Vanessa, the cougar waitress, sways her hips over to us, wearing a grin on her face. “Hello, boys. What are you doing here?”
We come here all the time, so she knows us well enough to know that we’ve never showed up this early on a Saturday night.
“Prince needed a little break,” Max points out, stepping in front of Griffin and me.
To Max’s disappointment, Vanessa maintains eye contact, not once checking him out. Max has yet to realize that Vanessa likes younger men, not jailbait. She leads us to our usual booth in the corner and leaves us to settle in while she grabs a pot of coffee.
We flip the mugs over, so she can fill them up. Griffin props his elbow on the window pane and rests his head against his hand while I check out the menu. Nothing calls out to me, so I close it and grab a couple of cream packets and pour them into my mug.
I check over my shoulder in the direction of Max’s gaze and don’t see anything. “What are you looking at?”
Max grins and shakes his head. “Apparently, nothing.” He bunches three packets of sugar together, rips the tops off, and spills the contents into the coffee before mixing it with the spoon. “You getting anything to eat?”
“I don’t know,” I answer, still curious about what’s got Max’s attention. I check again, but I don’t see anyone.
Max shakes his head and slides the menu across the table to Griffin. “What about you?”
“I don’t even think I can look at food right now.” Griffin’s stomach growls, contradicting his words.
“Maybe some pancakes to soak up all that booze?” I ask.
Griffin shrugs. “Not a bad idea.”
The waitress comes back to take our orders, and we order a breakfast platter for three. When she disappears, I stretch my feet out on the seat and sit sideways, which gives me a better view of the whole diner.
Max grabs the portable camera from his back pocket and turns it on.
“What are you doing?” I ask, putting my hand over the lens. I glare at Griffin, expecting backup.
Griffin nudges Max in the thigh and says, “Give him a break.”
“Fine, I’ll be back.” Max turns the camera on himself, gets up, and walks away.
Griffin raises an empty glass in the air, getting Vanessa’s attention. She comes over and fills his glass. By the time she’s done filling mine and Max’s, she has to refill his again because he downed it in one shot.
“Your food is almost ready.” She holds the pitcher against her chest. “Is your friend coming back soon?”
“I think so,” I respond, not really knowing what goes through Max’s mind. “He’s like a puppy; he gets distracted easily.”
As Vanessa saunters off, Griffin scoffs and mumbles, “Shaggy dog’s more like it.”
A few minutes later, she returns with a big tray of food and places it in front of us with serving spoons and plates.
Griffin grabs a few pancakes and transfers them to his plate. “You know that by avoiding Max today, we’re going to have to double up tomorrow.”
“I thought you were drunk,” I say as I scoop some scrambled eggs onto my plate.
“Yeah,” he says through a mouthful of pancakes. “But not drunk enough to forget what I have to do.”
I smirk and take a sip of my coffee. “Then maybe we should spike your coffee with something.” If it’s not about college stuff and SATs with him, it’s about increasing views and business plans. He’s like my manager. Friend-ager.
“Funny,” he says just as Max comes back and plucks a couple strips of bacon from the platter.
He jams them in his mouth and uses both hands to point the camera on me. “Smile for the camera, birthday boy.”
I roll my eyes, refusing to hide my annoyance. I flip him my middle finger and continue eating my breakfast.
“Tell all the ladies watching what you’re looking for in a girl?”
“Are you serious?”
He swallows the bacon in his mouth and deepens his tone. “Yes.”
I check Griffin for confirmation.
“Is this for the prom date thing?” Griffin asks.
Prom date? I put my fork down and lean back on the cushioned back rest, crossing my arms in the process. “What the hell are you two talking about?”
Max points the camera at Griffin, who explains, “I guess we’re getting you a prom date for your birthday.”
I uncross my arms to rub the back of my neck and clear my throat. “You two realize I don’t have trouble getting my own dates, right?”
“Yeah, but you have trouble calling them back for a second date.” Griffin takes the camera, and places it on the window seal.
“I’ve been on second dates before.”
“When you were twelve.” Max gets up, drags over a chair, and places it at the head of the table. “Those don’t count.”
Since when are they concerned with my love life?
Griffin moves to his spot so that we’re all in the frame. Max snaps his fingers, asking for Griffin to hand something over.
“Don’t start with me,” I say as I watch Griffin hand him a flask. Where the hell did that come from?
Max takes it and drops some into his coffee, which is probably cold by now.
Griffin gasps. “You are going to edit that out, right?”
“He doesn’t have to,” I intervene. “We aren’t doing this. I’m not going to have you post a video ad for a date.”
Max sniffs his coffee and says, “Internet Prince seeks Prom Princess.” He chugs a quarter of the contents before smiling wide. “It’ll be epic.”
“By epic, he means we’ll get a bunch of new subscribers and hit our goal before graduation. Maybe even some sponsors.”
I shake my head, telling them they aren’t going to convince me. “Nothing you can say is going to get me to agree.”
“Come on, Derrick. All our subscribers want to help you find the right girl.” Max whips out his phone, places it on the table, and scrolls through the messages in his inbox.
I grunt when I realize they’re responding to something he asked on a video. “Whose idea was this?”
Griffin flicks his eyes toward Max.
“You decided to ask the subs if they wanted this without telling me?” I should really start watching my own channel. I tilt my head to the side and address Griffin, “And you went with it?”
“It’s not complicated. We find you a few girls to choose from and record your reactions to them.” He drinks some of his water. “It’ll give us content for a few weeks, so we can focus on finals and senior stuff.”
“This is a stupid idea,” I voice, but I’m outnumbered. We entered this as a group, and majority rules.
Between bites of toast, Griffin interjects, “Come on, Prince. We’ve been documenting our status at school for the last couple years. They like us, and they especially like seeing your face on the screen. You didn’t seem to mind that before.”
I exhale loudly. I knew that was going to come back and bite me in the ass. “I mind now. One thing is them crushing on me from afar. Another thing is choosing one of them to take to prom.”
“How better to end our HS Chronicles than with prom and graduation?” Max smiles wickedly.
“I don’t want to go to prom with some random chick I don’t know.” I want to go with someone I actually like. Someone different than the girls I usually date. “I don’t want to do this or date a subscriber.”
Max frowns. “Not all of us are rich, Derrick. Some of us actually need money to go to college and not end up a slave to the state for the rest of our lives.”
Shit. “Fine, but I get final say. If I don’t like the girl, you have to move on to someone new.”
“Sounds good to me,” Max says with a smirk. “But I think I found the perfect girl for you.”
I doubt it.
2
Part of His World
Ariana Merchant
There’s something about the quiet of my mom’s diner on an early Satu
rday night that really gets my imagination flowing. I glance down at the seven pages I’ve written already and smile triumphantly. Chapter seven is almost finished. I hold the written pages in my hand, feeling the weight of my hard work, and glance around at the now empty diner.
It’s peaceful, but there’s no one to people watch, except my cousin, Freya, and the older waitress. I glance at the wall clock and wave at Freya, who’s throwing her blonde and blue dreadlocks up in a ponytail. One of the customers waves a finger in the air, calling for his check. Vanessa goes to him and tells Freya to cut out early.
Freya holds up both hands, signaling ten minutes, before disappearing into the kitchen.
I take a deep breath, bring my pen to paper again, and end the chapter. I flip the page and write down “Chapter Eight.” Then stare at it blankly until the light blue lines blur, causing me to blink. This is the chapter where my main character finds herself alone with her crush.
I blush and shut the notebook. Being homeschooled for the last three years doesn’t exactly give me much life experience to draw from. My dad plucked me out of school just as the whole boy world started making sense to me.
Ugh. I used to have some friends. Now, no one ever really talks to me.
I mean guys. My sisters talk to me all the time, but that’s mostly to give me things to do or scold me for something I forgot to do. On the other hand, my cousin never shuts up about anything. The closest thing I get to real life is Freya and the reality shows I’m obsessed with.
Oh, and Derrick Prince. I’m captivated by him, his friends… his life. I’m not allowed to have social media, so Freya feeds my addiction by letting me borrow her phone to watch his channel. Even his parents get in on the pranks sometimes. It’s so different than my world; my father freaks out if I’m anywhere near a camera. He’d never understand this longing inside me—this desire to be known.
To him, social media is just a way of getting ourselves killed. Dad has his reasons, most of them because of what happened to my mom, but I’m not my mother. Though neither of us are really living. She’s buried six feet underground, and I’m held prisoner with my father as the warden.
I cross my hands on the table and drop my head on top of them. He’s not a bad person, just extremely overprotective. Ever since the Smethers family murder, he’s been on an extreme Internet ban. Only he has the Wi-Fi password in our house, and I don’t even have a phone.
It’s been three years since Mom died, and he’s getting worse, or maybe I’m just getting to that age where it feels worse because I’m bored with my life. There are only so many books I can read, or paintings I can paint, before things stop exciting me.
Dad either doesn’t understand that my life is stagnant, or he does and doesn’t see a problem with it. Either way, he doesn’t understand that for once, I want to cry because my heart is broken, rather than because it’s intact and untouched.
There’s no point in telling him though. He’d just freak out if I told him about wanting friends who aren’t also related to me. Hell, he’d probably have a heart attack if I wanted to go to public school. He doesn’t even let my sisters and me spend too much time around here. I don’t know if it’s just this town and these people or freedom in general that freaks him out, but I asked for a job once, and he hired Freya instead. When I asked why, he grounded me and said, “You don’t need the money, Ari. You can buy whatever you need; just use the card I gave you.”
He was right. I didn’t need the money. I have everything my father thinks I want, except a life. Where I live in a mostly screen-less world, the teens who come here live in a world where everything they need can be found inside a screen. How fascinating it would be to be part of Derrick’s world. To have people watch me instead of me watching them and existing in an air of invisibility.
I tap on my notebook. I don’t know how to put into words what I’ve never experienced. I don’t just mean love… I mean life. I want more of it—more of the little things that often go unnoticed.
I want to know what it’s like to have a bell cut a teacher off before she gives homework, or struggle with a lock and fail so I punch the metal in frustration. I want to stroll down a hallway and blush because a cute boy looks at me, or have a mild panic attack before a first date. I want the nervousness of a first kiss, the rapid flutters of a stolen heart, and the utter chaos of a broken soul. It doesn’t seem like much, but I’m missing all of it.
I exhale loudly and glance around the diner, spotting Freya walking over to me.
“Hey, Ari,” she beams and stops in front of my table. “Break free of the dungeon?” She unties the knot of her apron and hangs it over the side of the booth.
“Funny,” I joke and squint at her. “Why are you so happy? You just worked a double shift.”
“Because it’s over.” She slides in beside me, shoving me for space. She grabs my notebook and checks the last page. “How’s the story coming?”
I reach over and shut the notebook. “It’s not.”
“The love part again?” She takes the pot of coffee she brought over earlier. Pouring herself some coffee in my mug, she says, “You can’t keep skipping over all the love scenes in your romance books, Ari.”
“Why not? I’m skipping all those parts in my real life.” I poke her side and hold my palm out.
She lifts her bum off the booth and wiggles her butt in the air, so I can pluck her cell phone out from her back pocket.
“Thanks,” I say, sliding the screen and typing her passcode.
She glances over my shoulder as I bring up his latest uploaded video. Max’s face comes onto the screen, and he introduces the episode while checking himself out in the reflection and fixing his hair. He turns the camera on Griffin, who is standing at his locker, mumbling about picture day. Derrick strolls down the hall in the distance, looking absolutely gorgeous in his uniform.
I sigh loudly. “He’s so cute.”
“You say that every single time you watch him,” she points out.
“You go to school with him every day. Are you going to say he isn’t?”
She smirks. “He’s actually kind of sweet too.” I knew it. “That’s not to say he’s perfect, but he’s that kind of guy you can’t help but like. That’s probably why he’s dated most of the female population.”
I ignore her last comment and watch as he smiles into the camera. What I wouldn’t give to be alone with him. Not that I would know how to act around him. I know about all these random things that my tutors have taught me or that my sisters have told me, but we have nothing in common. The world he lives in is completely different than mine.
Freya nudges me in the shoulder, and I pry my eyes off his big, beautiful blue ones and glare at her. “What?”
She uses her eyes to point behind us.
Oh, my God! I squeak and gawk at the guys standing in front of the aquarium. “What are they doing here?” I whisper.
She raises her brows in question.
I scoff. “You know what I mean. They only come here at, like, two or three. It’s not even midnight.”
“Are you complaining?”
“No,” I say with a huge smile on my face. “He’s perfect.”
“Stop staring at them,” she says, pinching me out of my dream-like stance. “It’s weird, and you’re going to get their attention. The last thing I need is Max filming us and getting me in trouble with your dad.” Freya lowers her head down onto the table as Vanessa passes us and goes over to them.
I watch them, mesmerized. “Ouch!” I squeal and look down to find my red hair in Freya’s hand. “Did you just yank my hair?”
She does it again, just harder. My head goes along with it to ease up on the pain.
“What is wrong with you?” I pat my head. “I’m the one who is awestruck, and you’re the one acting like a tool.”
“I don’t want to deal with Max today.”
“I’m sorry, what?” I shout and poke my head up to find that they’re all seated, and Max, who
I just now realized isn’t wearing a shirt, is glaring at me. I immediately pop back down and lay my head on my notebook. “He’s also cuter in person.”
I give in to my curiosity and chance another look. This time, Max smiles widely at me, catching me in the act. There’s no camera, so I risk the exposure and glance at Griffin before coming back down. “Griffin’s really tall. I didn’t know he wore glasses.”
“Yeah, Grif’s a nerd. Now, can you put your boy-crazy thoughts away for the moment and focus? They always film at the diner. You’re going to get me fired if you all of a sudden show up in one of their vlogs. Uncle T will figure out I’m giving you my phone.”
I sigh, resigning to her concern.
“Let’s go.” She stands up and motions for me to move quickly. We make a dash for the kitchen ahead of us, shocking the people working there.
Vanessa, who is putting the guys’ order in, smiles at us. “What do you need, doll?” she asks me. “More coffee?”
“No,” I say. “We’re leaving.” I point toward the back door. “Through that door.”
Vanessa chuckles at my awkwardness. “What are you two girls up to?”
Freya glowers at me and takes over. “I don’t want to see Max. We got into a fight at school, so bye.”
I’m impressed at how smooth that sounded for a lie.
Freya grabs my hand and yanks me out the door before I get a chance to see Vanessa’s reaction. “Let me do the talking next time,” she says in an annoyed voice. “She definitely knew you were lying.”
“So?” I ask as I round the end of the street and come around the front, where Freya parked her car.
She stops and turns to me. “I don’t trust Vanessa. She’s always flirting with your father to get more hours.”
Flirting with my father? “I don’t know how I feel about that.”
“You should feel pissed about that.” She unlocks her car door. “Vanessa’s a gold digger. Old guys keep coming around here asking for her and leaving things for her.” She shakes the thought a way. “She’s way too close to your dad. I even caught them in the staff room together a few times.”
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