The Corner smells like heaven. Grease, fries, the smell of the chicken wrap? Can't beat it. Heaven. I tug the door open, already reaching for my phone to text Luca that I beat him here. Knowing him, he'll take quite a while. I scan the booths looking for an empty one. I do a double-take when I see her, Xamira.
She's sitting across from someone, laughing at something. Elbows on the table, a half-empty smoothie in hand, her hair is in a bun, some of the strands are sticking out, maybe she just came from dance. I wonder who she's talking to. I slide my phone back in my pocket and head over.
"Didn't expect to run into you." I stop at the edge of their booth.
Xamira looks up, eyes lighting up in surprise. "Mason?"
"Hey," I say, smiling at her. "Didn't know this was your spot."
"It's the spot," the girl Xamira was talking to mutters, "Now everyone suddenly wants to eat here."
Xamira smiles. "Don't mind her, Samatha's dramatic."
"It's fine, mind if I sit?"
Xamira glances at Samatha, who shrugs. "Go for it."
I slide into the spot next to Xamira, pretending I don't notice how close her knee is to mine. "So," I say, leaning on the table, "what did I walk in on? Deep conversation about school? Food rankings?"
"Dance comp," Xamira pauses. "and Luca."
Samatha stiffens across the table.
I try not to react, but I think my face shows how nervous I am. "Luca, huh?"
"Yeah, He and I had a... dare I say, an argument."
I let out a nervous chuckle. "Small world huh? Actually he's supposed to meet me here soon."
Xamira raises a brow. "You two friends?"
"Yeah, we've known each other since elementary."
Samatha's eyes narrow slightly, like she's trying to connect dots. I probably shouldn't mention the part where Luca talked about her. Instead, I lean back and turn toward Xamira.
"You know, I'm pretty sure it's illegal to be so beautiful."
She laughs, shaking her head. "You're terrible at flirting."
"Is that what I'm doing?"
Samatha makes a gagging sound and picks up her drink.
The door swings open and Samatha freezes. I look over and see that Luca walked in. He spots me and walks over. But then he sees who I'm sitting with and his steps slow.
"I didn't realize you were..." He shakes his head, "hey Samatha."
"Hey." Sammy responds in such a sharp tone, it reminds me of Lisa when she's angry with me.
"Can we talk?" Luca nods to the door. "Outside?"
Samatha hesitates, glances at Xamira, then sighs. "Fine."
She stands, and follows him out the door.
The moment it shuts behind them, I let out a low whistle. "Well. That wasn't awkward at all."
Xamira smirks. "Right?"
I tilt my head toward her. "So... while your friend's outside dealing with Mr. Moody, how about I ask you something?"
She narrows her eyes, amused. "Depends, is it another terrible compliment?"
"No," I say, pretending to be offended. "It's worse."
"Oh no."
I grin. "You wanna hang out sometime? Just us."
Xamira stares at me for a second, then sips her smoothie with a maddening calm. "What will we even do?" She shakes her head "Never mind, I take that back. Answer this instead. Why do you want to hang out with me?"
I gulp, I don't know how to answer. I just blurt out whatever comes to mind "Because you're pretty."
I hide my face with my hands out of embarrassment. She giggles and then lays her hand on my shoulder, and I turn to look at her. "How about this, I'll give you my number, and you can text me a time and place. I'm mainly free on Saturday's after 3."
"I can work with that."
"Anyways, while we wait for our friends, tell me about your day." We talk for a while, constantly switching topics.
Samatha and Luca come back in after a long time, looking surprisingly calm. "I guess that's my sign to leave, it was really nice talking to you."
She smiles at me "Likewise. Text me what happened between Luca and Sammy, I doubt she'll tell me the whole story."
"Will do, see you around." I wink and walk over to Luca, just as Samatha takes her spot across from Xamira. "So what-"
He stops me, "Later. I want to eat." we order and grab a bag of chips for both of us, and go sit down. He starts munching on his chips. I want to ask about what happened but I know I shouldn't press. I've known Luca long enough to know that when he's ready to talk, he'll talk.
After a minute, he finally speaks up, "I apologized."
"Yeah?"
"She didn't make it easy. But she listened."
I nod. "That's better than nothing."
Luca runs a hand through his hair, eyes trained on his bag of chips. "I messed up. She didn't deserve to be yelled at. I just panicked, and it came out wrong."
"Been there," I murmur.
"Yeah," he nods. "I definitely didn't expect to see her here again so soon though."
"The universe has a funny way of forcing people together."
He smirks, "Speaking of people, you and Xamira have been around each other a lot more recently." the buzzer to let us know our foods ready goes off. "I'll grab our food, but you're going to tell me what happened when I get back."
I chuckle and watch Luca head toward the counter. I lean back in the booth and drink some of my water. Luca returns a moment later with two trays stacked with burgers and fries, our usual.
Luca raises an eyebrow, waiting.
I sigh. "You just can't wait can you?" He shakes his head. "Anyways, I asked Xamira out and she said to text her a time and place."
Luca nearly drops a fry. "Wait really?"
I laugh. "Oh please, don't act so shocked. I've been into her for a while."
He shakes his head like he's still processing. "And she said yes?"
"She gave me her number and told me to text her a time and place. I believe that's a yes."
"Damn. Didn't expect her to say yes to a stalker."
"Stalker?" I am not a stalker. I just watch her YouTube videos.
"Uh huh, sure. Whatever you say Mason."
Outside, the sun is starting to dip lower in the sky, casting a golden light through the windows of The Corner. The table is quiet for a moment, just the sound of wrappers crinkling and fries being munched.