Lynn walks into her apartment, and quietly closes the door. She takes a deep breath, 'Seriously? He told her that he wasn't even interested in dating anyone. How the hell is he going to tell her that we're dating when he can't even say something as easy as that?'
Her phone buzzes; it is Francisco. She tosses the phone to the side and just tries to gather her thoughts as best as she can. She isn't one to talk, after all, she hasn't even told anyone that either, but it's not like she goes around telling people that she's never going to date.
Lynn's phone buzzes again; out of habit she checked the caller ID, "Margo?"
She is surprised by the sudden call. The two friends haven't talked for in so long and now out of the blue, Margo is calling her. Lynn answers the phone, "Hello?"
"Hello? Lynn, I know it's been a while, but how have you been?"
Lynn laughs, "I'm good. Just surprised, I haven't heard from you in so long. So how are you and my favorite Space Case doing?"
Margo chuckles at the silly nickname that Lynn insisted on for her husband, "We're doing fine. How are you doing?"
"You know same old, same old," there she goes too; not even telling her best friend.
"Good, good…umm…There was actually a reason that I umm…called."
Lynn braces herself, the nervousness in Margo's voice makes her think that maybe there was something wrong, like she's sick, or needs a transplant, or Tom quitting his job to work on that boardwalk that Margo mentioned once.
"Lynn, are you still there?"
Lynn shakes her head and regains her composure, "Yeah, I'm still here, so what's the big news?"
"Tom and I are having a baby," she proudly announces.
Lynn stares out into space, 'Wow…Margo and Tom are gonna be parents.'
"Congratulations, so when are you due?"
"May, I'm really nervous especially when it's just around the corner."
"Yeah, I bet. Wait a minute, May?! You're due in two months and you're just telling me this news today? What the heck, Margo!" Lynn feigns being hurt, "So you don't want me there for the big day? You know what, I'll find tickets online and I'll see you then, and believe me, I'm not gonna miss this big event."
Surprised, Margo comments, "Lynn, you were sick last time, I'm not upset that you missed my wedding. You don't have to come down here, you know."
"I know, but I felt bad for missing it after I said that I would be there. So, now I'm going to be there for this big day," Lynn says. She genuinely is bothered that she missed her best friend's wedding because she couldn't even get out of bed that day.
Margo sighs, and shakes her head despite Lynn not being able to see it, "I guess there's no point in trying to stop you, is there?"
"You got that right, so I'll see you in May?"
Margo quickly stops her, "Or a few weeks, maybe months later, when I'm settled in with the baby."
Lynn is about to shoot her down, but realizes what Margo was trying to tell her. It would be difficult to worry about a houseguest and a newborn, so there was no need for her to just show up on the day of just to see the baby. Besides, summers seem to be like hell if Margo is to be believed, so she figures that maybe visiting in a cooler month would be better.
"Great! And next time don't wait don't wait two months before you're due to tell me," Lynn jokes.
Margo laughs, "I promise. So how's everyone in Royal Woods?"
Her eyes wander towards the cabinets in her kitchen, "Everyone's great," she says quickly.
Lynn checks on her phone for the building name, "Hopefully, they have a slot available for me," she says to herself as she looks around at the buildings, hoping to find the tutoring center.
She wanders around looking at each building in her path, "Finally!" she exclaims as she finds the building.
She walks inside and sees a group of students walking down the hall. She blindly follows after them and is led right out on the other side of the building, "Whoops, wrong way."
Lynn goes back the way she came and finds the Science Learning Center. She isn't fond of idea of tutoring, but her teammates and coach recommended getting on top of her grades as soon as possible so that she doesn't fall behind. She didn't like the idea of wasting valuable weekend time studying, but she reasoned with herself that if she does well, she can slack off a little later on in the semester.
The room is filled with students who are looking through their textbooks and assignments, but Lynn shrugs them off and walks to the front desk to get herself a tutor.
The woman behind the counter asks Lynn, "May I help you?"
"Yeah, I need a tutor for Biology 171."
"Did you make an appointment?"
Lynn shakes her head.
"Well we have drop-in tutoring that's about to start at four. I'll just take your name to put it on the list and you can take a seat if you'd like," offers the woman.
Lynn gives the woman the information and turns towards the seating area, which is still occupied by other students. She takes a seat on the floor, and pulls out a tennis ball from her backpack to toss around while she waits for the drop-in tutoring to start.
She tosses the ball, then she begins to roll it, followed by flicking it a short distance. Each time she looks at the clock and can't believe how little time had passed since she last checked. It's beginning to feel like torture waiting for four o'clock to roll around.
She continues to flick the ball, but loses control of it as a man walks through the door. He looks down at the ball and kicks it outside before walking towards the desk.
"Hey!" she yells at the man before chasing after her tennis ball. When she return, she confronts him, "You didn't have to kick my ball out the door!"
He scoffs, "This isn't a playground, it's a learning center. You can play outside with the other ball jockeys, but if you're going to be here at least make some attempt to look like you're interested in learning."
Lynn balls up her fist and is about to rebut, when the woman behind the counter calls her out, "Ms. Loud, the biology drop-in tutor has arrived," she says gesturing towards the man in front of her.
Both glare at one another; neither one happy about the bad start.
He held out his hand and introduced himself, "Cesar."
She hesitates to return the gesture, "Lynn."
Cesar leads the way, and Lynn drags her feet as the two of them walk to the Chemistry Building. When they arrived in the study room, both of them take a seat, and Cesar takes out some dry erase markers, papers, and the biology textbook.
He looks over at his pupil, waiting for her to gather her materials, but she just stares out at the board behind him, "Aren't you going to take out some of your class materials? A textbook? Some notes? Homework?"
Lynn shakes her head, "I didn't bring any of that stuff."
"So how do you want me to help you?"
"I don't know? What have you taught other students?"
Cesar takes a deep breath, surprised that she would be unprepared, "Okay, I'll get a practice test so that I can see what you're struggling with."
"Are you serious? I have to do a test? At this hour? On a Sunday?!"
"Next time bring something to work with," he responds, "I'll be back in a few minutes," he says as he leaves the room.
"Fine by me," she says towards the door.
When she's sure that he's gone, she grabs the tennis ball and tosses it towards the whiteboard in frustration.
Cesar quickly returns, and spots Lynn bouncing the tennis ball against the wall. He clears his throat to get her attention and calls her back to the desk. Lynn packs the ball away and takes a seat. He hands her the test, "It's multiple choice, easy enough, right?"
Lynn rolls her eyes, takes the test from his hand, and pulls out a pen from her backpack to get started. It starts off simple, but soon the questions get harder, Lynn begins to lose focus. Her eyes wander towards the door, she begins to tap her fingers incessantly, and any noise instantly grabs her attention whenever she attempted to focus on the questions in front of her.
Cesar looks over at her as she struggles to complete the test. The test is simple enough for students taking the intro to biology class, but she is constantly stopping for some reason or another. Rather than keeping her focused, he observed the stimuli that would distract her.
"Finished!" she says as she hands the test to him for grading.
Cesar takes the test from her and begins to grade it. As he looks down at the questions, he hears a bouncing sound and turned his eyes towards Lynn, who is too busy tossing the tennis ball between her hands, "Can you please stop that?"
"What? You're taking a long time."
"I've only graded the front page, it hasn't been a long time," he remarks as he continues to grade her test.
She doesn't listen and continues to bounce the ball.
After he finishes looking over her test, he hands back her papers, "Well, I've definitely got a lot of work to do," he complains.
"You've got a lot of work? I'm the one who has to study."
"And I'm the one who has to help you study. You understand that, right? Or do I need to use sports analogies?"
Lynn glares at him, "Do you hate jocks or are you always such a ray of freaking sunshine?"
"Well we can't all get scholarships for running around playing a game like a child, some of us have to mentally exhaust ourselves to maintain our places here," he flatly tells her.
Francisco stared at his phone. It had been three days since Lynn responded to his texts, and he growing impatient. Normally, he wouldn't mind not hearing back from her, since they rarely interacted on weekends, but it felt strange, especially after she abruptly left practice on Friday without talking to him.
"She's still not answering?" Francisco asked himself out loud.
"Who's not answering?" asked Chuy, as he took a bite of his sandwich.
"A friend."
"A friend that just happens to be a woman?" the older brother teased with a knowing look in his eye.
Francisco glared at Chuy, "No. It's just a friend. I don't need you teasing me about something that isn't there."
Chuy didn't believe him, he knew his younger brother better than that, "You know I'm not Elena, right? I'm not going to be bothered if you started dating again, even if it doesn't go well with her."
"Yeah, right. Ya te conozco, Chuy. You got upset when Caroline and I broke up, why should I expect anything different if I was dating someone else?"
"That's different, and you know it. You two were dating for years and already had a daughter together. Mom and I liked her, so of course it was tough to hear that she called it quits after so many years," he responded. "What were you guys, sophomores when you got together? And you were still together until Elena was about four, so, six years? That's a lot of time to get used to someone being in everyone's life."
Francisco sighed, "Things happen. There's nothing we can do now."
Chuy raised an eyebrow, "So I guess I don't have to ask about–"
Francisco groaned, "Are you really going spend our lunch break lecturing me on something that happened years ago?"
"I don't know, you tell me, is Caroline's reason still valid today?"
Francisco calmly bit his sandwich, "It doesn't matter. Anyway, as I was saying, it's just a friend."
"Sure it is," Chuy said, still not convinced.
His brother's dating life is not normally something that he cares too much about, but it's not like Francisco doesn't get lonely when he's at home by himself, even if the younger brother insists that he's fine. Besides, he just needs someone that can push him out of his comfort zone.
'He's an ass!'
That's what Lynn would tell herself about the tutor. After only one session, all she could remember was his condescending attitude towards her. She hopes that she doesn't have to meet with him again, or at least that there was someone else that could take his place as her tutor.
She arrives at the Science Learning Center, and saw him walk through the front door minutes before four.
"You! Again?!"
"You came at the exact same time as last week; you can't tell me that you're surprised."
Lynn looks at the board with active tutoring sessions at the moment, and none of the other tutors are teaching biology except for Cesar.
"There are other tutors between the week, you're more than welcome to meet them. Also, you don't have to stay, you can walk out right now and come back tomorrow."
Lynn almost considers it, but she doesn't have a lot of free time between her classes and training regimen. When Cesar noticed that she wasn't moving, he walks towards the study room waiting for her to follow him.
She catches up to the man, "So, is there a reason that no one else shows up today?" she asks.
"Not many students know or care to use the school's tutoring center, some prefer to study on their own, and others would rather use their weekends to relax and do nothing."
"I meant for the tutors."
"Oh, well like I said, some like to use their weekends to relax and that includes the tutors."
"So you just take this shift because no one else wants to come in?"
"Pretty much."
The two arrive in their tutoring room, and Lynn pulls out her notes and homework.
"I'm glad you came prepared this time."
She rolls her eyes after hearing his tone, "So, what year are you in?"
He is taken aback by the question, "Does that matter?"
"I'm curious," she says, making it clear that she wants to know the answer.
He sighs, "I'm a senior. This is my last year–"
"And then you plan to go off to work as some scientist in a lab or something?" she finishes for him.
He is taken aback, "No, I'm an economics major, and I'm –"
"Economics? What the heck are you doing teaching biology?"
"If you stop interrupting I can tell you, but only after we start our…lesson…"
He looked at her notes; nearly every part of the page is filled with black ink and she seems to have the habit of not staying between the lines or separating her notes to keep them from being a jumbled mess that is easy to misread.
"Your notes are…very disorganized…"
"That's what my sister would say too," she sighs, knowing where the conversation was going.
"Did she ever tell you to get them organized?"
He didn't know why he asked that; of course, she probably told her to do so, but she was obviously ignored. Lynn isn't the first student he's met that got through high school with such mediocre study skills, and she won't be the last, but maybe there was some hope in her, especially if he knows which buttons to push.
"She did, but she stopped bothering to do so after so many times."
He hands her back her notes, "In the future, I recommend that you stay in the lines and maybe use different colored pens to keep things interesting."
It didn't take much to notice that she got bored easily, so he hoped that different colors might help her when she looked back at her notes.
Lynn wants to give him a snarky response, but fighting him isn't going to do her any good, especially if they're stuck with each other. She takes out some blank sheets of paper, "So considering last time, and your reaction to my test grade, you may want to start from the beginning."
He nods his head, and turns towards the whiteboard. He grabs some markers and began to draw three types of cells, "So can you tell me what kind of cells these are?"
Cesar turns around and sees her focused on a softball. He can't believe that he had to stay on top of her as if she was a child, "What are you doing? Put the ball away, and focus."
"Hey, you didn't tell me why you teach biology when you're an economics major."
"Double major, now can you please put your ball away an answer the question."
"Alright, jeez!" she says as she put the ball away.
Cesar sighs; he wishes that more students would arrive at least so he wasn't forced to tutor Lynn one-on-one, but he is almost afraid that she would end up in a worse position if he didn't give her more attention.
"Alright, so one's a plant cell, that one is an animal cell and the last one is a…" she pauses as she tries to remember her answer, "Bacteria!"
"Good, now can you tell me the difference between eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and archaea?"
She shakes her hear immediately; at least she could academically admit defeat.
Cesar takes the eraser and wipes away the cell drawings before creating a table, "Alright, start taking notes."
Lynn does as instructed, but her mind begins to wander again when he silently fills in the table, "What exactly do you plan on doing with a degree in economics and biology?"
He sighs; only a few minutes of focus before she went back to asking questions that didn't matter, "I'll make you a deal, you can ask me questions, but you can't ask unless you answer my questions."
"Deal!" Lynn pulls out her textbook, and turns to the chapter explaining cells. She takes a marker and begins to help him fill out the table. "Does this count as answering your question?"
She didn't do it alone, but at least she managed to crack open her book, "I want to work in a hospital," he answers, "but more on the administrative side, and it looks good when I apply to grad school."
"Grad school? You still want to keep going to school?"
Cesar erases the board, "Do it yourself without the book, and see how much you remembered on your own."
"Alright, but that doesn't count as my question."
During practice, Francisco kept an eye out for Lynn. She's been avoiding him since Friday, and she's had more enough time to respond to his communication attempts. He understood not answering immediately, but it's not like she doesn't have time to just send him a quick message saying that she couldn't talk and that she'll get back with him.
On the field, the coach was alone with the kids.
'Where the heck is she?'
He looked down at his phone again, and scrolled though the messages.
'She hasn't read them yet. Maybe she lost her phone?'
He repeated the last part to himself again, and attempted to relax; figuring that he can't blame her if that's what happened to her.
His heart began to race again, at the thought that maybe something worse may have happened. He doubts that the coach would bother to explain if something happened to her, especially if
'A car accident? Rock-climbing accident? Laboratory accident? She did say that Lisa still lives in Royal Woods.'
Rather than make himself go crazy, he got up and tried to stretch to take his mind off of the idea that Lynn was in trouble.
Roy walked up beside him, "Whatcha doin?"
Startled, Francisco twisted his back too much and bit down on his lip in pain, "Just stretching," he said through clenched teeth, before pulling out a pill and breaking it in half to consume.
Roy took a seat next to Francisco, "Dang, you just swallowed that without any water, didntcha?"
"Sometimes I don't have access to water when I need to take my medicine."
"You coulda asked, I would've broughtcha somethin'."
Francisco shook his head, and began to stare out into the field. The kids were running around, the sun was beating down on him, and he began to feel dizzy from the heat.
'When did it get so hot? How are they handling this heat?'
He took off his cap and began to fan himself, but it didn't relieve his lightheadedness.
"Are you okay?" asked Roy.
Francisco nodded, an action he quickly came to regret, "I'm fine. Probably just a little hungry."
"Do you want some peanuts? They're honey-roasted, and I don't mind sharin'," Roy offered as he pulled out a bag and poured out a few into his hand before handing the bag to Francisco.
He took the bag of peanuts, and accidentally dropped them, "I'm sorry, the bag slipped out of my hand."
Roy took a deep breath, "It's fine. Accidents happen."
Neither one said anything to the other for the rest of practice. Francisco couldn't tell if Roy was frustrated about the peanuts, but he didn't want to turn around to see.
As the coach called an end to practice, Francisco's alarm went off, and he took his medicine before walking over towards Elena.
"You did good out there," he told her in an attempt to build her confidence.
She knew what he was doing, but she knew the truth; she's not great or good at playing baseball. No matter how often he tries to help her improve, either through doing or watching, it didn't do much in the long run.
Once they were both in the truck, Elena would occasionally glance at her dad from the rearview mirror and see the seriousness in his eyes. Unlike other times, he seemed different, as if something was on his mind. She noticed that he placed a hand on the side of his head as he clenched his teeth while trying to maintain focus on the road.
"Dad, are you okay?"
Francisco glanced up at the mirror and saw her, "Yeah, why?"
She shook her head. She knew that he won't tell her what's on his mind and she settled with waiting for him to open up, if he ever decided to do so.
"I just have a headache, honey. I think I just need to go lie down when I get home."
"Did you take your medicine?"
"Yeah, but it hasn't completely kicked in yet, or maybe I need a stronger one, I don't know…like I said I'm gonna lie down when I get a chance…"
As they pulled into the drive way, Francisco quickly walked to the front door and rang the door bell. Elena caught up to him as her mom opened the door.
"We're here. Practice was great. I have to go," he said as he turned towards his truck before giving either one an opportunity to say a thing.
"Where are you off to in such a rush?" asked Caroline.
Francisco continued walking towards the car, "I have to meet a friend, and I promised to be there right after I dropped off Elena."
The two watched him drive away. Both noticed his strange behavior, but neither one wanted to say anything first.
"He has a headache, why is he going to meet a friend?" Elena asked.
Caroline looked towards the direction that Francisco drove off in, "I'll ask him in a bit. Let's just go inside."
Lynn begins to stare at the ceiling, as Cesar grades her practice test. Both of them figured that after spending some time learning the material that she would do better on the practice test, but the look on Cesar's face says otherwise.
"Wow, even with the material still fresh in your mind, you still manage to blow it."
Lynn scowls at him, "What the heck?" she grabs the test from him and looks at her responses. "I guess we know what this means."
"That you aren't studying," he responds.
"No! I am!"
"Really? Then you should have been able to answer more questions correctly. I mean, what do you do during the week?"
She replays the whole week in her mind, "Morning run, shower, breakfast, class, gym, lunch, train with the softball team, dinner, tv, then bed…oh…but I listen to the professor and there's always Saturday."
"I doubt that, considering that your backpack seems be a bottomless pit of sports balls," Cesar comments. He notices that no one else is going to show up, and that Lynn isn't leaving, he asks her, "Do you want to take a break?"
"Seriously? Why?"
"No one else is coming and I can't imagine that your brain isn't frying from all the information that you somehow manage to simultaneously forget, so why not?"
She ignores the insult and pulls out a mini football from her backpack, "Do you want to play catch?"
"Inside?"
"We could go outside," she suggests.
He shakes his head, "I should wait in case that someone else shows up for tutoring."
She gestures him to stand at the opposing end of the room and she tosses the ball at him. For a few minutes neither one says anything to the other; the only sound that can be heard is the ball as it whooshes through the air.
"Have you considered asking to be allowed to use a tape recorder in class? That way you can listen to your lectures frequently while you're exercising, pause it when you lose interest, and pick it back up when you can."
Lynn scoffs at the idea, "The professors are a pain. I had one go on and on about how no one was allowed to record him for anything, even gave me crap for taking a picture of his contact information. And he wasn't the only one, almost all of them said that they don't like it when you record their lectures with a camera or voice recorder; they were really clear about that, unless the school says you can, but they aren't going to let me."
Cesar is aware of those kinds of professors, he's run into his fair share over the course of his college career, but he's surprised that Lynn would shoot down the idea so quickly.
"I'll figure it out," Lynn tries to reassure him, "I got this far in school, I'm sure that I can figure out something or at least a way to include more study time."
"Maybe go to the gym less often? I mean, do you really need to go every day?"
Lynn quickly responds, "Yes! I have a scholarship to maintain."
"But considering your perturbing grades…" he suggests.
"Hey, if you're going to insult me, you're going to have to use smaller words!"
He sighs, "If your grades are terrible, how do you plan on playing without getting benched? I've seen athletes like you, Lynn. Your whole world is a locker and a field, and nothing else matters, does it? Classes are placed on a backburner, because they aren't interesting enough, but just remember that at the end of the day, once college is over, there's a small chance that you'll make it big in sports, but don't blow the academic opportunity you were give because of it."
She holds onto the ball and looks down at the ground. She hates getting this lecture over and over again from everyone. She understood that everyone wanted her to reach her academic potential, but it doesn't come as naturally for her as sports does. She remembers spending countless hours trying to crack a book open and not get bored, but unless someone is watching her as she does it, her mind wanders off.
Then there was the other problem.
"That's easy for you to say, no one looks at you and your family and just thinks that you're the hyperactive sports girl among a group of eleven kids."
The number of siblings surprises him, but rather than bring it up, he attempts to comfort her "Well, I'm sure there's more to you than just the hyperactive sports girl."
Francisco knocked on the door of her apartment. He knew that this is rather desperate, but after so much time without a response, he wanted to make sure that nothing had happened to her. He knocked on the door again before pressing his ear on her door; he couldn't hear a sound. Deciding that at some point she would return home, he waited for her to arrive.
As Lynn got out of her car, she heard her phone ringing in her pocket again – it was Francisco. "Seriously? Take a hint. I don't feel like talking to you right now."
He's never been that insistent on getting in contact with her, so this was new to her, but it was starting to get annoying. First, he called after practice, more than likely wondering why she left as quickly as she did. Then, there were the next few days, when he would leave texts asking where she was or if she was okay, and finally, the phone calls that he would make every couple of hours.
She walked towards her apartment, and her phone rang again. She ignored it, and continued walking on her way, but stopped when she saw Francisco at her front door. The phone continued to sound. He hung up on his end and looked at her.
"Seriously, Lynn? What the heck!? Why are you ignoring my calls?"
"Cause I don't feel like talking to you at the moment," she said as she walked past him and tried to get inside of her apartment.
Francisco looked at her, completely dumbfounded, "What do you mean you don't want to talk? What's going on with you? You've been avoiding me for days without letting me know why and–"
"Nothing. I'll talk to you when I'm ready," she said as she closed the door on him.
He held onto the door, "Look Lynn, I don't know what's going on, but I sort of expect my girlfriend to answer my texts."
'Expect my girlfriend to answer my texts…'
The phrase rattled around in Lynn's head and she glared at him. Noticing the anger in her eyes, he let go of the door, "Fine, I'll be here when you're ready to talk."
As she closed the door, her fists trembled in anger, she bit down on her bottom lip and her heart and her head were pounding. She let out a small scream to release some tension; she took a deep breath and walked away from the door.
She stopped in the hallway and punched the wall as hard as she could, "Dang it!"
Four hours, Cesar was surprised that she stayed for the entire four hours this time, but at least she was more willing to listen to his lessons after exchanging his own information with her; he was almost curious about why she wanted to know.
"Would you like me to call campus security to escort you to your dorm?" he asked after noticing the dark nighttime sky.
Lynn scoffed, "No. I can handle myself just fine."
The two walked out the door, and walked in the same direction. Both were surprised by that neither one was going in any other direction.
"You don't need to follow me, I'll be fine."
"I'm not following you; I live in the South Quadrangle."
"Oh, I guess we are gonna be walking together, neighbor."
Both walked in silence. After spending so much time in the tutoring room, he figured that she was bound to get tired of asking him questions, so he figured, that this may be his chance to get even with her.
He spoke up, "Are you from Michigan?"
She was surprised by the sudden question, "Uh yeah, I live like an hour away, near Detroit."
He nodded, "I'm from New York."
"The city or the state? Doesn't matter, so why'd you come to school here? I mean I get that there's always some out of town students, but you seem like one of those people that would want to go to a fancy private school."
"I got a full-ride, so I took it. The school could have been in Alaska or Hawaii or anywhere in the world, so long as I didn't have to worry my family about the cost. By the way, city."
"That's nice of you. I figure you already know that I got a softball scholarship, although being close to the action of one of favorite college football teams is a nice little incentive."
He scoffed, "Seriously? You get a full-ride to one of top public universities in the country, and the best thing about it is being close to the action?"
This is what he hates about undergrad, it's also what he hated about high school, people are too busy partying and goofing off instead of working hard towards bettering themselves.
"Are you serious? Have you never gone to a game, a party, or you know, done anything to enjoy the college experience?"
He didn't bother to answer. To him the college experience was just being able to get away from the chaos of home and relax in comparison to his stressful family.
"Oh, I am so making you have fun before you graduate. Consider me your tutor. Now give me your number so I can call you when I've got it all planned out" she said happily.
"I'm not considering you a tutor, so good luck with that."
Lynn took that good luck as a challenge and quickly reached into his pockets to take his phone.
Cesar pulled away from her before she could retrieve the phone, "What the heck are you doing!?"
"Trying to get your phone, you said 'good luck with that'."
"I meant good luck getting me to go out and do those sorts of activities, not good luck getting my phone from my pocket. Geez, do you have any concept of boundaries?"
"Grow up with nine other sisters, trust me, there's no such thing as boundaries."
Cesar pulled out his phone, "Fine, you can have my number, but don't call or message me unless it's for school–"
"And the fun day?" she asked with a hopeful smile.
He sighed, "Fine. But only once, I usually have more pressing issues than sitting around in the cold watching armor clad behemoths tackle each other for entertainment."
Elena sat at the kitchen table eating breakfast with her dad. She recalled that he hasn't shown up for her practice for some time, and has wanted to ask him about it. Nearly all last season and some parts of this season, he came to practice without fail, and now all of a sudden, it was her mother who came to pick her up. At first she thought that maybe he was stuck in traffic or had a temporary change in hours at work, but when he didn't show up for two weeks, she knew that that things were back to how they used to be – her only seeing him on weekends.
"Umm dad?" she asked nervously, sensing tension from him.
He looked up from the newspaper, "Yes," he asked.
The look in his eyes bothered her a bit, he had the same look from the last time he was at her practice, "Can we go to the art museum today?" She asked, backing out from asking her original question.
"Sure, we can go this afternoon. I promised Jackson that I'd keep an eye out for a package that he's expecting today."
Elena nodded and continued with her breakfast. She didn't know what he's had on his mind, but she's noticed that he is more distant than usual. At the moment, she assumed that it had something to do with having to work extra hours.
"Hey, Elena, I'm sorry that I haven't been to your practices lately," he said, as if he knew what she was upset about. "I've been busier than usual and time keeps getting away from me, even with his old watch," he said in an effort to comfort her.
He didn't like lying to her like that, but it was better than telling her that Lynn was the reason that he was avoiding practice. The glare that she shot him and the tone of her voice when he confronted her at her apartment made it more than clear that he should avoid her until she was ready to talk.
"What's been going on at work? Did they lay off more people? Was it the man that you switched shifts with? Wait…are you going to work late because your alarm on your watch isn't working?"
Francisco continued to let Elena ask more questions as he finished his meager breakfast, before he shook his head to get her attention.
"No, no, nothing like that. Management changed, and do you remember what I've told you about what happens with management changes?"
"They try to change things that are fine," she answered, the way he's taught her before.
He nodded his head, "Things will be back to normal before you know it," he tried to assure her, "and then I can be there for you after school."
They both smiled at each other, in an effort to comfort the other, but neither one was sure that it was working.
Meet me in front of the Union after class
That's what her message said when he read it that Thursday morning. He was surprised that she didn't bother to include a time, especially considering how impatient she is, but he messaged her to let her know when he would arrive.
"If not I can imagine that she'll keep messaging me over and over again," he told himself.
As soon as he was done with class for the day, Cesar walked towards the front steps of the building and saw her sitting eating a sandwich looking at all the students that passed her by.
"Hey! You made it," she said excitedly as she ran over to him. "Did you think of what you wanted to do?"
He didn't. Even after nearly four years, there wasn't much that he wanted to do at the university that other people would consider to be part of the college experience.
When Lynn noticed that he wasn't opening his mouth, she offered some suggestion, "We could go to a party?"
Cesar struck down the idea.
"We could go to Good Time Charley's."
"You aren't twenty-one."
"You could drink and I'll just wait outside."
He struck down the idea again.
"We could break into the football stadium and run…the entire…length…of the field…" as she said it, she knew that he wouldn't be on board.
"Lynn, I'm not exactly a party animal. I don't enjoy the crowds or loud noises, I like silence."
"So the library," Lynn joked.
"Never mind, this is a waste of time. I'm just going to the library and then I'm going to call it a night."
She grabbed his arm, "Aww c'mon! You must have a list of things you want to do. When are you going to be able to do them, if all you ever do is bury yourself in the library?"
"Alright, give me a minute to think of something…I'd like a photo of my favorite professors…eat something I've never eaten before…write something in the school paper…go to the museum…maybe –"
"Seriously? That's what you want to do? How about something that you can do tonight?"
"Well, there are some more things, if you're willing to let me finish."
She groaned, "Fine, but can we do while we go get you eat somewhere that you've never eaten at? I'm hungry."
"You just ate."
Her grumbling stomach didn't care as they both walked into the Union.
Meet me at the gym after work
That's all the text said, he tried to message her back, but she didn't respond, however Francisco was relieved that she finally wanted to talk with him. Two weeks isn't much, especially when compared to the years when they didn't even speak to each other, but it was a long time. He missed talking with her, spending time with her, he even missed those stupid punches she would give him whenever the mood struck her.
He pulled into the parking lot and found her jalopy and parked nearby. He walked past the car and wondered why she would hold on to such an old vehicle, 'Must run in the family to never get rid of junkers,' he thought, recalling the Loud family vehicle.
Francisco looked around for Lynn, and found her running on the treadmill. He approached her, "Hey Lynnsanity."
She looked over at him and stopped the machine. Lynn wiped the sweat from her brow, "Meet me by the punching bags," she said before walking away.
"Nice to see you too," he said out loud to himself as he followed behind her.
She was still aloof and he couldn't figure out why; he assumed that after a few weeks, that she would have more to say, but all he could do was wait for her, since he wasn't even sure what started this.
As Lynn approached him, she led him to a punching bag, "Can you hold it for me?"
He held onto the punching bag, and as she concentrated on her technique. Lynn punched and Francisco could feel the tension coming from her through her punches, "Lynn, are you okay? Your punches seem angrier than normal."
"No, I'm not okay. Here I am thinking that you were about to tell Elena about us and then I hear that you haven't even told her that you want to date."
Francisco stood there, completely stunned. How did she know about that? Was that why she was upset? He took a deep breath, and stepped out from around the punching bag "Look, Lynn, I–" he was cut off by a punch to the jaw.
Lynn looked at him, stunned at what just happened. It wasn't her intention to him, just to get his attention by punching near him, but the scowl on his face told her that he wasn't taking it that way.
"Really Lynn?" he said in a low voice.
"Oh calm down, I didn't do it on purpose."
He pushed the punching bag towards her and she pushed it back to him. The two silently went back and forth, getting angrier and angrier. Neither one was giving in until Lynn decided, "Just meet me in the ring."
Both bolted towards the boxing ring, Francisco donned a pair of boxing gloves and looked at her, "Is that really what you were mad about, because I haven't told her about my love life?"
"Yeah, I am," she said as she approached him. "I thought that maybe we wouldn't have to hide as much, but you couldn't even tell her?"
Francisco threw the first punch, she dodged it and struck back, "Maybe I'm not ready to tell her, did you think of that?"
"Not ready? We've been going out for months, that's more than enough time to at least say that you are dating someone."
Lynn went on the offense, and Francisco held her off, but her punches were getting stronger with each sentence.
"It's a bigger deal. She already knows you and has some sort of relationship to you, what happens if we break up?"
Lynn stopped at looked at him, "Break up?"
"It can happen."
She punched him again, "You still picture worst case scenarios? Why can't you just be happy with what you've got and take a damn chance?"
"Because we aren't all like you, Lynn. We can't all just go with the flow and be fine regardless of what happens. There are consequences in life."
"Yeah, I know what consequences are, but that doesn't mean that you have to live your life in a shell, afraid of even telling your daughter something so simple."
"So simple? So your life is an open book? Everyone that's important to you knows everything about you?"
Lynn stopped her punches after hearing that.
"I thought so. You haven't told anyone either, so don't lecture me about this."
"You told me not to! Don't act all high and mighty just because I decided to listen to you, and keep this between us," she said, as he noticed the rapid shifting of her eyes.
"Don't lie. You wanted to tell someone," Francisco said, waiting for Lynn's next barrage of hits.
"I wanted to…but it doesn't matter anymore…" she said. "It's better than waiting for them to tell you first that they knew, better than…" Rather than finish, Lynn began punching him again without holding back.
"It's not that big of a deal. Why are you so bothered by this?" he asked as held off her attacks. Her constant punches were driving him mad, and he began to go on the offense, "Did you get in your own head? Did you convince yourself that you're making a mistake?"
She didn't say anything anymore; she just kept punching at her frustrations.
Lynn pressed her head against the desk, she could not believe that this was on his list of things to do.
She turned to him and whispered, "Why the heck do you want to do this? I mean who wants to sit in on a random class that they aren't enrolled in?"
He shushed her, and went back to paying attention to the professor. Lynn couldn't take it, the whole point of Thursdays was to relax after attending classes all week, not search for a new one that had nothing to do with your major.
Rather than wait around, Lynn turned to him, "I'm gonna be outside," she said before leaving him behind in the class.
When class let out, Lynn looked as the students poured out of the auditorium and found Cesar, "Finally! Now let's actually do something fun," she said as they walked outside.
"Just because you don't enjoy school, doesn't mean that I don't."
She groaned, "Fine! So what do you want to do now? The night is young and I'm just raring to go!"
Cesar shrugged his shoulders; he didn't have much in mind, "Alright, there's two things left on my list that we can do tonight, but I'm not sure how willing–"
"Great! Let's go!" she said as she pulled him in a random direction.
"Lynn, the library is this way," he said pointing in the other direction.
She groaned at the thought of going to the library as part of the night of adventures, but she went along with it.
"So what are we doing?"
"I need to print out something, we can hang around until it's close to midnight and then I want to go to the bell tower."
Lynn wasn't sure what he had up his sleeve, but she went along with it. After a stop at the library to print out a copy of The Victors March, Cesar and Lynn waited around the lounge until it was time to go to the bell tower. The two reached the front of the bell tower and looked up, Lynn still isn't sure what he has planned for them to do.
"I'm curious, what are you up to?"
"You said that you wanted to do something fun, so I figured that this is right up your alley."
She looked at the doorknob, "Are we going to sing from the door?"
He shook his head, "No, I was hoping you could help me get inside so I can play this."
The request surprised her; all night, he's been suggesting dull activities and out of nowhere he suddenly wants to break and enter into the bell tower just to play the school's fight song.
"Can you help me? I'm hoping that we can do this at the stroke of midnight."
She took a deep breath. This isn't how she envisioned their night ending, and at worst they may get kicked out of school, but it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and she wants to take it.
"I think I have something in my backpack to open the–"
Lynn kicked down the door and ran inside, "Hurry up before someone sees us!"
Cesar grabbed his things and chased after her as they ran to the top of the tower. Upon reaching the top of the tower, he was out of breath, "I forgot…how high…this tower is…"
Lynn checked the time on her phone, "Alright, you've got a few minutes until midnight."
Cesar placed the sheet music on the music stand and took a deep breath, "This is going to sound terrible, since I haven't done this since I was a freshman, but I've really wanted to bring this tradition back."
"What tradition?"
"The bells used to sound at midnight, but when the clock system was replaced with a computer, it never rang at twelve, so I figured, if I'm going to do something stupid, I at least want it to be memorable."
Lynn smiled, "So you can play this thing?"
"Sort of, the last time I took this class was almost three years ago, so sorry to everyone who has to hear this."
She checked the clock one more time and soon as it struck midnight, he began to play. He was right, he is definitely not great at playing the instrument, but at least she could make out the tune well enough to begin to sing along to his playing. Neither one was the stuff of legends, but they can't say that they didn't have fun.
As he finished playing, he turned to her, "Thanks…for today. It was nice to make a…fun memory."
"You say that like it's a bad thing."
He shrugged his shoulders before grabbing his things. He stopped as he took in the sight of the dark campus with the few lamps lighting that pathways; he didn't think that he would be doing such a thing, but he was glad that Lynn pushed him enough out of his comfort zone to try.
"So what was the last thing on your list?" she asked.
He shook his head, "It's not important, besides it can wait for another day."
The two sit in the back of Francisco's truck; him attempting to stop his nosebleed and her covering her black eye with an icepack. Neither one says anything as they sat looking at the cars and gym patrons pass them by.
"I'm sorry about your eye," Francisco starts. "I didn't think that we would get that crazy," he says as he tried lightening the mood.
Lynn stays quiet. She didn't know what came over them, one minute she planned on venting her frustrations through words and hits to the punching bag and the next minute they are fighting in the ring criticizing each other. Like the black eye she is trying to soothe, his words stung; he is too afraid to tell Elena that he is in a relationship, he fears them breaking up, and then he pointed out her hypocrisy when she couldn't tell anyone about their relationship either.
She finally spoke up, "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"What exactly do you want out of this relationship? Something casual? A chance to see what could have been? Something long-term? Is there even a difference between us, if we still act like friends? I know you said that there is a difference, but…it doesn't always feel that way…"
Francisco tries to gather his thoughts as best as he can. He opens his mouth, "I don't know…but I…I think there's a difference between us. I can tell that you're still kind of affectionate with me, but we…" He struggles to think of what to say.
She has a point, they are the same. Their 'dates' still consisted of them at one or the other's home, eating and watching a game; with occasional moments of acknowledgement during the commercials.
"But we…what?" she tries to continue. "See, that's the problem. Do you think that maybe we can't see each other past being friends?"
"I think that we can, but I don't necessarily know how far I wanted this to go. I thought that this was my chance to be in a romantic relationship with you, and next thing I know, we're together and old habits come back up again."
Lynn nods her head; he is right, old habits pop up here and there. She sighs, and thinks to herself, 'I guess, it was a bad idea to start this so soon…'
Lynn gets up from the truck bed and faces him, "When we both figure out what we want, then maybe we can try this again." She walks back to her car, and leaves him with his thoughts.
