Page 203 of Something Rad
“I know that,” I mutter, not meeting her eyes.
“Good,” Alice grins, grabbing my hand. “So we need to do something tonight.” I start to groan, but she cuts me off, waving her finger in my face. “Nope, none of that. You’ve been dodging all my calls and blowing off any plans I’ve tried to make for weeks. Daniel is out of town this weekend and I miss my best friend so much. We are doing something fun.”
“You act like we’re some type of regular socialites,” I chuckle, pulling my hand out of Alice’s and reaching for my can of soda behind the register. “What would we even do?”
Alice tilts her head, seemingly trying to think of an answer. “Well, maybe–”
She’s cut off by the front door opening, a loud commotion of music and voices instantly seeping in from the outside.
“Hurry up, man, will ya?” a voice calls from the car outside.
I can’t tell who is standing in the doorway between the darkness outside and their head turned back towards whoever is yelling at them. “I told you, it’ll just be a minute. I just need to drop these off for my mom. If we get a late fee because I put it off another day, it’s coming out of my pocket.”
“Whatever! Just get to it,” the voice calls back over the sound of music.
“I’m trying!” the guy in the doorway calls back.
“Okay, okay–Hey!Wait, man!”
“What?” the guy asks, exasperated, rebalancing the stack of VHS tapes in his hands.
“If they have Red Vines, can you grab me a pack?”
“Dude, no. If you want some freaking candy, come get it yourself. I’m not your mom.”
A few seconds later, a car door slams and somebody is pushing through the front door with the original guy. When they both step into the light of the store, I realize it’s Jesse and Paul.
“Oh, for the love of God,” I mutter to Alice, running a hand through my hair.
Paul doesn’t even take notice of me, turning and making a beeline for the snack wall, but Jesse spots me right away. I don’t know what I expected his reaction to be, but it certainly wasn’t a small smile and a gentle nod of his head.
I push myself into my robotic customer service mode, forcing a smile on my face. “Hey, Jesse,” I say. “What can I help you with?”
“Hey, Sara,” he replies, approaching the counter. “Just have a few returns.”
“Oh, great,” I say. “I can take those from you.”
As Jesse is handing me the stack of movies over the counter, Alice speaks up.
“Hey, Jesse,” she grins.
It takes everything in me not to shoot her a look like she’s crazy.
“Oh, hey, Alice,” Jesse says, his voice hesitant. Probably because these two have most certainly not spoken a word to each other since elementary school. “How’s it going?”
“Just great, really. I was just dropping in on Sara here at work so we could decide what to do tonight after she gets off.”
“Oh, sweet,” Jesse nods.
“Yeah,” Alice says, smiling wider. “Are you up to anything fun tonight?”
If my hands weren’t full of VHS tapes right now, I’d probably be chucking my soda can at her head. I try to make eye contact with her to ask her through my gaze what exactly it is that she’s doing, but she won’t look at me for more than half a second.
“Well, actually–” Jesse starts to respond, but is interrupted by Paul reappearing around the corner with two family size bags of Red Vines in his hands, letting out awhoop.
“Bingooo,” Paul drawls, plopping the two bags on the counter. “Found ‘em.” He looks at Jesse then swings his gaze in my direction, and, when he finds me, his spine straightens. “Oh, shit. Long time, no see,” he smiles. “Hey, Cooper.”
Every muscle in my body automatically stiffens at the name I haven’t been called in months. Not since the only person that called me it finally stopped calling me at all.
