Page 33 of We Shouldn't Be Together
“Hush. My parents are being stubborn about buying me a new one when I’m getting my car. Besides, I watched a YouTube video. I can do it.”
She groans. “Can’t you get it later?”
“No.” I deadpan at her. “If I go to the café first, they’ll be shut by the time I leave.”
“And that’s my problem, how?”
“Ugh. Stop being a butthead and just wait for me, okay?”
She smirks. “Okay. Just don’t take forever about it.”
I hike my skateboard under my arm as I enter the store, and flag down the clerk. “Hey, man. I ordered a part from you guys, and I got a notification that it’d arrived.”
The clerk huffs and plonks behind the counter. “Name?”
“Kai Nelson.”
He grunts as he stabs at the buttons on his keyboard. “Oh, c’mon, you stupid thing. Work, would ya?”
I exhale, wincing, and turn toward the front windows. I don’t need this grouch ruining my mood.
“Oh, look who it is,” a snarky voice calls from the sidewalk.
My back immediately cramps. Through the store’s window, Camila Garcia and her two airhead followers saunter into view. The three of them circle like hyenas, glaring at Jamie.
“Oh,eww.“ Camila cackles. “Look at the get-up. Is your little diner doing rollerblade service?”
“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon.” I snap my fingers at the store clerk. “I gotta get out there.”
“How did you spell that name?” he drawls.
I throw my head back in annoyance. “K-A-I Nelson. N-E-L-S-O-N. Dude, c’mon.”
“K-A-what?”
“Ugh. It’s a drone part. You don’t stock it. There’s gotta be only one floating around. Can’t you just ring it up?”
His eyes slit, and he waddles away from the counter, disappearing into a back room.
I sincerely hope he’s looking for the part and he’s not just pissed off with me.
“She isn’t working in that dodgy café with knee and elbow padding, is she?” Yvette Anderson sarcastically asks, screwing her nose up at the sight of my best friend. “I hope she washes up before serving the public. I mean, a graffitied skatepark doesn’t exactly scream sanitary to me.”
Jamie squirms against the storefront, trying to sink into the pavement below.
“Yeah, there’s such a thing as hygiene management,” Camila continues, holding her hips. “Like,eww. Why would she want to spread disease around?”
Disease?
As the word echoes around my head, a fire grows inside me. I’m about to run out of the store and prop Jamie up, when the clerk comes back with a box.
“This it?” he asks.
I don’t even give it a second glance. “Yeah, I’ll take it.”
I’ve never swiped my bank card faster. I snatch the box, stuff it in my backpack, and hightail it out of the store.
As I rush through the doorway, Tabitha Jones flicks her brunette curls off her shoulder and gazes off to the side. “Girls, there’s a reason we don’t go into that cafe. Remember?”
