The Challenge

"You got rejected! You got rejected!"

My eyes were drooping and my hair was in a tattered mess after another sleepless night.

The digital clock next to my bed haunted me with constant reminders of how another minute passed thinking about she-who-must-not-be-named. My morning went by in distorted, blurry images. I don't even remember getting out of bed but somehow I ended up in a pancake hut eating breakfast with Mike and Brad.

I stared down at my pancakes that were drenched in syrup and coated with butter. Usually I would have been done with my pancakes before everyone else but this morning I haven't even taken a bite.

I gazed out the window as I let my mind drift. I hadn't even realized that it had begun to rain with the tiny droplets pelting heavily against the pavement. The rain fogged up the windows making it nearly impossible to see anything but blurry shapes and figures. I watched the raindrops slide down the glass in a perfectly even pattern and I silently wished things in life were always as simple as this, when you knew exactly which direction you'd be headed with no obstacles in the way.

"What do you think?" Brad asked. It took me a couple of seconds to realize the question was directed at me.

I blinked rapidly as I looked back and forth between the two trying to figure out what we were talking about before I zoned out.

"Are you okay? You seem out of it," Mike asked easily noticing the look on my face.

I knew I couldn't lie to Mike since he always saw right through it but I couldn't exactly tell him the truth either. The bell above the front door jingled as it signaled another customer and stopped me before I could answer Mike's question. I sighed in relief, saved by the bell.
I turned my head to the door, glad that I had something to distract me with.

Someone with an oversized hoodie walked through the door of the restuarant. You could easily tell it was a girl from her slender body. The hood was pulled up over her head and her worn out jeans had a hole cutting through the one knee. Her black converse was damp from the rain and they made squishy sounds as she shifted from foot to foot.

She adjusted the bag that was hung over her shoulder before pulling the hood off her head. She let her caramel locks flow down her shoulders as she ran a hand through it. She gently shook her hair as an effort to get the drops of water off of it. She scanned the room until her eyes met mine, I was pretty sure she held my gaze longer than she did anyone else's but she looked away just as quickly.

She walked up to the counter and placed her order before sliding into a booth by herself.

I turned back around in my seat and glanced up at Brad who was smirking at me. Out of all the breakfast joints in Miami, Lillyan Dawson had to come here! I looked up at Brad again who continued to smirk at me. Mike looked at both of us trying to figure out the cause of our silence.

"Well," Brad asked and I rolled my eyes knowing what was coming.

"Are you gonna do it? The seven days have got to start sometime," Brad said and you could literally hear the sly smile on his face.

"Wait a minute," Mike interjected.

"You agreed to accept the challenge?"

I shrugged, "The price is a hundred bucks and it'll be fun to have a change once in a while."

Mike stared blankly at me for a second before shaking his head. "Fine but don't come whining to me when you get your butt whooped," he snickered.

"Dude, she's just a girl! I've done this plenty of times before."

He shook his head again as he sipped his juice. "Don't even kid yourself," Mike said. "If she was just a girl, you would've gone over there by now."