Chapter 3
Chapter 3
“You’re an idiot, Alex.” I shake my head at him.
“He did get us free desserts.” Lana wraps her arms around me.
“Yeah, you should be thanking him.” Shaina giggles, her arm wrapped around Alex while his arm drapes over her shoulders. “Except, I’m gonna have a problem with sharing.” Shaina turns narrowed eyes on Alex.
“Babe.” Alex drops his head to the side.
“Yeah, Alex.” Lana leans around me as we walk. “I’m not okay with sharing, Theo. We kind of already have our own thing going on over here.”
“Okay, okay.” Alex sighs and sweeps Shaina off her feet. “Guess it’s just me and you then.” Alex kisses her.
Lana pulls me to a stop right there, pulls her phone out and presses her lips to mine. She snaps a picture and leans back, her eyes following the rays of the sun peeking through the buildings.
“The light is perfect here.” Her smile is infectious. She tucks her phone away and takes my hand.
“Wait, let me see it.” I reach for her phone, but she steps away, shaking her head. Her eyes bright with amusement.
“It’s a secret.” She kisses me again, takes my hand, and runs to catch up with Shaina and Alex. I love the way she keeps these little secrets. They’re just harmless fun.
Shaina and Alex stand beside Lana and me, and we walk in no particular direction. None of us are on our phones. That’s Lana’s rule. When we’re together, we stay off our phones, except a few pictures or videos along the way.
“Lana,” Shaina says, as she and Lana drift closer to each other.
“Yes.” Lana links arms with Shaina.
“Be my maid of honor.” Shaina smiles, Lana smiles.
“Duh,” she says, “it took you long enough to ask.”
“Well, Alex kind of took the moment.” Shaina glances over her shoulder at us and makes a face at Alex.
“You’re right.” Lana sighs. “Thanks a lot, Alex.” She slides a playfully annoyed glance at him.
“Man… I just can’t do anything right today.” Alex sighs, but he’s still smiling. I’ve never seen him so relaxed. Like asking Shaina to marry him put him at a new level of peace. I watch Lana again, maybe her face will give something away.
Should I ask her? But how would I get a ring? I kind of want to punch Alex. Lana must be wondering when I’ll ask her, maybe she’s questioning our relationship right now. She’ll look for someone ready to marry her instead of me. I can’t even get anyone to take a second look at my book. How I even landed her, I can’t figure it out.
“Dude.” Alex punches my arm again.
“Dude.” I snap at him, rubbing my arm. That one actually kind of hurt.
“Stop worrying.” Alex shakes his head at me. “You and Lana are solid. Now was just… it was just the right time for us.” Alex sighs as if he just breathed years of stress away.
“How am I gonna know if now is right for her but not me? What if she doesn’t even want to marry me?”
“Talk to her.” Alex, straight forward and blunt as always. “Shaina and I, we talked. I knew she wanted to get married soon, and after talking to her about why… I realized I did too, so…” Alex shrugs. “Here we are, getting married on September sixteenth of next year.”
“Doing a big wedding?” I ask.
“Shaina’s doing a big wedding. I just taste cake and show up.” Alex locks his arms behind his head. Lana’s phone rings. Lana always puts her phone on silent when we go out. She checks the number, instead of silencing it, and her brows draw together.
“Sorry, guys. I’m waiting for a phone call.” Lana steps away and answers the call. Her eyes narrow a bit.
“I told you not to call me again.” She tries to whisper, but I can hear the anger in it.
Lana doesn’t get angry over anything.
“Hey.” Lana walks over to me and tucks herself under my arm. She wraps an arm around her stomach and chews on her thumbnail.
“Everything okay?” I pull her hair off her shoulder.
“Huh…” Lana glances at all of us staring at her. The anger and confusion vanish as if it were never there and she smiles.
“Yeah, just… wrong number.”
Lana is a bad liar. I love that she’s a bad liar. I never have to worry that she’s trying to keep something from me. I just have to wait for her to be ready to talk about it.
“Oh, guys.” Alex glances at the time. “I got work in a bit, so, I gotta bounce.”
“Quick photoshoot.” Lana pulls her phone out first, and we all pose. Shaina with Alex. I roll my eyes and hold my hand out for the camera. Lana snaps a few more of me and Alex, and me and Shaina, before she hands me the camera. Alex and Lana stand on either side of Shaina and plant a kiss on each cheek. I take all the pictures they pose for, and then, we squish in for a few group pics. Of course, Shaina has a selfie stick on hand.
“We’ll catch you later.” Lana and I wave to Alex and Shaina as they run to catch the subway.
“What now?” I ask Lana. She could ask to go shopping, which she loves. She could corner me now and demand why I haven’t asked her to marry me. She doesn’t.
Instead, she smiles, and she takes a deep breath, nodding toward the streets. “This.”
“This what?” I ask.
“Walk…be with each other.” She looks serene, as if she couldn’t be happier than this moment.
“Are you sure you don’t want to do something more fun?”
She shakes her head. “You’ve got to go to work in a few hours. I won’t see you until three in the morning, and then I work tomorrow morning, and I won’t see you again until after one. This is perfect.” She says, “Just me and you after a nice morning with our friends.”
“Okay.” I kiss the top of her head, the subtle scent of her fruity shampoo filling my nose. I love her shampoo.
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Life can be an adventure
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Dear Time,
You’re so limited, so cruel. You tell us we have this much time to grow up and go to school and fall in love and then… then what, we just die, it’s all over? And to make it worse, you pick a few special people and tell them they have less time or you dangle the possibility of time but you put a condition. I could have my whole life, but I could also just have today left. That’s so unfair.
Lana