Where There's Light | ✔

18. Bellcreek Baes

When we arrived at building the auditions were being held Bee was the most anxious I'd ever seen her. It had me thrown. She usually walked into any situation with and air of confidence.

I wanted to hug her and tell her it'll be fine, but when I tried that earlier she yelled at me for wrinkling her dress.

It was the nerves that made her snap like that. Whenever she got anxious she also got angry. I kept reminding myself that because I was close to leaving her stranded if she snapped at me again.

Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to go past the reception area of the building. Bee pouted and tried to reason with the lady at the front desk. She wasn't having any of it. It was barely one in the afternoon and the woman looked like she over the day entirely.

Nolan was still sitting in the car when I got back. He was scrolling through his phone, helping himself to a pack of starburst I left in the center console.

"Why are you going through my things and eating my candy?" I asked as I got into the car.

He smoothed out the red candy wrapper and laid it on top of three others. That's when I noticed had eaten all the red ones in the pack.

"I didn't get to eat before you kidnapped me."

Now that I thought about it, I also hadn't eaten since last night. "Food sounds good right now. What should we get?"

He thought about it for a moment. "I know a place." He got out of the car and I followed, texting Bee just in case we didn't make it back when her audition was over.

"What place?" I asked as we left the parking lot and started down the sidewalk.

The sun was relentless, but at least there was a lot of shade from trees and shop awnings. I couldn't wait for fall to officially start.

"Food truck," he looked over at me, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Mexican street tacos."

"Are those different from, say, Taco Bell tacos?"

"You never had one?" I shook my head. "They're amazing. Better than Taco Bell. Trust me."

I peered up at him, taking in the way his face lit up about the tacos. "Well, they got you to smile. They must be good."

He dropped the expression from his face just to spite me. I didn't understand why he tried so hard to come across as jerk. It wasn't him. Not the real him. These random little glimpses I got of him showing any emotion other than hatred was the real him.

We came up to a park. A bright red truck with Mike's spray painted on the side was parked out front. A line of people waited to make their orders. Apparently these street tacos were a big deal.

Nolan and I joined the end of the line. After a few seconds of silence I remembered the reason I'd asked him to come with us.

"We should come up with a plan that'll give us a shot at winning king and queen."

He nodded. "What'd you have in mind.

"Well, first we have get everyone to stop hating us."

"Us?"

I crossed my arms, shifting my weight to my left leg. "I'm sure you've glared at someone enough to make them hate you."

He gave me a bored look as we moved up in the line. "Alright, it shouldn't be too hard. Most of the kids at school are sheep."

"Sheep?" I echoed, slightly amused. "What decade are you from?"

"You know what I mean," he deadpanned. "Your ex was a jock, jocks tend to be well liked. He doesn't like you, so of course his friends don't like you either. And they get their friends to join in and suddenly—"