Meet Me At Pruschia Street

Walking downtown with my hands inside the pocket of my hoodie, listening to my thoughts whether I head back home or spend the night outside as I wait for my mind to cool off, I can't help but let my tears fall. Nobody could see me crying anyway. It's dark and the town is sleeping. Everyone is exhausted after celebrating the Founder's Day earlier this evening. And if anyone asks why I'm crying, I would tell them to mind their own business because I badly want to be alone right now.

Then there I saw Dane Silvan leaning against a wall in an alley. The place has only little light coming from a single lamppost nearby that looks like it was about to die anytime soon. He is holding a bottle of beer and a phone on the other hand.

"You're not supposed to be out around this time," he says without looking up from his phone. He is probably typing a text to someone which he would regret sending in the morning.

"And so are you," I answer back, quickly wiping away my tears before he could even look up from the screen. Dane and I are not friends. But we live in the same side of the town and go to the same school. We had minimal talks in the past, mostly him asking if we had assignments since we have classes together but never anything personal.

He scoffs. "Oh, it's Yen Kunev. I thought it was Nicka." He walked up to me, slamming himself onto the walls in the process and squinting his eyes at me to make sure he is seeing the right person. "Were you crying?" Trying to make sure if I was really crying, I mean.

"No."

"Right, because your eyes are read and puffy. Do you want a drink?" He holds up the now empty beer bottle and chuckles. "I mean, I could buy you one, I have a fake ID." His words were slurring but I could understand him well.

I shook my head. "I'm fine, thanks. I gotta go now." I was ready to buzz of before this drunk dude gets poisoned by alcohol and do something crazy to me when the next thing I knew was him puking on the ground.

"Thank you for bringing my son home," Mrs. Silvan says after we helped each other take her son to his bedroom which wow, really amused me, because I didn't know Dane is a fan of geography. He has a world map drawn on his wall and boards that has lists of capital cities. "If I am not mistaken, Yen Kunev, right?"

"Yes, Mrs. Silvan. And no problem, it's my pleasure to help." Not to mention that Dane puked on my Converse and now I'm barefoot with my shoes in his bathroom wet and clean from the beer and pizza he had earlier.

"Hey! Hey!" A loud voice called out to me at the school hallway. Students in Gordon High didn't care anyway because someone shouting at the hallway is a normal everyday scene. What's not normal is Dane hey-ing at me because we basically just pass by at each other.

"Hey?"

"About last night," he starts, still panting from the running he made to catch up on me who was hurrying to my next class for no apparent reason. "I'm sorry to bother you. I didn't mean to."

"All good."

Like really, it didn't bother me at all. In fact, taking Dane home while I worry about my survival breathing in the smell of his puke was fun because my mind was taken away for a while from the fight my mom and I had, have actually.

"Yeah and uh," he opened his bag and gave me my now-dry Converse shoes and socks. "So I figured my mom didn't let you go with your shoes with a puke on it.

"Yeah, I told her I could just wash it myself but she wouldn't." I took my shoes and put it inside my locker. Funny, he got it inside his bag. I remember I overheard Ashton Morgan saying that he was too cool to bring something else other than his backpack. And he and Dane are both in the football team, so that explains everything. "Are you okay now?"

"She got mad at me for getting drunk so I'm grounded for a week."

"No, the other thing."

He looks at me confused. "What other thing?"

We start walking to next class which we share. I can't help but notice the girls in our school stealing glances at Dane. I mean, he is a living pale and black-haired Adonis but aren't they sick of same old faces in this town? Literally, I'm so excited for college and half of the reason would be the new faces that I'm gonna see.

"That thing with Paula Spencer." I look around to make sure no one is eavesdropping to our conversation. I whisper to him, "I read your message."

Dane froze for a moment, processing what I said. "But how?" As we go inside the classroom, he grabs my wrist so I take the seat next to him. "She's sitting here," he says to the kid who was supposed to be seating on my seat.

"So you were texting her when I found you at the alley but you were not able to finish it because you threw up. So while I was taking you home, you told me to finish the text for you."

"And you wrote what I said?"

"Yes," I answer.

"And sent it?"

"Well, you told me so."

He quickly takes out his phone from his pocket and checked his messages. He lets out a loud sigh as he read the message I typed for him last night and sank on his seat. "Yen, I was drunk. Why would you listen to me?"

"Exactly that's the reason why," I said. He looks at me confused so I explain. "I have this uncle. He gotten into a fight with this person who wouldn't let him have another shot of tequila."

"But I wasn't trying to get another bottle of beer."

"You got my point. I was thinking you would slap me if I don't help you drunk text your girlfriend."

"It's not drunk texting because the person who texted it was sober." He returns his phone to his pocket as Mr. Anderson, our History teacher, went inside the room.

"It's drunk texting because the thought came from a drunk person." I glance at Mr. Anderson who was raising his eyebrows at us before he turned around and started writing on the board. I smirked at Dane, "And don't worry. Nobody's gonna know that your girlfriend's pregnant and she's getting an abortion."