All I Need is a Yes (Luna East Arts Academy)

I. Chad is Ditched

“Just go away,” Toby finally said.

He looked incredulous. “What? Are you kidding me?”

Toby shook his head. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be sitting at Megan’s table? What’s with the change of heart?”

“There is no change of heart.” The moment he said it, he knew that it was the wrong thing to say. Toby looked at him like he was Dark Vader. “I mean—”

“Just go away. I can’t help you.”

“Dude, it’s not what you think.”

“You want to know what I think?” Toby stared at him. “When Megan is being nice to you—oh, wait, define nice—you ditch me. But then you will always come back to me looking like a lost puppy, asking for my help. Dude, I’m tired. I’m not Buddha or something. I can’t always give you advice. It’s time to grow up. Be a man.” Then in one swift move, Toby stood up from his chair and left.

Chad felt like stomping his feet under the table. Toby just ditched him. Toby? He couldn’t believe it. He shook his head. What was he talking about, anyway? He had no idea if Buddha really gives advice. He didn’t even know who Buddha is.

He turned his head to where Megan was sitting. As usual, she was with the popular kids. How did it come to this? One day he was molding clay with her, and now he couldn’t even talk to her without the popular kids sneering at him.

Then Megan looked at him, as in, looked. He swallowed, feeling his heart hammering in his chest. Everything around him vanished. He wasn’t in the cafeteria anymore. All he could see was Megan, dark hair and waves falling to her shoulders, eyes so brown it was almost black, and mouth—

He stopped. Everything came back. He was back in the cafeteria. He could hear the screams, the laughter, the chairs scraping on the floor, and the endless chatter everywhere. Megan was still looking at him, but her mouth was set in a thin line like she wanted the anger to be visible to the world.

She should be happy because he finally left her with her friends, right? He wasn’t sitting at her table now. But for the love of Yoda, it seemed like she was angrier with him than ever. When he sat at her table, she would act like he wasn’t even there. But now that he wasn’t sitting with her, she looked so angry he swore he could see clouds of smoke coming off her.

What had he done now? She rarely acknowledged him, but it was better than her looking at him with disdain. She smiled at everyone, but she made sure that none of her smiles would be directed at him. He couldn’t understand why she was so angry with him at the first place. They were childhood friends, for Goodness’ sake!

They crawled together on the same carpet. They learned to walk at the same time. They watched each other cry. They laughed at each other’s ice cream-covered face. They took bites on the same sandwich. They had even seen each other naked, for crying out loud! But of course they were still kids back then and there was no malice. Still, he couldn’t understand how two people who shared so much together suddenly went to becoming strangers with one another.

Then, she looked away, like she just realized that she was staring at him. She probably didn’t even know that it was more than a few seconds long. It wasn’t just a glance. She stared.

“Chad.”

He turned back to his table to see Johan, senior class president, standing across him. He was from Section A, but he talked to everybody, and he seemed to know everybody. He was friendly and nice.

“Hey,” he said.

“Can I talk to you for a second?” Johan asked, sitting on the chair across him. “I mean, if you’re not busy.”

He couldn’t think of something that he had to do. “Yeah, sure. What is it?”

Johan looked unsure, so he smiled to urge him to go on.

“Well, the thing is, we need your help,” Johan began.

“Yeah?”

“We’re planning to set up a concert for Valentine’s, and well, I’m in the council, so ah—”

He knew what was coming, but he didn’t know what to say so he just nodded.

“Okay.” Johan exhaled. “Duke is your brother. He has a band. I’m thinking maybe you can ask him and his band to join the concert for the opening act.”

Duke is Chad’s brother, but they weren’t close. As much as possible, he made sure that he had nothing to do with him. Duke was a popular kid in high school. He was now in college and he had a band while Chad was still in high school and he had nothing but rubber bands.

He collected rubber bands, which irritated his family to no end. He would wait till his mother finished unpacking the vegetables she bought from the market, and then he would gather the string beans and collect each rubber band used to stick them together.

His brother once gave him a pack of rubber band from the merchandise store, telling him to stop his nonsense. What man would have rubber bands for a collection, he would say.

“So, is it okay with you? Do you think your brother will agree to this?” Johan waited for his answer.

“Sure.” He didn’t know why he was suddenly agreeing, but there was no way he could talk to his brother about this. He knew that Duke would only laugh at him. He always did. But he couldn’t afford to disappoint Johan.

“Awesome, man. That’s awesome. I wouldn’t know what to do without you.” Johan stood up. “So does that mean I’ll just be waiting for the confirmation?”

There was no way Duke would agree to this, he thought. He fought the urge to close his eyes. “Yeah, sure,” he told Johan.         

As soon as Johan left, he sighed. Seven days. He only had seven days before the Valentine’s Concert, seven days to try talking to his brother, and seven days to convince Megan to be his date. Awesome.