Chapter Six: All of Her Friends Stuck Up Their Nose
"Hey can you tell me where Enrique Correa's room is?" Manuela asked the first guy she saw.
"Why do you want to know?" He challenged.
"Do you know or not? I can always ask someone else." Manuela sighed, putting her hands on her hips. The guy smirked at Manuela, leaving her to wonder what he found amusing. She looked down at her clothes—she was in and off-the-shoulder pink sweater with short cut-off shorts. Not her best look. "What's so funny?" Manuela asked, as he shrugged and she gave up, deciding that her best bet would be to go into a dorm and ask someone who looked like they had a little common sense.
"He's in the Eastern dorm room 227, but you might want to knock!" He called back behind her.
"Are all college guys idiots?" Manuela rolled her eyes. "Knock? Enrique will be so happy to see me." She broke out into a light jog, unable to contain her eagerness to see him. Manuela just needed to touch him, to see him, just to make sure that he was real.
"Enrique, get you lazy butt out here!" Manuela yelled, hoping that the jerk downstairs wasn't lying to her.
"What the-" He opened is door all the way, surprised to see Manuela at his door. "What are you doing here sweetheart?" Enrique wondered, happy that he had come back from that party solo.
"I came to see you. You're always saying how it takes too long to drive back home, so I'm here. Aren't you happy?" Manuela jumped onto Enrique, knocking him over.
"You came all the way here for that? You shouldn't have." He joked as Manuela got up and looked around his dorm room.
"Don't you ever clean?"
"No. Signs of needing a woman in my life, eh?" Enrique asked.
"I'm here now." Manuela walked back over to him. "And I've missed you so much." She hugged him warmly while asking, "Where are you taking me?"
"Where ever you want to go." Enrique responded, knowing that that was what she wanted to hear. Suddenly, his term paper didn't matter anymore. He was on a new mission, which involved Manuela.
"I'm here, now what?" Jimmy asked himself, waiting for Reagan to arrive. She told him to meet her there at eight and it was almost eight thirty.
"Late as usual." Reagan said, coming from behind Jimmy. "What are you waiting for? Let's go in." She took his hand, leading him to the Food Court of the mall—his favorite part of coming and her least.
"Wait. You're taking me to the Food Court? What's going on?" He wondered. She sat down quietly, not sure of whether or not she should be saying this to him.
"Jimmy, we're been through a lot." Reagan sighed. "And I know I've put you through hell, but… things have just been really hard …" Reagan looked up. "…without you. I mean, I want to start again. We had a great thing going." Jimmy took her hands in his.
"I don't know about this Reagan. We did have a great thing, but you've strung me along for a while. And how do I know that it won't end in a week, or a month, or-" Reagan cut him off.
"Tomorrow. I don't know, but we can at least try. How can you just walk away from something like this? You asked me for a second chance, and here it is." Reagan buried her face in her hands. "The truth is … I love you and I didn't understand how much I loved you until you weren't there."
"It killed me to let you go Reg. It kills me to see you like this, but I don't want to put myself out there like that if I know what's going to happen again." Jimmy answered.
"All I'm asking you to do is try. Please." She pleaded. "For us." Reagan took his hands, caressing them. "For us?" She whispered. Jimmy looked down, contemplating the full scope of things.
Marco walked into Liberty's garage, deciding to show up for one of the band's practices after missing two in a row.
"You don't look happy." Mona commented as Liberty kept her distance. This was definitely not a good time to be having practice. Liberty was giving Marco hateful glances. Everyone was messed up but Cody … who was sober for once.
"I do not want to talk about it." Marco began. "That whole Dylan thing was less complicated than this."
"But you're sure this is what you want?" Marco nodded.
"I realized that I couldn't live like that. I was hiding a part of me … things that no one ever knew about …" He looked back at Liberty. "She's pissed because I missed practice."
"She's jealous. And she feels betrayed and alone. Do you know what yesterday was?" Marco shook his head. "Her birthday."
"No shit." Marco continued looking at Liberty, trying to read her expression, but unable to.
"You know what you have to do. Talk to her." Mona urged him, taking on her usual 'Dear Abby' role.
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