Now, I might’ve named this part of my journal entry “the date,” but let me get this straight for you guys. We both know each other from class, but we don’t know each other
that
well. We were just hanging out, talking, and grabbing some food.
Then we went to the arcade. It was not a date, all right? You shippers are not winning today. This literally happened the exact same day I got off my shift and sold to her. So chill on me. I’m not trying to smash right now, damn.
But after hanging out for a bit, we ended up heading back to her place. One, she lives by herself, so I didn’t have to worry about roommates with no jobs getting up in my business. Two, I’ve always believed you can learn a lot about a person based on how they clean and decorate their house. At least, that’s how I look at it.
We pulled up to her place, and when I walked in, my jaw dropped. No lie, the entire house was covered in early-2000s show posters and decorations. She had some cool anime stuff too. The color scheme was a nice mix of rose and lavender.
“Oh, shit!” I said, looking around. “I don’t know why you were so hesitant to let a dude into your crib. This place goes fucking hard.”
“Really?” Juliet asked. “Most people would’ve just called it lame and nerdy.”
“Yo, fuck all that,” I said. “This is the year of the nerds in this bitch.”
I walked over to her display shelf. “Bro, is that
The Secret Saturdays
you got over here?” I picked one of them up, grinning. “Oh, you’re old school, old school. You got
Samurai Jack
and
Firebreather
figurines. She even had the old 2D Cartoon Network
Clone Wars
.”
Then, my eyes locked on one specific figure. “Is that motherfucking
El Tigre
?!”
“Oh, yeah...” Juliet walked over and took it from my hand. “This was my favorite show growing up. I know it was made for a Latino audience, but I couldn’t help but love it, too.”
“I know, right?” I said. “That show actually made me want to try guacamole because of that one episode where they were eating it.”
“Yeah, me too!” she laughed. “And I’ve loved guacamole ever since.”
“Yeah... I tried it and hated it.”
“Huh?!”
“Yeah, I know. Atrocious behavior on my part. I just wasn’t fucking with it. But I was definitely fucking with the nachos.”
“Everybody likes nachos, Rico.”
“Except the people who are allergic to cheese.”
“True,” Juliet smiled. “But to be fair, Manny wasn’t even my favorite character.”
“Yeah, he wasn’t mine either,” I agreed. “Not like he was bad, but I got way more attached to Frida than him. I always wanted to be just like her—funny and outgoing.”
“I mean, you were outgoing last semester,” I said, looking at her. “What made you change up so much?”
She didn’t answer that. She just stared at the figurine in her hands, the silence stretching out between us. Whatever had happened to her last semester, it had to be pretty fucking bad. I figured it was best to change the subject.
“But yeah,” I said, clearing my throat. “I’m a real fan. I know Manny’s full government name by heart.”
“Do you now?”
“You think I don’t?”
“Okay,” she said, a playful challenge in her voice. “Let’s say it together on three. Three, two, one...”
“Manuel Pablo Gutierrez O'Brian Equihua Rivera,” we said in unison.
“Okay, smarty-pants,” Juliet giggled. “Seems like you really do know your stuff.”
“Bro, we’re almost in our twenties. Who the hell calls someone a smarty-pants anymore?”
“I do.”
“I know you got a smarty-ass mouth, that’s for damn sure,” I said, turning toward the door. “But I’m gonna head out, though. I had a decent day today.”
As I took a step, she reached out and grabbed my arm.
“Wait... you wouldn’t mind just relaxing and watching a movie with me, would you?”
Watching a movie? I stood there, thinking about it. I guess we could do that. There’s no harm in just watching a movie, right? As long as it’s on a DVD player and not—
“On Netflix,” she added.
This girl just had to say Netflix, huh?
No, no, no. It’s rude of me to assume what I’m thinking in my head right now, all right? Normies think that just because someone says “Netflix and chill,” it automatically means “Netflix and dick.” This has got to be a test. It has to. Because when she was in class—back when she was wearing bright colors and being buddy-buddy with everyone—she never came off as the type of girl to do shit like that.
But maybe I’m just overthinking it.
The movie we started watching was
Pacific Rim
. I’d never seen it before, but she had, and it was fucking awesome. After that, we put on
The Last Airbender
movie. Not because it was good, but because we wanted to hate-watch it.
“All my life, this is still ass,” I said, shaking my head at the screen. “How can a director fuck up the first few episodes of the original show so bad?”
“They got all the names wrong,” Juliet agreed, curled up on the couch next to me. “They changed so much about the characters. And the bending...”
“Don’t even get me started on the bending,” I muttered. “That’s finna piss me off. I can’t believe you made me watch this garbage right after watching absolute peak.”
“Well,” she said, looking up at me, “I thought it would be funny to watch something so bad and just talk crap about it the whole time. Was it a good call?”
“Hell yeah, that was funny as fuck. It’s actually fun to make fun of a garbage-ass movie without having a real argument right after.”
“Good..." Juliet murmured. She shifted closer to me on the couch. "I’m... uh, I’m glad to actually have someone who just wanted to hang out with me for once."
I looked at her, confused. “Huh? What do you mean by that? Didn’t you have a whole bunch of friends? You were decently popular.”
“Yeah... I guess,” Juliet looked down, her voice getting quiet. “But we had to stop seeing each other after a while.”
“Why?”
“Just something personal.” She reached out and started lightly rubbing my chest. “You don’t need to worry about it.”
My internal alarm bells started ringing.
Yo... is she trying to come on to us, bro?
the voice in my head asked.
I mean, sure, we hung out with her, and we talked to her every now and then. But she’s coming on a bit too needy.
Needy? I mean, I’ve been with my share of girls. This wasn’t exactly new. But...
Deep down in your fucking soul, you know something is wrong,
the voice said, sounding unusually serious.
This doesn’t even feel like attraction. It’s more like... I don’t know, trying to cover up something that happened.
I hated to admit it, but the voice was actually right for once. Something was definitely up. For one thing, she still hadn’t taken her jacket off since we walked inside, even though it was pretty warm in her apartment.
“Rico...?” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
“You wouldn’t mind spending the night with me, would you? It is kind of late, and I don’t want you driving home in the rain.”
I knew it might be dumb, but I had to test it.
“Oh, sure, I wouldn’t mind,” I said, keeping my voice casual. “I can just sleep on the couch and—”
She didn’t even let me finish the sentence. She slid right over and sat on my lap, her hands wrapping around the back of my neck.
“Actually... I was thinking more like spending time in my room.”
I looked at her, taking a slow breath. “As much as I’d love to long-dick you like
Ugh-Ugh-Ugh
... I’m gonna have to take a hard pass on that.”
The rejection hit her visibly. She looked like I’d physically slapped her.
“Huh?! Why?” Her eyes instantly filled with tears, her lip trembling. “Am I not pretty?!”
“No, it’s not—”
Before I could even explain, she grabbed me by the shirt, gripping the fabric hard as she looked up at me.
“Please don’t leave me...” she sobbed, her voice breaking. “Please! I’ll be good... I’ll do whatever you need me to do, just don’t abandon me. Please?”
Bro...
the voice in my head murmured, and for once, the sarcastic edge was completely gone from it.
This is just sad. Who hurt this poor girl? And whose ass do we need to beat?
That’s exactly what the fuck I wanted to know.