Page 29 of Pride High

“Sixty bucks?” Omar said with a groan. “But it’s a bootleg!”

“Those can be worth more than official releases,” Silvia said.

Omar looked like he had sprung a leak and was slowly deflating. “I guess I could save up,” he mumbled.

“Or I could make you a copy.”

“Really?” He slowly returned to his fully inflated self. “You’d do that for me?”

She nodded. “Just don’t let my boss find out about it.”

“I won’t. Thanks! Hey…” Omar ran his fingers through his hair before he smiled in an oddly lopsided way. “Do you want to hang out sometime?”

That took her by surprise. But then, why not? He seemed like a nice guy. “Sure!”

“Really?” Omar asked. “Great! We could catch a movie or something.” He nodded at the video she was holding. “My treat. To pay you back.”

“That sounds fun. I work every day until seven and can’t stay out much later than that.”

“What about Saturday?”

“Depends. I’m on the schedule this weekend, but I get off at five.”

“Perfect!” Omar said. “I’d uh… offer to pick you up if I had a car. Or a driver’s license.”

“It’s fine,” Silvia said. “We can meet here and go to the Silver Screen.”

The small movie theater just a few blocks down. That was the nice thing about living in Pride. Once you made it downtown to Main Street, everything you could possibly need was there.

“Awesome! I’ll take you out for something to eat too.”

Silvia laughed. “It might be cheaper just to buy this.”

“Nah,” Omar said with a shake of his head. “This way I get the concert, and we also get a night out. I better give you my number in case anything comes up.”

He followed her back to the counter and wrote it on a receipt that a customer had abandoned. His hand was trembling slightly when he handed it to her. Silvia felt bad about not offering hers in return, but it was complicated.

“I better run,” Omar said. “I have a baby shower to get to.”

“That’s right!” Silvia said. “Here. You can’t go empty-handed.” She dug in her backpack for an apple that she’d packed for lunch but hadn’t eaten and handed it to him. “A gift for the new baby.”

Omar took it and laughed. “He’d probably prefer some bugs.”

Silvia shook her head. “Iguanas are herbivores. They mostly eat leaves, but they also like fruit as a treat.”

Omar’s dark eyes sparkled. They were intriguing, but difficult to read. “You’re amazing,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He meant in class. Probably. It wasn’t until he had grabbed his skateboard and left that she wondered if he was hoping to be more than friends.

— — —

“Of course it’s a date!” Mindy said, looking pained by her own certainty. “I always knew it would be you.”

“Meaning?” Silvia asked before taking a bite of a chicken and cheese sandwich.

“That you would be the first to get asked out.”

As if searching for something, Mindy glanced around the courtyard where they met to eat lunch each day. The oldest part of the building had been a traditional two-story brick schoolhouse. As the town’s population grew, wings had been added to each side of Pride High to compensate. Most recently a third addition had been built behind the school, walling off the inner courtyard where they now sat. A couple of thin trees were still taking root, planted by the agriculture club who had also established a community garden in the center that was perpetually getting trampled on. But the bravest and most hearty plants survived, bringing some very welcome nature into what was otherwise a series of cold concrete hallways.

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