QuintupleDate (#BestFriendsForever Short Story) Read online

  #QuintupleDate

  A #BestFriendsForever Short Story

  Yesenia Vargas

  Copyright © 2019 by Yesenia Vargas

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  For my amazing #VIP Readers. Thank you.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  Also by Yesenia Vargas

  One

  Still sleepy from an afternoon of goofing around in Tori’s pool, I blinked my eyes open and glanced around from my pool chair.

  Rey sat next to me, staring off into the sunset with her mouth turned slightly down into a frown.

  Even though we knew that our friendship would never come to an end, most of us still had tough days now that summer was just about over.

  More than ever, I was excited to start my studies at Georgia Tech this fall, even if it meant leaving my hometown behind for four years.

  But after growing up with a not-so-nice stepmom and two stepsisters who pretended I didn’t exist, I had learned to keep a smile on my face even when it wasn’t easy to find something to be grateful for.

  These days, though, I had so much to be happy for. I had Jesse, I had my aunt, and I had my friends.

  I even got along with my stepsisters.

  But it was easy to see why Rey was having a rough time seeing us all go our separate ways. Today it was Rey. The other day it was Tori, and last week, even bubbly Harper had teared up realizing we wouldn’t live a few minutes apart anymore.

  I squeezed Rey’s hand, and she turned to me, a tight-lipped smile on her face. Behind those sunglasses, she probably fought back tears.

  With another quick look at the sunset, I told her, “I know what your poetic mind must be thinking. That that sunset over there is like our friendship, and it’s almost gone.”

  Lena came over and took a seat next to Rey, putting an arm around her.

  Tori and Harper, who had just been debating liquid liner vs pencil, came over too.

  I didn’t have to tell them what was going on for them to know. “Rey, I promise we’ll always remain friends. You have nothing to worry about,” I told her.

  Lena removed her sunglasses. “Like it or not, you’re stuck with me, babe,” she said with a laugh.

  Rey leaned into her. “Thanks, dear friend.”

  Tori put her hands on her hips. “And we’ve already got our first official #BFF meet-up planned for fall break. We’ll be back together in one month.”

  The way she said it, I knew she was reminding herself as much as she was reminding Rey. My heart hurt for her. While the rest of us would be getting to move on with our boyfriends, Tori would be at UGA over an hour away while Noah stayed here.

  Harper gave us a smile. “And after that, Thanksgiving break will be here in a flash, and we’ll get to hang out an entire week.”

  Rey sniffed. “You’re right, guys. Thanks. I guess I just didn’t expect summer to fly by this quickly, you know? It seems like just a couple of weeks ago, we were graduating, and now it’s time for each of us to be off.” She looked down, saying quietly, “It’s not fair.”

  She had a point, and the truth of the matter was that it had ended up being a pretty busy summer.

  Everyone had gone off on family vacations at one point or another, seriously limiting the amount of time all of us could hang out together.

  Tori and Harper sat down on the other end of my chair. Even though this was the third pep talk this week, the mood around us had changed.

  Fall semester started in a few days. We only had the weekend left together, and it would be gone in the blink of an eye.

  Next thing I knew, Jesse and I would be walking across the Georgia Tech campus hand in hand to get to our classes on time.

  Lena gave her another squeeze. “Let’s make the most of the time we have, then. Let’s not spend it already sad about leaving. We can save that for later, and you can call or text any time.”

  Harper said, “Same.”

  The rest of us nodded.

  I looked around, not believing how far all of us had come in the past two years. Not only had we changed on the outside, we’d completely changed on the inside too. “We’ve all agreed to check in daily, no matter what. One text, minimum. Bonus points if you send a picture of what you’re up to.”

  Tori winked at me. “Even if our schools are rivals.”

  I giggled. “Even so. Get ready for pictures non-stop of all my Tech gear and Jesse and me at football games.”

  “You’re on, sister!” she replied, and we began laughing.

  Harper looked to Lena. “I just can’t wait to see Lena in action playing college soccer.” She turned to Rey. “And you! You better take some art classes and writing classes and share all your creative work with us.”

  That had Rey smiling again. “Okay.”

  Lena smiled slowly, her eyes glimmering in that way when she was about to do something kind of crazy. “You know what I just realized, you guys?”

  “What?” I asked, all of us leaning forward a little to hear what she was about to say.

  “We’ve been so crazy busy this summer,” she began. “I can’t believe I forgot about it, but better late than never, right?” She paused for dramatic effect, meeting each of our gazes in turn with an excited grin on her face. “I know the perfect way to end this summer.”

  She paused again, and Tori put her hands on her hips. “Oh, say it already!” But she was smiling too.

  Lena stood up. “It’s time for a quintuple date!”

  Two

  The five of us girls, plus the five boys.

  Out on a date for the first time ever.

  Lena was right. It would be the perfect way to end the summer.

  Not to say goodbye. More like bye for now.

  Unfortunately, sometimes life did not work out like we had planned.

  The #quintupledate was one of those times.

  It began with the dinner reservation at the fancy restaurant downtown.

  Tori’s mouth fell open as she stared back at the hostess not much older than us. “What do you mean you can’t find it? My parents made this reservation two days ago! We come here all the time.”

  Rey met my eyes for a second and bit her lip. I took her hand. “Don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll find it any minute.”

  But the hostess shook her head. “I’m sorry. It’s not here. And we’re completely booked.”

  And from the looks of it, completely packed too.

  The assistant manager came over, but it was no good. They did not have any tables available, much less for a party of ten.

  Finally, Tori led us toward the exit, whipping out her phone from her purse to call her mom.

  That’s why she didn’t see the hurried waiter carrying two giant plates of pasta.

  Tori ran into the waiter head on, sending the plates hurdling. One of them landed on her chest, covering her completely in what looked like tomato basil spaghetti.

  Tori let out a scream. “My dress!”

  The waiter, a skinny college-aged guy, looked terrified.

  Tears filled Tori’s eyes.

  Harper immediately grabbed some napkins and tried to get as much spaghetti as possible off, but it was no use.

  Lena and
Rey walked over to me. Lena shook her head. “That tomato sauce is never coming out of that fabric.”

  I grimaced.

  A few minutes later—and one profuse apology from the assistant manager—later, we sat on the tiny bench outside. The five of us barely fit, and Tori sat in the middle of all of us, not looking very happy at all.

  She pouted. “I got this dress specifically for tonight,” she said, wiping a tear away.

  Harper seemed like she might cry too. They both looked at it as if it were a precious living thing that had just died.

  Tori’s fashion magazine-worthy dress was one any girl would envy, but at the end of the day, there were more important things to worry about.

  Like this #quintupledate.

  I attempted a smile. “Um, guys. I’m sure we can still make the most of today. What do you say? Should we eat somewhere else?”

  Tori continued pouting.

  Lena sighed. “Everywhere nice in town is gonna be just as packed as this place.”

  Tori sniffed. “Which is why I had my parents make a reservation,” she interjected.

  Rey checked her phone and frowned. “And where are the boys? They were supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago.”

  Lena’s phone buzzed. “Oh, great. They got a flat tire.”

  Tori’s mouth fell open, and I gave her hand a squeeze.

  “Don’t worry,” Lena said, looking up. “They’ll be here soon. Thankfully, Jesse had a spare.”

  I stood up. If we didn’t get back on track, we’d spend the whole night pouting and grouchy instead of actually making some amazing memories of our last weekend together before college. “Okay, so what’s the plan? Where do we go?”

  Harper looked to Tori. “First, she needs an outfit change.”

  Rey said, “That’s gonna be another forty-five minutes, right? Between going back to Tori’s house…”

  I forced back another grimace.

  Tori looked at us, then at her lap. “Actually, I have a back-up outfit in my car.”

  Lena began laughing. “Are you serious? You carry a back-up outfit?”

  Tori shrugged in a very nonchalant way, but I could see the tiniest hint of a smile on her face.

  Lena and everyone else began giggling. “Why am I not even surprised?” she said, standing up.

  Harper stood up too, and Rey and Tori followed suit.

  With our help and a couple of beach towels we found in her car, Tori changed into another outfit in record time.

  Tori struck a pose, and Lena nodded, impressed.

  Harper eyed her navy blue wrap-around dress. “Yep, you look just as fabulous.

  “Let’s go, then,” I told the girls. “I don’t care if it’s burgers and fries. Let’s have some fun.”

  As if on cue, a car honked loudly behind us, familiar whoops and screams filling the air.

  It was Jesse, Ian, Emerson, Noah, and Wes. They waved to us from Jesse’s Acura.

  They got out, and each Prince Charming found his princess.

  Jesse wrapped me in a tight embrace. “Sorry, we’re late. I missed you.”

  I smiled up at him. “It’s okay. We’re all here now.”

  I took in the entire scene and memorized it, knowing that even if—when—we all hung out together again, it wouldn’t be quite the same. We were all growing up. We were moving on from Westwood High.

  Plus the boys cleaned up well, with their nice jeans and button-ups.

  Noah, with an arm around Tori, said, “So we going in or what?”

  “Yeah,” Ian said, holding Lena’s hand. “I had a pick-up game of soccer today, and I’m starving.”

  “Me too,” Emerson said.

  “About that…” Harper replied.

  Rey finished for her. “They kind of lost our reservation.”

  “No,” Ian groaned.

  “It’s okay, though,” I said, ready to do damage control.

  “Yeah,” Lena added with a big grin. “Because I…have an idea.”

  Three

  We pulled into Tori’s house.

  Rey closed her notebook and furrowed her brow in confusion. “What are we doing here?” she asked.

  Tori put the car in park and shrugged. “I just follow orders.”

  Lena smiled and rolled down the window.

  Jesse and the rest of the guys looked like they were wondering the same thing as Rey.

  “You guys,” Lena said loudly looking around at all of us like we were completely clueless. “What could be more fun than hanging out in Tori’s pool, putting on some music, watching movies all night, and ordering in?”

  Tori nodded approvingly. “I have to say, Lena. This is one of your better ideas,” she said with a wink.

  Lena huffed but winked back.

  Rey finally grinned. “Who says we need a fancy restaurant and fancy outfits to make this night special?”

  Harper crossed her arms but kept her tone light. “Speak for yourself!”

  I glanced at Jesse and the rest of the boys, who quickly climbed out of Jesse’s car.

  Ian called out. “You had me at pool!”

  Jesse smiled. “And ordering in.”

  Tori’s mom looked at us in surprise when we walked into her house. She closed her laptop. “I thought you were all spending the evening out, bonding and what not.”

  Tori went up to her. “Is it okay if we hang out here instead? The restaurant lost our reservation.”

  She sighed. “I keep telling Marcos to update that computer system of his.” She shook her head. “Yeah, honey, that’s more than fine. We’d love to have you. And you know what? It’ll give me the chance to be the cool mom one more time.”

  She got up with a wink and headed to the kitchen, but not before calling out. “What do you guys want?” She peeked back into the living room. “Cookies? Lemonade? Should we order pizza? Chinese? Oh, what about popcorn?”

  All of us started giggling at Mrs. Rodriguez’s enthusiasm, and Tori looked around horrified for a second before chasing her into the kitchen. “Mo-om! We talked about this…”

  I turned to Noah. “They’ve come a long way, huh?”

  He nodded. “Complete one-eighty,” he replied.

  Harper came up to us. “Come on,” she said, pulling Rey and Lena along with her. “Let’s find something we can wear in the pool.”

  The boys made a quick run to Jesse’s house a couple minutes away to find and change into swim trunks, and us girls dug around in Tori’s closet for something suitable.

  Several gym shorts and cute sports bras under tied-up t-shirts later, we lounged around the pool. The boys goofed around in the water, and Rey walked around, taking pictures.

  There were selfies, candids, and posed shots galore, including one of all of us.

  Mrs. Rodriguez brought out snacks and drinks while we lazed around and inside the pool.

  Then Lena found a bluetooth speaker. She found a playlist on Spotify with the latest hits that had everyone up and dancing.

  Jesse grabbed my hand and twirled me around. I giggled, and when he dipped me down low for a kiss, I was pretty sure I actually fainted for a second.

  His eyes locked on mine. “I can not wait to spend the next four years with you,” he murmured.

  I don’t know what it was about what he said. Maybe the fact that both of my parents had left me. Not by their own choice, but still. I’d been alone for so long. The thought just popped into my head. I stood back up, blinking. “Really? But…what if we’re not meant to last that long? A lot can happen in four years,” I whispered.

  Just a few feet away, Ian ran toward the pool, a screaming Lena in his arms. He leaped with her, and she held on, eyes shut tight. A couple of seconds later, they both emerged from the bright blue water, laughing.

  Jesse turned back to me, and I ignored the droplets of water on my back.

  I looked down, but Jesse placed his thumb and forefinger on my chin, gently turning my head back up to him.

  “How about we just take it day
by day?” he began, his voice just the right amount of low and husky. “And we promise to do this as long as it makes sense for us? As long as it feels right? Let’s not dwell on what the future might bring or not bring. All I know is, right now, this feels right, and I never want to lose it.”

  For the first time that summer, I was the one tearing up. I wrapped my arms around him, pushing up on my toes so I could bury my face into his neck.

  Jesse pulled me close, and we stayed like that for a minute. I couldn’t help but think that I was so lucky to have someone like him by my side.

  Not to mention my aunt.

  And the #BFFs.

  I was not alone, and I knew I wouldn’t be ever again.

  Four

  Harper checked the time on her phone and looked around at all of us. Tori’s giant sectional couch actually fit all of us. “Guys, I have to go home. It’s my curfew.”

  Lena didn’t even open her eyes from resting her head on Ian’s shoulder. “Curfew? We’re in college now. We don’t have curfews.”

  I scoffed. “Yeah, we do. We all agreed we’d be home by midnight, remember?”

  Rey smiled, glancing at Wes and then at me and Jesse. “It’s all so very Cinderella, don’t you think? Reminds me of Homecoming and having to rush Ella back to that fundraiser thing.”

  I grinned wide. “Oh my gosh, you’re right. My stepmom’s gala.”

  Jesse squeezed my hand then kissed it. “You’re even more beautiful now,” he told me quietly.

  For a moment, my heart beat so hard that I completely forgot about minor things like curfews.

  It wasn’t until we had completely retold the story of that night to everyone and then Tori’s mom texted her that it was time for everyone to go home that we got up and made for the door.

  I walked with Tori to our waiting cars outside. “You know, I still have that dress.”