Flicker

Chapter Two

"About two hours," I said, finally looking at her. "Possibly three."

"Busy night, huh?"

"Yep," I said, putting a worksheet inside my math folder. I grabbed my science folder and opened it.

"How was the skateboard park today?"

"Different," I said. I explained to her all that had happened with the filming and the Why Don't We boys. When I told her that I had met a couple of them, her brows raised.

"Sounds like you had quite the time," she said. "I'll let you get back to your homework. Glad you had an enjoyable day." My mom stood up and kissed my head, and I smiled, continuing my science—anatomy.

I finished late at night—about eleven o'clock. My whole family had gone to bed, including my brother—who had come home late and gone straight upstairs—and I had yet to take a shower. I quietly packed away my folders and strode to my room, grabbing pajamas and slipping down the hallway, into the bathroom.

I let the hot water run on me for about ten minutes, letting my mind wander. I thought back on the events with the Why Don't We boys, though I had played it hundreds of times in my head. I saw Corbyn's contagious smile. Then it was the time when Daniel came up to us. I saw his sky blue eyes flitting to me, and the small, closed-mouth smile that he gave.

When I got out of the shower, I stayed up for about ten minutes, allowing my hair to half-dry. Then I twisted it up into a bun on top of my head, and fell asleep on top of the covers.

- - X - - 

I was behind the window of Taco Bell, a black apron wrapped around my torso as I bagged up and passed the food out to the cars waiting. I handed a lady in a silver car a bag with two soft tacos and a large lemonade. "That'll be eight fifty-one, please," I said. The lady handed me her card, and I swiped it into the cash register. I pressed a few keys and then handed back her credit card. "Thank you."

The next car came up. I smiled at a boy with curly hair and dark brown eyes. "Good afternoon," I said. Sadie, a girl who worked alongside me, passed me the list of food they had ordered and spoke into the microphone to take the next car's order. I read the list off. "One grilled steak soft taco, one chicken soft taco, an extra-extra-large grilled stuffed burrito, two Mexican pizzas, three nacho fries, a starburst strawberry freeze, two medium Pepsis, and one large Sierra Mist?"

"And a medium iced coffee," the boy said. I wrote it down on the list and nodded to Sadie, who shouted at Hank and Inez to start packing the food and add the iced coffee. I added up their total.

"That'll be thirty-nine seventy-seven," I said. The boy grabbed a credit card from a person sitting behind him, and he handed it to me.

"Bro, wait, are you Tera?" Someone in the passenger seat said. I looked out the window.

"Yes, that's my name," I said.

The person in the passenger seat ducked low so I could see his head. "What's up, Tera?!" He exclaimed.

My eyes widened, recognizing Zach's face. "Hey, Zach! Long time, no see," I laughed. I looked at the curly haired boy and was suddenly able to identify him. "Oh, you're Jack, aren't you?"

"Yeah," he said, smiling to me.

The car's middle-seat window rolled down, and I saw Daniel. I heard Corbyn exclaim, "Tera! Agh, I can't see you!" I saw a body on the other side of the car moving around in awkward positions, and I realized it was Corbyn leaning down, trying to make eye contact with me. Daniel laughed at him, and then looked at me.

"Hi, Tera," he said. "I'm Daniel."

"Hello," I said.

"How you doing?" Jonah said from the middle seat, in between Daniel and Corbyn.