out his thirty dollars. "I found this."

Drake just smirked. "So you aren't looking forward to your first free meal from me? I'm rich, remember?"

That was enticing. Shaun quickly muttered, "Yep."

"You down for some salad or something?"

"What? Heck no! I'll get to decide my food."

Drake just playfully rolled his eyes. "Do it your way."

•

So instead, Shaun got three servings of spaghetti with meatballs.

"Seriously?" Drake raised an eyebrow as Shaun sat down with his plate. "You spent all of your money on that?!"

"What?" Shaun raised his hands in surrender. "Don't talk to me if this is trash."

"I'm not—I'm not saying that spaghetti's trash," Drake laughed. "I'm just asking why you're eating. Seriously though, you could have gotten better food. . ."

"You're still saying it's trash."

"I'm not!"

Shaun rolled his fork around the spaghetti and ate a roll in his mouth. "It's good!" he said in between the muffling. "You should. . ." he swallowed it. "you know, try it."

He gave the dismissive wave. "Another time, maybe." But Shaun knew he was thinking, No. Ew. I won't try that shit.

"Oh hey! Nice of you to see you here," a new voice said.

Shaun's hairs stood up. He knew who was sitting beside with. . .

"Julie," Shaun gulped as Drake went silent.

She sat down with her plate. Shaun dared not to make any eye contact with her. His heart was pounding like a drum on a two-fourth beat.

The tension grown between them. Shaun didn't like sitting beside her, much less talking. It. . .it just hurts.

"Um. . ." Julie spoke. "Can I ask you a question?"

Shaun's heart froze. Then he slowly moved his head to face her like a creepy doll would. "What. . .what a-are you g-going to ask me?"

She caught his eye and breathed. "I know it's awkward, but. . .can you go to the acquaintance party to dance with me?"