AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What are you doing here?” I stupidly ask.
“Probably the same thing you’re doing.” He points to my cart.
“Right.” I sneak a peek at his. Pop-tarts. Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Uncrustables. A teenager’s dream.
His eyes narrow. “I can feel you silently judging my cart right now.”
“Oh no, I—”
“Which, by the way, is full of very delicious foods that truly should not have an age limit no matter what society says. But that’s probably a conversation for another day.”
“Probably.” I find that I’m smiling, so I give a little more in return. “I wasn’t silently judging your cart. I’ve always been … fascinated with other people’s grocery carts. Since I was a kid. Probably because what we had in my house was so different.”
While my friends ate meatloaf dinners at the reasonable time of six o’clock, my dinners consisted of my mom’s guiso or a crispy milanesa at the very reasonable Argentinian time of nine o’clock.
“You mean, your household didn’t contain the gourmet delicacy of an Uncrustable?”
“I’ve never even had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
He gapes at me. “You’re kidding.”
“No,” I shake my head, smiling.
“What sad, sad world are you from?”
“Argentina, actually.”
His smile drops, then turns into a look of pleasant surprise. “Shit, seriously?”
“Yeah,” I nod.
“Vos sos Argentina?”
This makes me smile bigger. He’s spoken some words in Spanish during class, and it took me a little by surprise when I first heard them.
“Y no me dijiste nada?” he teases.
He speaks it well, and funny enough, with a clear Argentinian accent. “Your Spanish is impressive.”
“Gracias,” he says, mirroring my smile. “I don’t know. Part of me felt like a hypocrite immersing myself into the dance and culture and not knowing the language. So, I learned it.” He shrugs like it’s not a big deal, but it really is.
“Why do you say it like that? That’s amazing.”
“You’re the real deal, though. Why didn’t you mention you were from Argentina?”
I shrug. This topic always pushes me into uncomfortable territory.
“That’s really cool,” he says, almost admirably. “It’s a beautiful country.”
“That it is.”
“Ah, and you were probably looking for an Argentinian instructor, weren’t you?”
“Instructor? Oh, no. No. I don’t really know what I was looking for. I kind of signed up on a whim.”
“You don’t dance like you signed up on a whim.”
“I think that’s a compliment?”
