MAY,
PAUL'S MECHANIC; DRIVE-IN & DRIVE-THRU
b r o o k l y n l e s l i e c o o p e r
❦❧❦
After school, I waited at the front gates for my father to pick me up. It usually took my father up to twenty minutes to get from his workplace to my school, so I was glad when Stella came to wait with me. She was waiting for her brother to pick her up and take her straight to dancing. I admired how committed she was to dancing, and I hoped I'd be just as loyal with my new job at riot. I really wanted this to work out for me.
We had gotten deep into conversation about a certain blue haired boy I'd seen way too much today: Michael Clifford. After P.E was lunch, and he sat at the same table as Luke, which was where Morgan and I sat, too. And he decided to sit right next to me and boast about this song he'd been writing. I distinctly remember the title; it was Monster Among Men. I think. But nevertheless, besides being annoyed at him, I listened to what he had to say about his new song. Which, to think of it, wasn't much at all. He just mentioned the title and tried to sing his guitar solo for me while doing guitar-shredding gestures with his hands. But after lunch, I didn't see him again. Thankfully, we didn't have anymore classes together.
"Have you spoken with Michael recently?" Stella has asked me, looking anxious.
I turned to her with furrowed eyebrows, wondering why she's asked me that. "Yeah, I had Sport with him and we spoke at lunch. Can I ask why?"
Even someone on the other side of the road would have seen how red her cheeks flushed. It made me arch an eyebrow up at her. "Stella . . . You're blushing. Why're you blushing?"
I didn't think it could have been possible for her cheeks to shine an even brighter crimson colour. But they did. She was blushing like a mad woman. And the look I gave her proved that she couldn't deny it. It was clear that I'd read her sudden mood like a children's book; easy and simple.
She let out a sigh. "I suppose there's no use lying, so I'll just tell you. But only because I'm trusting you not to tell anyone. Not even Morgan."
She gave me a hopeful look, and I sent her a reassuring smile. Then she let out a small breath, and looked me straight in the eyes. "I have a crush on Michael."
I gushed over this news, and awed at her. "Aw, Stella, that's so cute! I promise I won't tell anyone." Then I noticed my father's car pull up into the curb, and I pulled her in for a quick hug. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
Then I was off, almost skipping to my dad's Range Rover. When I was buckling myself up, my dad took one look at me, and chuckled. "You seem very giddy. What happened?"
I shrugged. "I just had a good day. That's all."
Then we drove off, down the main road. I turned the radio up louder as a song I liked came on, and I sung lowly to 21 Guns by Green Day. Even my dad chimed in, singing. Who wouldn't? This song was legendary, it was the ultimate 'omg, remember this?!' song.
I noticed that were were going down a different route then usual. In fact, we were going the opposite way to where our home was located. I turned to my dad with furrowed eyebrows. "Where are we going?"
"Paul's Mechanic. I need to get my tyres checked." Was his reply.
I nodded and sat back in my seat, thoughts taking over my mind. They travelled back to when we went out for dinner with the Hood's at the Silver Crown. I remembered the conversation where my dad asked where Calum worked, and he replied that he worked at Paul's Mechanic, and assisted soccer teams. And God knew I couldn't forget his mother claiming he was an angel because he volunteered to teach children music at the community centre. Those memories made me wonder if Calum still did any of those jobs. I'd never seen him working, but that was simply because I never went to the places he worked at. Why would I go to a mechanic when I didn't own my own car?
When the big 'Paul's Mechanic; Drive-In & Drive-Thru' sign came into view far down the road, I remembered another key fact that had been mentioned that night:
Calum worked at Paul's on Monday's.
Today was Monday.
I looked over at my dad, and spoke hesitantly. "Dad, you didn't come here today because Calum is working, did you?"
He sent me a knowing smile, and I sighed. Of corse that's why he came. Calum was his new bestie, apparently. Maybe my dad thought that Calum would be able to get him a discounted price. He loved cheaper prices; he loved cheap things.
When we pulled up into the lot, dad drove us into an empty parking space close to the store, and he told me to wait in the car. I didn't complain. Staying here meant not facing Calum. I didn't know how he'd be after his spur-of-the-moment door slamming in P.E. Even I didn't know how to react. I didn't know how to act around Calum. I never did.
I sat back with my feet propped up on the dashboard, and slid my phone out from my jacket pocket. I stared at my home screen for a while, trying to decide what to do, but then I got an idea. Why not play around with the filters on Snapchat? You could never go wrong with that.
I started off by taking videos of myself being an idiot with the ugly filters, and I sent them all to Morgan. I think I took about twelve. Most of them consisted of me saying knock knock jokes and answering them myself, but others were just of me posing weirdly with the filter. Then when I got bored of being ugly, I went for the nicer filters. Like the flower crown, and the yellow butterflies one. Even the pink hearts. They were all so pretty and cute. And I tried hard to take decent selfies with them— one's where I didn't do duck lips or pout like most girls at my school did. I didn't see a point in forcing a certain face in selfies. I was all for the natural, distant look. Or smiling.
I took a few, but only saved them to my camera roll. But then I took a certain one with the yellow hearts filter, and felt like sharing it because I reckoned it was really nice. I captioned it 'filters are the epitome of catfishing', then posted it to my Snapchat story. Just for the sake of it.
Movement outside the dashboard got me to look away from my phone. I looked up to see my father walking over, leading the one and only Calum Hood. Surprise, surprise.
I doubted he could see me watching him, because the windows were tinted. So I didn't look away from him; I wanted to take in his work attire— which made me want to chuckle and melt all at the same time. He had on black slacks and a blue short-sleeved button up shirt with 'Paul's Mechanic' stitched onto the chest pocket, but he still wore his school shoes— or, rather, his normal shoes. Black vans. I wondered if he owned any other pairs of shoes.
He looked good, though. He always looked good.
I rolled my window down and stuck my head out to nod over at my dad to get his attention. "Should I hop out?"
Calum answered for him. "No, you should be fine. I'm just inspecting his tyres. A simple check-up."
I nodded, in a daze. He spoke so calm, so friendly, so un-Calum like. He spoke like a true professional. I had to admit, I liked professional, formal and friendly Calum. But I wondered if it was all an act to keep on my dad's good side. But even in saying that, it wasn't like he usually spoke to me with such rudeness. I was just used to him smirking around and being all smug with me.
I listened to them speak about my dad's car all while Calum inspected the tyres from up-close and afar. He would press down to feel if they had enough air in them, and even knocked on them a few times— as if it were a door and he'd hear an echo, or something.
"Your ride is sweet, Mr. Cooper."
My dad grinned like the proud car-owner he was, and waved him off. "Oh, please. Calum, call me Daniel."
I huffed and rolled my window back up. I couldn't believe how in-love my father was with Calum. It was like he wished he were his son, or something of a close friend. I didn't know why it bothered me. Maybe because mum seemed to despise Calum, and my dad would usually side with whatever she said. Maybe my dad didn't know that she didn't like him. That, or he just liked Calum too much that he couldn't hate him.
Later that night, when I was drawing in the lounge room, I started to grow annoyed at the endless Snapchat notifications screaming at me, so I took a break to check what people were sending me.
Most were streaks, and I had to text every one of those people explaining that I didn't do them. But others were people relplying to my story. Morgan sent heart eyes, and Luke called me a cutie. I smiled and sent them both hearts, then went on to check the last message I had.
It was from Calum.
I literally felt my heart stop in my chest. I was that anxious to see what he'd said.
My fingers shakily tapped onto the blue speech bubble, and it opened the chat between our account to show that he had replied to my story also. And when I read what he wrote, my head spun, and butterflies went at war in my stomach. It felt like I had pins and needles in it, but the ticklish kind. To me, that was worse then the painful type, because it felt nice, but was almost unbearable. That's what his simple sentence did to me. That's what Calum did to me.
Nah, you always look this good even without filters.