"Wanna go up to my room?"

"Nah," I say as my lips move from Kacie's neck back to her lips, "let's stay here."

I know what going up to her room means.

And I don't want any part of that cause that's not what this is about. It's just about hooking up, having fun... not going all the way.

All of a sudden, my phone is vibrating in my jeans.

So, I push Kacie off, gently of course, and I answer the phone as soon as I see it's Gabriella.

"Hello?"

Right away, you could tell she didn't want to be calling me, but she had no other choice. She wants to leave a party and she wants to leave now and she wants a ride. As she's saying these words to me, I look over at Kacie who looks more annoyed than mad that I'm answering the phone during our make out session. I didn't give a fuck, though. If it was my mom, I wouldn't have answered. But it was Gabriella. I had to know what she wanted.

I agree to give her a ride. She's like a member of the family. I'm not gonna make her sit there if she's miserable.

"I gotta go," I get up.

"What? Why?" She follows me out of the living room.

"My friend needs a ride," I tell her.

She stands in front of her door with her arms crossed. "Gabriella Montez, really?"

What does that even mean? She saw her name pop up? "Yeah, sorry, but she's stranded..."

"You're leaving me for some girl? Seriously?"

"It's not some girl," I tell her feeling a bit annoyed. "It's Gabriella."

Kacie McDonnell is just some girl. Gabriella isn't. Gabriella Montez has been in my life since I was in the 4th grade and I accidentally made her trip. My sister and I were the new kids and that first day, I made her fall. She thought I did it on purpose so she hated me, but my sister took advantage of it and "defended" her against me that day so they became friends. But she doesn't hate me. She never did. We get along great, she's like a member of the family and I'm going to be there for her if she needs me to be. After all, she drove an hour to pick me up once because I was sick as a dog.

That's what you do for friends.

Especially friends who are your sister's best friends and who your mom loves like another daughter.

When I get to Ben's house, she's sitting on the steps of his front porch looking down at her phone and pretty miserable.

But when she sees me, she looks relieved.

"Ten bucks."

"Shut up," she laughs as she gets in the car, "thanks."

"You're welcome."

She drops her purse on the floor and buckles up before taking a deep breath, "I hope I didn't pull you away from your first victim this weekend."

I laugh because that's a running joke with us. They're on my case about hooking up with girls left and right, every day of the weekend. But that's not true. It's not every weekend. How exhausting would that be? But it was true this weekend. "Kacie will live."

"Kacie McDonnell?" She asks, "oh come on, Troy, she's fucking annoying."

"She's okay," I shrug.

"I don't even know how you do it."

I come to a stop and glance over at her, "do what?"

She shrugs, "the girls. The non exclusivity of it all. Don't you ever just want a girlfriend, someone you can call and hang out with and be there for you?"

"Yeah and then fight with and have to answer to her if I just wanna grab a burger with my boys?"

"You can still do that," she says.

The thing is, I do want a girlfriend. I think it'll be nice. It's all bullshit when I give excuses as to why I don't want one. I just haven't found the right one yet. I'm 17, 18 in a month. I don't need to be tied down. High school is all about drama and I don't need to get involved in that. But it's not because I'm scared of commitment or anything, people think that since I hook up with girls, but it's just one of those things where I haven't found someone who's just captured my attention long enough to want to make them mine. And I cover it up with saying I don't want to be settled down.

I change the subject because I don't want to talk about this anymore.

"So party's no fun?"

"I don't even know why I came," she leans back, "probably because I had nothing else going on."

"Yeah, Morgan's out of town."

She nods, "exactly. She's the only who will sit at home with me on a Friday night or watch a movie instead. I think maybe I just hate everyone at our school."

I laugh. There are a lot of annoying people there.

"There's nothing wrong with not wanting to party," I tell her, "no one even gives a shit. It's just your stupid boyfriend who makes a big deal out of it sometimes. You hardly see me at parties and people don't say anything to me. It doesn't mean you're not cool or whatever. It's dumb."

"Why do you hate Brady so much?" She asks me all of a sudden.

I mean, she's asked before but I just shrug it off and don't really give her an answer.

But she seems serious this time.

"I don't hate him," I start off, "he's just annoying."

"But why?"

Why is he annoying?

Oh I have a long list of why I think he's annoying. Because he thinks he's the shit. He thinks because his parents are loaded that he's entitled to everything and anything. And why Gabriella doesn't see that is beyond me. He is seriously so fucking annoying, I can't even put it into words. Mostly, though, because Gabriella deserves better. Way better. And seeing him with her makes me hate him even more.

"He's just a spoiled rich kid," I shrug, "I think you can do better."

"We're all spoiled rich kids," she laughs.

"No, we're not. We're rich, but we're not spoiled," I tell her, "he's entitled. He think he can have whatever he wants, whenever."

She's quiet for a moment, just looking out the window.

I shouldn't insult him.

Sure, I dislike him, but she's my friend so I gotta be respectful. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"Are you hungry? I'm hungry."

"Sure," she tells me, "whatever you want."

Mexican it is.

"Do you remember the first time we came here?" Gabriella looked around the place.

"Not really."

"How can you not remember?"

I shrug, grabbing a chip and dipping it in the salsa.

She laughed, grabbing a couple of chips choosing to skip the salsa, "it was your mom, me, you and Sarah and we were in 7th grade and Emily had to stay behind because she was in trouble for getting an F on her math test."

"Yes," I laugh, remembering now. Of course I remember that day. "And Sarah fell face first and we couldn't stop laughing so my mom took our food away."

"That made me laugh even more," she tells me, "like, who takes our food away?"

"Rebecca Bolton, that's who."

This restaurant is a staple in our family.

We come all the time. If someone wants to celebrate their birthday here or just for a random dinner one night. Or lunch. It's so fucking good. And the Bolton/Montez family frequent it quite often. All of us together or apart. But we love it. Ever since my mom brought us that day. We only ate half our food but the half we did eat was delicious enough for us to want to come back. So we did. Over and over and over again.

And tonight.

"Remember that time my mom almost choked on her rice?"

"And no one was even paying attention?"

"YES!" Gabriella laughs, leaning back against the booth, "she was so mad at all of us."

I stopped laughing, but Gabriella kept laughing, remembering that moment.

Ad I just sat here and stared.

It's hard to not look at Gabriella when she's around. She's effortlessly beautiful. She doesn't cake make up on. She doesn't over do her hairstyles. Or her outfits. She's... simple. But she's beautiful. Stunning, actually. And when she laughs, it takes you back a bit because it makes you find her even more attractive than she already is which seems impossible, but it's actually very possible. Because that's what I'm thinking about right now.

I think about it often even though I shouldn't. She's like a member of the family, but God, is she beautiful.

And smart. And funny. And the most caring person.

Which is why I fucking hate so much that someone like Brady, who won't even make eye contact with the valet is dating her. He has her.

"You ready to order?"

"Hmm?" I snap out of it and realize the waitress is here, "oh, um, yeah."

Gabriella looks at me a little weirdly but proceeds with her order. Two cheese enchiladas, rice and beans. Like always.

And I do my usual, too. "Steak fajitas, please."

"Thanks for picking me up," Gabriella tells me as she brings her coke in front of her before taking a sip, "I'm sure you'd much rather be at Kacie's doing God knows what than sitting here with boring old me eating Mexican food on a Friday night."

"You're not boring," I laugh.

"Oh please," she laughs, "I know I'm boring. I mean, I think I'm funny and can carry conversations, but I'm definitely boring."

"Why?"

"Why what?" She looks confused at my question.

So, I reword it. "Why do you think you're boring? I don't get it."

She shrugs, "because I am. If someone called me up at 11 pm and was like, lets drive down the coast and go to the beach or something, I definitely wouldn't do it. I don't even like skipping school at lunch. You're just trying to be nice, you know I'm boring."

"But you're not," I argue, "our trip to Hawaii... you're adventurous. You're just not adventurous during the night."

"I guess, but still..."

"Just because you don't party or wanna be out til 1 am doesn't mean you're boring."

She gives me a small smile, "thanks."

Gabriella is that girl that has her head in the books, doesn't smoke weed or drink really and goes out to parties only on occasions. But you wouldn't classify her a "nerd" or a "loser" because of her looks. She's gorgeous. Everyone thinks so. And also because most people don't really know that. They think they know Gabriella Montez, but they don't really. Because at school, she hangs out with Brady's crowd. She's popular in her own right.

But outside of school, she's this better version. This girl that wants to go to Brown and become a pediatrician and have five kids and two dogs.

"Are you guys going to Palm Springs next weekend?"

"Nah," I tell her "change of plans."

"Oh what happened?" She asks me as she reaches for some more chips.

I reach for some too opting to skip the salsa this time around, "my mom and dad are flying out to New York for my aunt and Emily wants to go to Santa Barbara for the weekend with Kristina and her family so we decided to just go another week, obviously, since they can't."

We have a house in Palm Springs that we often visit.

It's just a nice little getaway. It's the dessert so it's a contrast from Del Mar and the beach.

Sometimes, a few friends and I go down there to just chill.

And this year when we all went to Coachella, we stayed there. So, it definitely comes in handy for times like those. And just to get away from this town when we've had a little too much or it's a little too cold or we just feel like getting away.

"I love that house."

"Me too," I tell her, "it's great."

"Yeah, the perfect little getaway. And every year you go to Coachella, you don't need to worry about where to stay."

I laugh, "yeah, exactly. It was so fun this year."

A group of us went to Coachella this year and it was one of the best times.

Only half of us were there for the actual artists, the other half just cared about the vibe and the stigma that comes with Coachella. Emily was jeweled out, their other friend made a flower crown, and one of them barely listened to any of the music. I get it's an experience, but why pay money if you don't even like the music that's playing? Gabriella and I on the other hand... plus a few of my friends actually went to the see the artists for their music.

The whole three days, she wore shorts, some plain t shirt and her hair was either up in a bun or a pony tail.

She didn't give a shit about dressing cute.

So, for three days, we kind of all split up. Emily and her crew walked around, took pictures, saw one or two artists they actually knew of.

And Gabriella, myself and two of my friends listened to the artists we wanted to see.

"We're going again this year."

"Yes," she says, "the line up is soooo good. I can't wait."

I know I annoy her sometimes and I drive her crazy, but it's all in good fun. I push her buttons on purpose sometimes and that's really only when my sister's around because I push hers, too. But Gabriella and I are more alike than her and my sister, for sure.

Sometimes, I don't even understand why they're best friends sometimes because they're so different from each other.

"Emily's not going," I laugh, "I refused to buy her a ticket when they came out."

"Which is pretty fucked up."

I shrug, grabbing some more chips, "I'm trying to go to coachella and listen to music. Not trying to worry about my sister and where she's at and if she's talking to random guys because she's not interested in any of the artists."

Gabriella nods, "yeah, okay, I can see that. She wants me to boycott is and not tag along."

"But you had so much fun last year."

"Yeah, maybe I'll just tell her I'm conveniently going out of town that weekend. She doesn't have to know. I won't post pictures."

She's kidding.

But I am excited about Coachella this time around.

Gabriella pretends to hate me sometimes, not stand me, but we get along. With or without Emily around. And this year, it'll be me, her, my best friend Andrew, her friend Morgan, and my other friend Chris who's away at UCLA but will obviously drive over for it.

It'll be fun. I'm excited.

I'm even more excited about our food coming out soon because I'm starving.

I like how this night turned out after all.