“I’m sorry….what?” I ask. Did he just ask me where taco bell was?
“Where’s the closest Taco Bell?” Cameron repeats.
“Uhm…make a left up here.” I say at the stoplight. Cameron switches his Honda to the left lane and turns on his blinker. “Then straight, then a right at the first stop sign.”
Cameron follows my instructions as I try to figure out whats going on. …as I try to grasp reality. I mean, come on. I can’t actually be in Cameron Alexander’s car right now. …can I? No, this is ridiculous. Any second now, my moms going to come into my room and wake me up and tell me its time for school and I’ll scowl at her with my famous sneer because she woke me up from the most incredible and real dream. But wait—if this were a dream, I wouldn’t know it was! So is this or isn’t this a dream? I pinch my arm when Cameron’s not looking. It hurts. This is real. Which brings me to my next thought, which I’m not afraid to speak out loud.
“So uhm….why’d you…why’d you choose me to come to Taco Bell?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you mean what do I mean?”
“I ‘chose’ you?” Cameron accents ‘chose.’
“Yeah. Why not that other girl I was with? Or why not some groupie?”
“One, that other girl was wearing like…ten pounds of makeup. It’s a wonder she could see. Don’t tell her I said that.” I stifle a laugh because as much as Cameron’s right, Laila is my friend. “And a groupie wouldn’t be from here, now would they?”
“Okay, but still. There were plenty of other girls back there. Why didn’t you choose one of them?” I ask as we pull into the drive thru.
“Maybe because I wanted to choose you.”
“Welcome to Taco Bell, would you like to try our new 5-layer burrito?”
“Uhm…sure. That, two hard taco supremes, no tomatoes, an order of nachos, and an orange soda.” Cameron says into the speaker box. He then turns to me. “Do you want anything?”
“Uhm…just some nachos.”
“Make that two orders of nachos.”
“Will that be all?”
“Yep.”
“Your total is thirteen-seventy-four. Second window please.”
Cameron pulls up and pays the worker. After she sees his face, she goes into shock.
“YOU’RE….YOU’RE….YOU’RE CAMERON ALEXANDER!”
“Uh…who?”
“Cameron Alexander! Lead singer of violet poison!”
“Ew. That band sucks. I wouldn’t be caught dead listening to them.”
“Oh…my apologies, sir. You look just like the lead singer.”
“Can I just have my food?”
“Here. And one, two, three, four, five, six dollars and twenty six cents is your change. Have a great day.” The cashier says, counting out our change.
“That was actually very believable.”
“I do that all the time.”
“Seriously? You don’t ever wanna be caught?”
“Not when I don’t have to be. I mean, I wouldn’t deny it at a concert or anything. But if I’m trying to just…relax, how can I with screaming fans? So I lie. Probablly not the best way, I know. But A guys gotta do what a guys gotta do. Right?”
“Yeah, I guess.” I agree. Cameron hands me my nachos and he immediately starts eating his burrito. We pull into a park and Cameron gets out. I stay in.
“Well? Come on.”
“Why?”
“I’m not going back yet.”
“Bu-bu-but…it’s…its dark. I don’t want to.”
Cameron opens my door and grabs my hand that’s not holding food.
“I’ll protect you from the dark.” Cameron says, smiling his famous smile that any girl would turn to mush for. I can’t say no.
It finally kicks in that I’m *actually* here alone with THE Cameron Alexander. And, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say Cameron was hitting on me. But that could just be my excitement running wild.
“So…why’d you ‘want’ to choose me?” I quote.
“Why not?”