The Worst Prom Date Ever

6 • The Worst Bicycle Ever

BEAU • [8:32 p.m.]  

It was Monday again, and my classes were packed with homework. After school I went straight home, almost too tired to function, but decided to start with my homework.

Yes, I may be socially adept with people, well maybe except for the oh-so-awkward Piper, and most of my friends preferred doing homework and studying with a group, like going to each other's houses and such, but I hate those kinds of shit. Letting my classmates interfere with my personal studies was a huge no to me. Heck, I didn't even study with Lucas, and he understood that.

Maybe because this was how my older sister and I were raised. Back when we were still in elementary school, our parents would lock us up in our respective rooms for three hours without doing anything but study. Do you know how mind-wrenching that was?

Because of that, we just stayed indoors most of the time for the duration of our elementary years. It sucked big time, let me tell you. We had no play mates, until we met the Griffins. The Griffins used to be our next-door neighbor and our parents loved Pascal and Piper. Our parents would pair us up with the Griffin siblings because they knew that they loved school just as much as our parents (who are teachers) do.

Truth to be told, I used to remember Pascal being good with numbers. My sister and he used to solve Sudoku puzzles together for fun. They we're eight years old, damn it. Meanwhile Piper was the quiet one who preferred reading her Alice in Wonderland book at the corner. That was when I approached her and the rest was history.

I was about to open the page of my school book when the phone rang. I snatched it up without looking who the caller was and answered. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Beau!" A cheerful voice chirped in.

Oh, her voice sounds so familiar. It was the voice that I didn't really want to hear at eight-thirty in the evening. I rolled my eyes. "What the hell do you want, Mei?"

Mei's my older sister. Yeah, I know, Mei's like an "Asian" name. Well, she apparently got her name when she was born in Tokyo back when my parents were teaching English at a high school in Japan. Two years after, they relocated to Paris, France and poof! Je suis né. That meant "I was born" in French. We settled in Massachusetts six years later.

God, my parents were all over the place.

"I need a favor from you!" She didn't have to speak like that! But she did, and sad to say, we were related.

"Can you please bring my inventory that I left there at home to my shop? I'm currently in Cambridge and I need it in my shop. By. Tomorrow."

Mei, by the way, has her own sweet little cake and pastry shop which she called The Slice of Life, and it was situated just outside the perimeter of Flinnway.

I groaned so loud I did that on purpose so that my sister could hear. "But I have two major assignments tonight, Mei. Can't that wait any longer?" She pleaded and pleaded and I almost heard a fake-cry from the other end of the phone. And, from the wise words of Simon Cowell, I replied "It's a no for me."

Mei huffed. "Fine. I'll get it there myself tomorrow morning." I smiled as she agreed to me but then I realized she'll eventually park her car in the garage when she gets home—and she'll see dad's wrecked Cadillac. I still didn't plan on bringing it to the mechanics yet. I couldn't let her fucking see that. She's a daddy's girl.

"W-w-wait! I'll bring it, I'll bring it! Damn," I cried, taking back what I said. I heard her squeal. 

"Eeeep! Thanks, Bro! I lurve you. You have a spare key of the shop, right? I'll text you the other deets. Ciao!"